In these last few weeks of increased tallking, reading and writing, the word “culture” has again popped up repeatedly in my feeble attempts at trans-global communication. I’ve been lectured on its definition many a time, but still don’t really know what it means.

Like Mother Teresa, who spent her entire life a seemingly devout Xtian, but admiitted said she never really “felt” the presence Jesus or God, I can’t discern the stark difference between Americans and the rest of humanity, steeped as the latter are in knowledge, mutual respect, clean living habits, dignity, etc.  - “culture”.

To me, all thats ever mattered is that you do what you say, and say what you mean. KISS - keep it simple, stupid. Study, then map out a path and follow the path from A - B - C.... Git er done.

When I was a kid in American schools I doodled a lot in my notebooks, which was no big deal.

In Germany the guardians of the law came down on me extremely hard for my childish goofing off, saying their hallowed halls of learning were always the inappropriate place and time to goof off, that I must only pay attention to and learn the subject at hand, and that without credentials or certification to identify myself as a bona fide artist as per German definition, I would forever only be a rank amateur hack.

When I arrived in Nigeria to paint, a veteran German coworker told me I could choose a local as an assistant, but I would probably go through quite a few of them before I found one worth a shit. Lacking creds, were they?

Sure enough, I was assigned to paint a ceiling white and the very first guy I chose to cut in around the perimeter made off the paint bucket and brush. The next one talked a lot. Te next one spilled half the paint on the floor. The next one talked a lot. The next one couldn’t reach the ceiling so instead started painting the walls. The next one did a sloppy job. The next two talked a lot. The next one was much more diligent but would’ve taken two days to finish just cutting in. I was offered sistas for sex. Hardly anyone went, as directed, from A - B. They went A - C - E -B, or A - E - 4 - C - 11, etc. and when all the letters and numbers known to mankind were used up, proceeded to places like “umpteen” and “eleventeenths”.

Thing is, the people in the US lie somewhere in the middle of Germany and Nigeria with their work habits, etc. which makes them lack “culture”, not just “work ethic”.  The French don’t “eat” like I do, they “dine”, for hours. I didn’t know there was a different, an “African way” to paint a ceiling.

What did Dr. Alban sing back when

Stop the fire burning in my home - Afrika.
Martin Luther King, Mandela - you had a dream,
self-evidence and quality for men.
Afrika for me and Afrika far you de Klerk.
It doesn’t really matter whether a cat is black or white,
what really matter is to catch the mouse,
I’d rather do it in an Afrikan way,

Says Mugabe too. And bin Laden. And Euros.

I say its just plain ingrained habits that either work or don’t, but what is “culture” really?

They went A - C - E -B, or A - E - 4 - C - 11, etc. and when all the letters and numbers known to mankind were used up, proceeded to places like “umpteen” and “eleventeenths”.

LOL. :)

Yeah interesting topic, culture. We had a brief discussion in another thread a little while ago (in the ‘Is total color-blindness possible?’ thread).

My thoughts are that many people are quite confined in their beliefs about what ‘culture’ is. Usually they are the ones making negative statements about the culture of others. When they are making negative statements about the US they can’t conceive that a place with many many cultures can still be considered to have a culture of it’s own. The aspects that make up all of those cultures, and framework in which they all live and work together, results in a unique culture of it’s own. So I’d always disagree with people that say that America doesn’t have a culture. Ultimately, all places have ‘culture’, as far I understand it anyway.

Wikipedia defines culture as follows:

Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning “to cultivate,")[1] generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance. Cultures can be “understood as systems of symbols and meanings that even their creators contest, that lack fixed boundaries, that are constantly in flux, and that interact and compete with one another"[2] Different definitions of “culture” reflect different theoretical bases for understanding, or criteria for evaluating, human activity.

Culture is manifested in music, literature, lifestyle, painting and sculpture, theater and film and similar things.[3] Although some people identify culture in terms of consumption and consumer goods (as in high culture, low culture, folk culture, or popular culture),[4] anthropologists understand “culture” to refer not only to consumption goods, but to the general processes which produce such goods and give them meaning, and to the social relationships and practices in which such objects and processes become embedded. For them, culture thus includes art, science, as well as moral systems.

I prefer that wider definition. And I don’t think culture is inherently a positive or negative thing. It is what it is. And ultimately an outsider cannot determine what the ‘culture’ of another person/group/nation is.

It’s a good question… and I guess Americans are good to ask since ours is different than Euro and/or especially the French… re: the differences give perspective.

I guess it’s just the general way of doing things ingrained in a group, ways of thinking, starting points towards new ‘things’ or situations.

