What is culture?

We use the word all the time, but what is it actually? This is my take!

A system of complex systems

Culture is the most complex systems of systems. They're more complex than even the free markets since they also include that which is non monetary. Also, since it includes all our bodies and personal processes, the complexity exceeds even this aspect.

How does a culture come into being? In short its a necessary, commonly agreed upon "layer" of reality, that emerges through often thousands of years wrangling with nature for survival.

The globalist era

When people got the opportunity of traveling with relative easy and low risk things started changing for real. All sorts of very well adapted, local cultures started mixing, leading to a lot of misunderstanding and strife, but of course also more choice in what we adhere to, and learn from.

This is what made it possible for "the globalists" to manipulate virtually everything & everyone, a fact that so many are now waking up to.

The past decade or so we've seen something new emerge: an artificial, global, highly manipulative and destructive ersatz or fake culture. This is new to all of us, and does not take into account all the endless variables and patterns that we had to adjust to in our respective areas of the globe through all of time.

The Bitcoin movement might be a healthier part of this movement, and also it might be better at adhering to the new, emerging, partially synthetic culture.

What will the future bring?

The complexity of getting that prediction right is staggering! Yet anyone who really want to be be prepared, understand, and get the major decisions right has to try...

Which is why I'm trying to get this project off the ground. In short I strongly believe that the sane, old should inform the synthetic new, regardless of where that goes :-)

That's it for now!

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100 sats \ 2 replies \ @Undisciplined 23 Jun

For a long time, I've thought that our culture was basically thrown out of equilibrium and it's going to have to find a new one (or many new ones).

Like you say, it's a complex system of complex systems, so there's really no telling what norms and shared beliefs will ultimately be settled on.

31 sats \ 1 reply \ @ways_wilderness OP 23 Jun

It does seem to me that this out of equilibrium stage is manufactured...

There is no one, specific way of predicting where it will be going, but my thinking is that the sane, old will inform the new, especially since we'll need that contact with intuition and knowledge to survive, both mentally and physically with all this bioterror from evil entities like Pfizer and Monsanto!

I used to read Robert Greenes books until I had internalized them, they're good for some of this :-)

20 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 23 Jun

Yeah, it's definitely worth looking at which of those old norms used to keep a lid on some of these current problems and thinking about how to restore something like them.

I'm sure there was a manufactured component to the global cultural destruction, but I also think it was sort of inevitable. This is a very different world than the one traditional cultures evolved in. It stands to reason that they would need to adapt to these new circumstances.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @SatsMate 23 Jun

I think we have been seeing cultural decay due to the reduction in morals and values of our society.

I think it can be repaired, but it will take decades of unwinding. Our culture can improve by an increase in family values, spirituality & people trying to find a higher purpose.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @JesseJames 23 Jun

Historically and academically speaking it is a concept related to experience, beliefs, values, etc. So the globalists might have some issues of applying it to the entire planet since we will be disconnected geographically, for example in Nordic culture the concept of Thor as God is ancient but it means absolutely zero to people in South Africa. In Europe gets even worse where geography is ignored, instead the history and tradition takes more (if not leading) role. France and England fought for years for dominance, even though they are only a strait/channel away. So once again, tradition and language sets these rules. Frenchies have also a tendency doing the opposite what English speaking does purely out spite. They will try nonetheless but it will take long time and in the information age it is getting harder to control ALL media and let the people hear and read only YOUR truth. No one knows what the future holds, but I'm grabbing my popcorn and ready to enjoy the show :-)

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @SilkyNinja 23 Jun freebie

Here is where your post lacks:

What is the currency of culture?

If it is a "most complex system of systems" that is more complicated than "even the free markets", and "includes all of our bodies and personal processes" there must be a serious way to quantify exchange and define value. My hot take is that we exchange information to create beliefs. This can be anything from statistics to inform policy voting preferences to a character's arc on a television show which informs moral character.

that emerges through often thousands of years wrangling with nature for survival.

A "first" idea of how culture is influenced (from my perspective) is that when the rule of law/authority changes, that affects how people live practically - sometimes economically, sometimes simply in their trust of authority. People (artists, often) exalt or denounce how things are going, their ideas spread and are either accepted or rejected based on their veracity.

Another idea is that through scientific discovery and/or technological innovation people respond. Very often major cultural movements in response to progress in STEM are positive (Renaissance, Enlightenment) up until the bomb (IMO)¹, which gets to my next hot take:

A huge shift is a possible majority culture which openly criticizes whether the direction we're going is inherently good.

For me a major "shared history" story which supports this is the history of the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial, which represents an inflection point when even the state acknowledged "maybe we need to remember this differently."

Plenty of responses from various disciplines support this perspective: From Marxism, to subjectivity in anthropology, to neuroscientists criticizing Cartesian duality, for example. Historically there has always been dissension in fields as disciplines progress in their knowledge but generally “history is written by [the] victors."

So, history itself as a discipline is much more recently coming under this consideration as evidenced by the quote "all history is contemporary history."

Who are the globalists?

Do you know who you are talking about? It's called liberal internationalism.

What is the fake culture?

You need to describe and name it, otherwise I assume you are spreading panic and part of "the problem" from my perspective. An idea that I wish to share with you is that your interaction with the internet creates a narrative or a story of the world. You are the hero of this story, and therefore, the internet must present you with a villain. Do you know how "manipulative tech" has come to be, and therefore, who is responsible for this "fake culture"?

I strongly believe that the sane, old should inform the synthetic new

What does this mean? Christian values? Classical Greco-Roman values? Constitutional scholarship? Better historians?

Something I've considered for the first time is that like our historical counterparts in the Renaissance and the Enlightenment we are actively grappling with the consequences of our progress and real-time filtering out the good from the bad so that we can write the cultural history of our moment in time and space...Which is a bit of a "we're going to be fine" take, but is a salient observation for my own sanity. ↩

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