Counter Culture
by Psudo
If there's something about you that is unique among all the people around you, whether it's a physical trait or a belief or a habit, there are only a couple things you can do about it. You can hold it back and conform. You can flaunt it in defiance of the norm. You can dismiss it as a minor fashion choice. Another option is to start a community of people who share that uniqueness, an island of shared identity in an ocean of conformity.
Anyone who has been to school has seen that kind of cliquish grouping, but in the vast diversity of global society we know we don't see them all. Each of these groups must decide how to deal with the people outside their group, people who inherently disagree and diverge from the members of the group. They must confront the fundamental psychological dilemma of the self vs. the other, not as an individual but as a society. That means laws and principles, a foreign policy of sorts, and a decision: can we be who we are and express our individuality in the presence of these others?
If they decide they cannot be themselves in the greater world, they must isolate themselves or lose their defining trait. These isolated societies have popped up and faded away all through history; some famous examples include the Greek Amazons, the Dead Sea Scrolls' society, the Druze of Syria and Lebanon, 18th Century Japan, and the Amish and Mennonite societies. Various aboriginal cultures across the world live in similar circumstances, though more often geographic and historical forces (eg, colonialism) than internal decisions. Many of these isolated cultures, such as the utopian communities of the 1840s or the communist communes and fundamentalist cults of the 20th century, were not able to endure more than a generation because they did not manage to replace their population as their founders aged and eventually died. Others have suffered severe hardship or lost their self-sufficiency and risk losing their identity due to creeping encroachment of the mainstream culture around them. In general, keeping an isolated culture separate from the outside world's influences is a difficult task with a high failure rate.
I question how a government should interact with these isolationist cultures. Surely our understanding of how cultures fail or endure is enhanced by their example, but cultural differences can divide us and motivate unrest as well. Indian Reservations in North America are generally failing to ensure the continued survival of these cultures that predate Columbus despite financial subsidies that weigh heavily on ailing federal budgets. Our current policies are clearly not working, neither ensuring the isolationists remain self-sustaining cultures nor assimilating them into ours.
I would see these exception cultures endure as self-sufficient cultures, trading ideas and goods with the mainstream and with each other. History shows that cultures that isolate themselves completely are less likely to endure, so the best goal is to maintain your cultural individuality while interacting with those around you and around the world. Let your light so shine. Such cultural communities ought to make the attempt and judged on their own merits just like anyone else, free to criticize or praise us as we criticize or praise them. Neither cultures nor individuals are discredited just because they're different. They are rightly judged by their objective nature, not their relative nature. There is mutual benefit to be had.
Anyone who has been to school has seen that kind of cliquish grouping, but in the vast diversity of global society we know we don't see them all. Each of these groups must decide how to deal with the people outside their group, people who inherently disagree and diverge from the members of the group. They must confront the fundamental psychological dilemma of the self vs. the other, not as an individual but as a society. That means laws and principles, a foreign policy of sorts, and a decision: can we be who we are and express our individuality in the presence of these others?
If they decide they cannot be themselves in the greater world, they must isolate themselves or lose their defining trait. These isolated societies have popped up and faded away all through history; some famous examples include the Greek Amazons, the Dead Sea Scrolls' society, the Druze of Syria and Lebanon, 18th Century Japan, and the Amish and Mennonite societies. Various aboriginal cultures across the world live in similar circumstances, though more often geographic and historical forces (eg, colonialism) than internal decisions. Many of these isolated cultures, such as the utopian communities of the 1840s or the communist communes and fundamentalist cults of the 20th century, were not able to endure more than a generation because they did not manage to replace their population as their founders aged and eventually died. Others have suffered severe hardship or lost their self-sufficiency and risk losing their identity due to creeping encroachment of the mainstream culture around them. In general, keeping an isolated culture separate from the outside world's influences is a difficult task with a high failure rate.
I question how a government should interact with these isolationist cultures. Surely our understanding of how cultures fail or endure is enhanced by their example, but cultural differences can divide us and motivate unrest as well. Indian Reservations in North America are generally failing to ensure the continued survival of these cultures that predate Columbus despite financial subsidies that weigh heavily on ailing federal budgets. Our current policies are clearly not working, neither ensuring the isolationists remain self-sustaining cultures nor assimilating them into ours.
I would see these exception cultures endure as self-sufficient cultures, trading ideas and goods with the mainstream and with each other. History shows that cultures that isolate themselves completely are less likely to endure, so the best goal is to maintain your cultural individuality while interacting with those around you and around the world. Let your light so shine. Such cultural communities ought to make the attempt and judged on their own merits just like anyone else, free to criticize or praise us as we criticize or praise them. Neither cultures nor individuals are discredited just because they're different. They are rightly judged by their objective nature, not their relative nature. There is mutual benefit to be had.
Tags: Minority • Culture • Isolationist • Nonconformist • Pluralist • Reservation
RE: Counter Culture
by Zipperfish
I've certainyl seen this with First Nation cultures in Canada. I was shocked, like probably ever Canadian with a heart, seeign video in 1993 of kids as young as 10 huffing gasoline and shouting at the camera that they wanted to die, on a remote Innu reserve in 1993.
What on earth would cause a 10 year old to destroy themselves like that?
The government, shamed by the odeal, spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build a brand new comunity elsewhere and move everyone to it, but the problems just continued.
This speaks to your comment about communities isolating thmsleves or losing their defining trait. The Innu, like other aboriginal peoples in Canada, have adopted a policy of non-assimiliation in order to preserve their identitiy and culture (actually, in Canada, often to preserve their racial purity, but that's another discussion). I would argue that their cultural isolation probably contributed to the problem.
What on earth would cause a 10 year old to destroy themselves like that?
The government, shamed by the odeal, spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build a brand new comunity elsewhere and move everyone to it, but the problems just continued.
This speaks to your comment about communities isolating thmsleves or losing their defining trait. The Innu, like other aboriginal peoples in Canada, have adopted a policy of non-assimiliation in order to preserve their identitiy and culture (actually, in Canada, often to preserve their racial purity, but that's another discussion). I would argue that their cultural isolation probably contributed to the problem.
"Love is better than anger, hope is better than fear, optimism is better than despair."
--Jack Layton
--Jack Layton
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