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Quote by: SteveA Nice thread Athena. People might debate on what details make a culture good or bad but I agree that social norms have the largest influence on people. Governments and religions can influence the culture but ultimately what government or religions are tolerated depends upon general social views.
The only thing I'd like to add is that my belief is that things would be better if fewer people expected there to be a single relatively homogeneous culture throughout a nation or the world, and instead accepted diversity elsewhere, even if not in their own communities. You can't expect a group of religious people to deny their beliefs but it would seem fair to at least expect them to apply those cultural views between themselves as much as possible without trying to enforce them on others outside the area/group/community. Most political conflicts seem to stem from trying to unify a lot of people that might not want to be unified. |
Excellent thought! Tocqueville warned of the dangers of Christianity and this drive to have a homogeneous culture. People who seek truth in ancient holy books and then believe they know the truth, and don't need to look anywhere for it except in their holy books, and must fix the world by getting everyone to accept their truth, are trapped in a terrible struggle. Add to this the victim mentally or being persecuted for one's God, and you get a real distorted understanding of reality.
Cultures that accepted all gods had a great advantage over monotheist cultures. They didn't pit against each other as monotheism does. Truth remained something that is not yet known, because new truths were always coming up. Democracy was as polithesm, with many gods (concepts) and nothing preventing another from being known. Democracy united people with a set of values. Racism tested those values, but I think if we had educated better, we could have prevented this. If we focus on democracy, instead of racism, we could overcome the racism, because democracy is all inclusive.