In “Culture and Ethnicity” I write about how personal values depend on the cultural values that you are exposed to. In “Truth” I write about the ambivalence that culture has in promoting its values as the accepted truth.

At least, that’s what I thought I was writing about as I wrote it.

These ideas are very abstract, and therefore difficult to communicate to the general public. Besides the fact that the concept is abstract we also have the issue that we are all emerged in a particular mixture of cultures that color the way that we see the world.

Suspend for a moment your personal belief system and let me posit a piece to ponder. Imagine a group of people that gather weekly and listen to stories about the great ancient hero Hercules. He did some amazing things and possessed some amazing power. He helped people and through his efforts he was rewarded. The stories of Hercules teach us all some important lessons that could be applied to are daily lives, even if we don’t possess the same power that Hercules possessed. In the stories of Hercules we find him dealing with the gods and goddesses as well as the Kings and Queens. He is known to be the son of a god and human as well. Do you believe that there is any benefit derived from these weekly meetings of the people who meet to hear the stories of Hercules?

In ancient times many people may have listened to these stories, as a form of entertainment as well as a method to learn right from wrong. The character of Hercules may never have lived, or he may have been modeled on a real person that did live. The point was not about the true existence of Hercules, but instead it is the truth in the stories that is communicated.

Hercules was a cultural hero, even if he never existed. In the culture every person knew and understood the stories that they had heard recited over and over again.

In our culture we have Jesus. He was a man born of an earthly woman conceived by God. Jesus did some amazing things, and we have stories that relate what he did to us. And, these stories are embedded in our culture. The lessons taught by the stories about Jesus communicate to us how we should live and what we should value. Maybe we don’t possess the superhuman power of Jesus, but we are asked to emulate it nonetheless.

For many people in our culture Jesus is the supernatural being that could work magic, but understood the discretion in its use. The stories of Jesus are real life witnessed accounts of what Jesus really did when he lived here 2000 years ago. Others in our culture accept the ideas and teachings of Jesus as important lessons instructing us on how we should live our lives. These people may or may not believe in the existence of a real life person called Jesus, and they imagine that the stories about Him were likely to have been exaggerated, but the point isn’t the details of what He did, but rather the message communicated.

The truth about Jesus may never be certain, because time travel is not likely to be invented. But, in our culture the truth about Jesus is based on the common cultural values we all share. Respect for religion in general is elevated in our culture and our culture assumes the motive of any mainstream religion is noble and good. Religions are assumed to have these good intentions, and they benefit by not being questioned in any rigorous way, in order to preserve this respect in our culture. Above religions in general, our culture respects Christianity above all other religions. So, when Christianity and another religion are pitted against each other, Christianity is given the benefit of the doubt. In general, non-Christian religions are not seen as evil, but merely misguided. Of course, there is no real way to prove what is true regarding religion, because religion is based on faith alone - by definition.

Of course, when we have cultural “truth” embedded into our culture then we regard these things as given truth. No one would question the reality of Jesus as a spiritual hero in our society, just like no one would question the hero status of Hercules in ancient times. Instead we build on these accepted facts, or accept ridicule of the general pop culture.

Christianity and Jesus are not the only concepts that suffer from this inability to question given truth. We also have a culture of belief in the American way of life. We don’t question the justifications made by the large corporations to do what they deem important for the American way of life. We also have a list of taboos when it comes to discussing national security and national defense. We allow the executive branch to hide behind national security when questionable actions come up. We also have a taboo about discussing the justification for military action and the use of our armed forces in combat.

Imagine for a moment if a Americans believed that the government has the best interest of the American people in mind, like they believe that religion has the best interest of the spiritual well being for mankind in mind. If we operated in this way, the spending of our tax dollars would not be questioned, instead we would assume that the government was doing the best that it could with the resources we have given to it. It would be virtually impossible to make the claim that government is wasting our money.

But, the shocking fact is that the American culture prevents us from claiming that American lives are being wasted in Iraq. Somehow the government typically wastes some resources, but can not possibly be called into question for wasting other resources. The government can waste money but it can not waste lives! How is this possible? And, it can not possibly waste money when it is being spent on the soldiers, even though they are being put between two warring factions in a growing civil war. How can this be possible? This is only possible because the American public has been taught to respect the will of the government when it comes to deploying our troops. We must believe that politicians could work in their self-interest when it comes to robbing the American taxpayers of their money, but they must be held in high esteem when it comes to defending the oil wells in Iraq.

I don’t know about this taboo. Americans need to realize that war profiteers exist, and a lot of them might even be Americans.



------------------------- ------------------------- ---





Don't forget what Stephen Colbert said, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias."


Cross Posted @ Bring It On, tblog, Blogger and BlogSpirit



Reflection

Your Name:


Your Comment: