The culture cult
A study of the social effects of romantic primitivism.
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2007–2022years
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Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- When done well, articles like this subtly switch tone from beginning to end.
At the beginning, the tone is something like "we live in a great society, where wondrous things are possible, but we have problems"
At the end, the tone is something like "Progress hurts us. It is better to avoid modernity in its entirity"
Of course, the second statement is never fully fleshed out: to do so would show the many problems it has.
Everybody dreams of a simple world, living close to nature, part of a community and practicing a long-lasting culture. To see a native people in the South Pacific go from fishing to Big Macs and spam in a generation is ascetically displeasing.
But remember: the average life expectancy of an Afghan is 39 years. These supposedly fit and healthy societies had entire generations that never saw the age of 50.
I used to be a big fan of a certain culture -- until I read modern doctor's accounts of members of that culture who relied on traditional remedies instead of modern medicine. I used to be a big fan of going back to some of the old ways of primitive peoples -- until I read "Culture cult" (A must-read if you are interested in this sort of thing) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813338638?ie=UTF8&tag=...
The fact is -- it's never a simple comparison. You can pick and choose and make the case that such ways of living are better -- or you can do the same thing to make the case they are worse. Doctors can tell you horrific stories about all sorts of cultures and societies. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, that is, we always think the other culture or way of life is better. Many times it is not.
I am a firm believer that some trade-offs are better for societies than others. It's not all just the same. And these are extremely serious health issues. I do not mean to make light of them at all. Perhaps we can learn some lessons from more traditional societies that we can apply. But we need to be very careful about when performing such analysis that we don't step over the line from selecting good things to frank prejudice towards any sort of traditional or primitive society. We romanticize peoples instead of looking at them the way they really are. It's a feel-good thing, sure, but our feelings rarely match up to the actual state of things, no matter how many good essays like this we read. (And this was a great essay)
- Also "The Culture Cult" by Roger Sandall.
Sandall makes the case that private property rights are the "deep ditch" that separate civilization from tribes.
I'd add "contract law" to that, as private property rests on being able to move, trade, buy, and sell that property in a safe manner.
- It's good to see an article that makes the case that cultural values are not completely relative. Some things just work better than other things. Stuff like private property rights, for instance. Perhaps "right" is the wrong word, perhaps it should be "effective". Whatever.
For an interesting read along these lines, try "Culture Cult" -- excellent book.
- Meh…
Culture = Cult.
How deep.
For those interested, read Bruno Latour, it’s a lot finer. It’s about how you compose with the various traits of your culture to make sense of the world. People build their own Frankenstein-like culture. A lot of scientists are also religious. We choose what we want to believe in, and how we do it is what is interesting.
