“Be wary of culture and tradition: never accept them as given but rather choose what is right for you at the time and reject the rest. Keep a clear awareness of how your behavior, attitudes, and ideas are shaped by the culture or cultures around you. Perhaps you enjoy the more laid-back and romantic approach to life that is a part of Spanish culture, but you find their attitudes towards women despicable; or perhaps you appreciate the passionate music and social criticism of punk “culture” but find that the dancing and funny clothing styles do nothing for you. Take what works for you and leave the rest – then there will be no danger that you will be lead astray by any of them. To quote Robin Hood: “The supermarket of ideas, like any supermarket, is fit only for looting.”
2 comments:
I believe that culture and tradition are in place because they have spoken to something in humankind's psyche that responded to them -- at least at a certain time or place in history. I admit I don't understand the language of some cultural mores: punk, for instance; but I know punk must fill a need in those who do respond to it. I am a little wary of the "supermarket" approach to idea-shopping; at least, I prefer to look at the whole, and ideas in the context of the whole, before I pick-and-choose. It's good to be wary, as this author suggests; but it can be rather more difficult to know "what is right for you." I think you need to choose "what is right for the soul of the world" -- it really isn't all about YOU.
Um... is that a different Robin Hood, or are we to believe they had supermarkets in Sherwood Forest?
-souffle
Post a Comment