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?

Taxpayer funded mosque

Should a mosque be built in Athens?  Why?  Should the public pay for it?  Why?  Why not the people who want the mosque instead of the public?

A blogpost of BareNakedIslam reflects the tension on both sides of this question.

On the one hand, there are about 500,000 Muslims living in city of Athens.  The city does not presently have a mosque.  Previous attempts to build one encountered opposition from the public, even when rich overseas Arabs wanted to fund it.  The government promised to build a mosque in 2006, but has yet to deliver.  The Muslims are threatening violence if a mosque were not built for them.

On the other hand, builders have not successfully brought their mosque-building projects to completion because of public opposition.  Most of the society is Greek Orthodox.  The Muslims who have come to live in Athens are mostly illegal immigrants.  The country is struggling with economic problems and has been for the last 6 years.  Why should the government be pressured to build a mosque for these Muslims given the present circumstances?

Should illegal immigrants have the right to make such demands from the governments of their host countries?  Should they not be grateful for what they already have, instead of threatening violence if they are not given more?

What do you think?  Can there be a peaceful resolution to this tension?  Can Muslims and Greek Orthodox live happily together?

Low class dogs

It was amusing to read that Louis Vuitton pulled out of sponsoring a "save the street dogs" program because of the image.

Apparently, the famous fashion label had donated some items to be auctioned at a charity fund-raiser.  The cause was to save the street dogs of Singapore.  LV pulled out from their support when they realised what kind of mongrels roamed the streets of Singapore.  They seemed to have been turned off when they realised that these dogs were "low classed", and did not fit the image that LV would like to uphold.

What do you feel about this?

Isn't this the way of big business?  Aren't sponsorships and good deeds efforts to get publicity to help boost sales?  Is nothing done out of altruism, but with the ulterior motive of increasing sales margins?

The movie "the Climb" depicts this kind of attitude.  Mack, the owner of the chain-store Mackie's, was persuaded by the public to open a store at the south end of town.  This ended up taking a long time to happen, as Mack's right hand man and a share-holder saw it to be bad for business.  However, they favoured sponsoring two men to climb a mountain in Chile as it was good publicity.  (In the end, Mack had to make good of his promise for the sake of credibility.)

What do you think?  Is profit always the driving factor?  Should it be?  Where does kindness come in?  Does everyone always just look out for himself/herself without caring about the rest of the world?

Where does God fit into this picture?

Modern Gentleman

Mark Merrill lists eight things that he believes every father should teach his son:

1. Be a gentleman.
2. Honour parents.
3. Respect women.
4. Have integrity.
5. Be responsible.
6. Work hard.
7. Love others.
8. Love God.

Would you agree with his list?  Why or why not?  How about the order?

(Personally, I think that "love God" should be #1, and "love others" should be #2.  My reason is Jesus' words in Matthew 22:36-40.  I think Mark's other points are relevant also, but those two points should come first.  The other six points are kind of contained within these two, but the specific application to gentlemen need to be taught.)

Should all men be gentlemen?  What do women expect?  What does society expect?

Many say that chivalry is dead.  Sometimes they say this jokingly.  Sometimes they say this lamenting the good old days when men were more gentlemanly.  But John Picciuto points out that women's expectations have changed also.  No longer do they expect to be invited out to dinner or for men to get to know them deeply in this age of 140-character sms and tweets.  So when men are being nice, they can be easily misunderstood as being interested in a big way.

Do you think so?

How can we avoid such misunderstandings these days?  Shouldn't men be chivalrous anymore?

What do you think?  Why?