Example and contrast. A French guy thinks culture means eating foods just as they were 200 years ago.. even going so far as cultivating the same grasses for livestock to be used in the dish. This is a truly conservative vision of culture… and a reason I chaff at American’s who don’t buy into the social dem vision being called conservatives…

In the US, the dominate culture points to being willing and open to try new things. That is the culture here… I use corn tortias intead of bread often now.. I’ll wrap a veggie dog or burger (cut in half) in them. Taste better, cheaper, last forever in fridge… So, to Euro this willingness to do it a new way says no culture. To me, it is a sign of what the culture here is… I also think US culture puts a lot more emphasis on being a good person than on things like food… Good food = low priority. Art = low priority. Doing good works = high priority. That’s not a jab, it’s just a contrast… I remember the story of the concentration camp commandant playing classical piano while the showers were being run. Lotta good that high culture / art did that ass or the group he was a part of… A everyday guy from Iowa who hardly reads or knows how to play a piano would be a better person.... and that’s what is respected here.

As to the German, US, African (and maybe add Asian) way of working… yeah, we can be lazier than some but we have the saving grace of creativity. You can be more efficient while being lazier if you can think outside the box… then you can sell your new nifty tools for a living. :)

I got to thinking that whatever I do and how I do it could be deemed “culture”, simplified or explained by letters/numbers/colors/language to represent the conception of an idea, mapping out the path from start to finish, and embarking on it as per directions, then having the result match the the whole shebang.

When I have to go number 2 I’ve always thought of it as an A - B deal, although its admittedly just a tad more complex
A
go the restroom
remove my pants
let nature run its course
grab a mag depending on the progress being made
wipe until I’m clean
flush
pants up
wash hands
B
get on with it

Germans don’t go A - B to, they

A.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1 go the restroom
A.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.2 worry about the germs
A.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.2a gripe about the lighting
A.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.2b hope the bloating isn’t cancer
A.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.2c hope the bloating isn’t malignant cancer
A.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.3 avoid fastfood for that reason

etc.

And as I’ve mentioned, there are people, who, when I asked them to carry a bucket of paint in a hand of their choosing from one end of the room to the other, from A - B, they:

said “no problem”
put it on their shoulder instead
put it on their shoulder and dropped it
ran off with it
stopped to chat with friends
took it with them to take a shit
took it off their shoulder when stopping to chat with friends
walked around the room with it on their shoulder
walked halfway to B, came back to ask a question
took it to the wrong place
showed the paint to their friends
read the labels on it
couldn’t open the lid even though nobody asked them to do so
opened the lid and promptly spilled the paint

Hardly anyone ever walked from A - B and then rarely more than once or twice in a row.

So is this what “culture” essentially boils down to?

If so, I’ll admit I’m sorely lacking it.

I was wrong about Euros drinking too much for no reason. Its about culture:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7389980.stm

Young adults in Europe deliberately binge on drink and drugs to improve their sex lives, research suggests.

The UK has one of the worst reputations for binge drinking and underage sex but there are striking similarities between countries, a study found.

A third of 16 to 35-year-old men and 23% of women questioned said they drank to increase their chance of sex.

Those who had been drunk in the past four weeks were more likely to have had five or more partners, sex without a condom and to have regretted sex after drink or drugs in the past 12 months.

Cannabis, cocaine or ecstasy use was linked to similar consequences.

Study leader Professor Mark Bellis, director of the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moore’s University said: “Millions of young Europeans now take drugs and drink in ways which alter their sexual decisions and increase their chances of unsafe sex or sex that is later regretted.

“Yet despite the negative consequences, we found many are deliberately taking these substances to achieve quite specific sexual effects.”

Well, theres not much left to do but maintain hard-earned progressive behaviour while waiting for Armageddon made in USA.

The Pope is a virgin and ex-Hitler youth. What could he possibly know about love and sex? 

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/10/pope.sex.ap/index.html

Benedict appeared to be referring to artificial procreation methods, which in the Church’s view offend the dignity of life and go against Vatican teaching that the only way to conceive a child is through intercourse between husband and wife.

“No mechanical technique can substitute the act of love that two married people exchange as a sign of a greater mystery,” Benedict said.

Benedict expressed concern that human life risks losing its value in today’s culture and worried that sex could “transform itself into a drug” that one partner had to have even against the will of the other.

How ironic that he hails from the very center of sexual Enlightenment - getting drunk and emptying your ‘nads into the butt of a shallow flooze you don’t even know, who cusses like a porn star and chain smokes, is Enlightenment personaefied. Been there, done that, made friends that way. Who can be truly afraid of AIDs what with the global warming going on?