GrapplingIgnorance - Cultural Barriers скачать в хорошем качестве

GrapplingIgnorance - Cultural Barriers

From the front lines comes an essay from    / grapplingignorance   (mirrored) --- It is essential to understand the culture of a person or people before coming to a decision about the character thereof, lest we make the mistake of passing judgment on others based against our own cultural values and standards. For example, an American man traveling to Germany would be mistaken to consider a man from there as morally bankrupt just because he enlists the services of a prostitute. Had the American man understood German culture, he would have realized those people are not raised to consider that a vile and immoral act as his American upbringing taught him it was. It's also essential to understand how one's environmental conditions affect their upbringing in order to really understand a person. However, consideration of cultural values should not be exaggerated into a refusal to even suggest that a culture's current norms and mores may be harmful, and that the society there may benefit from a shift in those values. When someone comes from culture A to culture B and attempts to explain why B's customs and beliefs are flawed and/or dangerous, that person will naturally be resisted and considered imposing and disrespectful by the people of B- even if that person presents logically sound, rationally grounded points in the process. Both parties need to exercise to tact in order for any progress to be made, because the person could learn that B holds those seemingly deleterious values for a good reason, possibly one that fits the B's specific environment- but they won't learn that merely by being rejected and dismissed. Also, B might learn good reasons from the person to change long standing customs for the benefit of the culture itself, but they won't learn that if they're completely unreceptive of new ideas. In reality, tradition and easiness are among the worst reasons to continue and advocate for any set of behaviors. If the best reason you have for doing something is because it's easy to do, and/or you and your ilk have been doing it for a really long time, then it's probably a behavior worth examining more deeply to see if you can find a better reason or a better alternative for it. It's important to keep our minds open to change provided that high quality reasons for that change are introduced, and cultural customs are no exception to that principal. Even if we don't change our minds after hearing out a dissenting opinion, as people seldom do, we still owe it to ourselves to give that opinion an audience. Not only that, but we should press it for all the rationale it has to offer, rather than outright reject it due to our overzealous ego, fear of change, sensitivity to our conventional cultures, and comfort level with that which is traditional. A refusal to give dissenting opinions an audience reflects laziness and insecurity in my opinion. That stands with the condition that the dissenting opinion is presented in a manner which is non-harmful, willing to listen to rebuttals, and able to answer questions on its proposals. In a modern world of global communication we have allowed our tribal instincts to still separate us from communicating for the interest of progress. That's mostly because it's easier to convince ourselves that we're right- even though that which we are taught to regard with pride as our heritage may well be something we are victims of because we were never able view it through a lens of objective logic rather than tradition. In fact the best way to ensure that values specific to our unique cultures are justified and reasonable is to put them to on trial against those from other cultures. To engage in a conversation that allows the best sides of both arguments to shine and decide for ourselves which shines brightest. The willingness to do so, not only shows that you are firm in your convictions, rather than insecure but that your best interest is in finding the right answer, rather than defending the answer you're used to giving because you've done it so long. Times change, minds change, and cultures change too when there's good enough reason- don't be afraid of it.