26 November 2013

Culture is not your friend

A definition of the word "culture" that I learned is that it is "what we do and how we behave in order to fit in the society that we live in".  It seems normal, based on that definition, to treat culture as a friend.  After all, it is the unwritten code of conduct that tells us what is acceptable and what isn't.

My reading today told me otherwise.  Knowledgeoftoday.org quoted Plato to have said "those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses".  It thinks that culture is a limiting factor that stops us from thinking on our own accord.  Culture tells us that we are not important.  Culture tells us to go to school, get a job, get a degree, retire at a certain age, etc, regardless of whether we want to or not.

Do you think so?  Is culture a necessary evil, or an unnecessary one?  Or is it good?

Knowledgeoftoday.org also quotes these other comments about school - the place where we learn our culture -

  • "School is the advertising agency which tells you that you need the society as it is."  Ivan Illich
  • "When Students cheat on exams, it's because our School System values grades more than Students value learning."  Neil deGrasse Tyson
 They reckon that schools condition children to think that:
  • Truth comes from Authority
  • Intelligence is the ability to remember and repeat
  • Accurate memory and repetition is rewarded
  • Non-compliance is punished
  • Conform: intellectually and socially
Do you agree?  What does school and education mean to you?  Is there room for creativity or crime?  Is conforming to culture a bad thing to do?

Where does God fit into this?  Is God against culture?  Is culture against God?  Should we obey God rather than culture, or culture rather than God?
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2 comments:

  1. John 17:14-19November 29, 2013 at 12:03 PM

    I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

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  2. Alison ClarkeDecember 5, 2013 at 8:19 AM

    In our modern society sin has become so normalised that we are in danger of making the same mistake. 'Everybody is doing it' can easily become the standard by which we judge behaviours as appropriate or not. Like Gomer with Hosea, or like the Israelites, we want to keep the benefits of God's love but at the same time flirt with other pleasures.

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