Re: CHAT: Which world? Which culture?

In a message dated 2003:07:12 06:31:48 AM, trwier@UCHICAGO.EDU writes:

>Quoting Costentin Cornomorus <elemtilas@...>:
>
>> > So my question to those fellow conlangers would
>> > be: Which culture do you mirror into your conlangs?
>> > Your native one?
>
>> In my opinion, my native country doesn't _have_
>> its own culture yet, really. Give it a few
>> centuries to settle in.
>
>Aside from pointing out Mark Rosenfelder's article to the
>contrary, I would agree that it does not have *one*, but
>many. <SNiP wonderful examples>
>The idea that America is one giant  homogeneous mass is, and has always been,
>the false impression of outsiders, but it is widely held outside the
>US for political convenience.  (You made no such allegation, but I
>think it necessary to point it out.)
    Also the idea of "culture" being static, confined to well-defined
national sociological/linguistic boundaries and somehow monolithic and canonical is a
_passe_ paradigm ever since Postmodernism, Post-Postmodernism/Hypermodernism,
Globalism, etc. hit the proverbial fan (punning viciously intended... again I
say that Global Pop Culture is mostly "excremental culture" with _some_ good
rare forms of hybridizations and mutations).
    In our Polycarbonate Age - in which everything from pre-natal healthcare
to gravesite maintenance is commodified and the processes of life and nature
themselves are commodifiable (i.e. bio-engineered genetics and modified foods),
socio-cultural (and coopted subcultural) "lifestyles" are just another
"product-line."  Our very lives in the "Global Village" are threatened by
mass-mediafication as well as "bio-commodifation." The future - at worst - seems to be
headed towards a BladeRunneresque scenario...
    In this context "Which world? Which culture?" should be "What worldview?
What 'culture' and/or 'cultures' ... and whose?" Do we want a pre-packaged,
preservative-loaded Toss Salad MacDonaldland or a potluck smorgsbord in which
everyone wants to join in is welcome and takes active part?

... on a lighter note:

In a message dated 2003:07:12 07:31:54 AM, feaelin@KEMENEL.ORG writes:

>Hmm. An alien race would probably regard "All Terrans" as having a single
>culture. Odd thought, that.
    Yes indeed. This reminds me of Michael Moorcock's burlesque sci-fi novel
_An Alien Heat_ set in some far future ... apparently all today's languages
are mistakenly thought to be dialects/regionalects of one major language:

    "Good evening, fraulein. I parle the yazhik. Nay m-sai pa." ['accents'
couldn't be easily typed in this email]

    Being sorta like an alien in the U S of A, I find "American
popular/mainstream culture" quite bewildering most of the time and at times blatantly
offensive to either my Asian or British Colonial sensibilities ... or both.
    My shrink says I suffered from repeated "culture shocks" before my teen
years and that might explain the origination and basis of all my outraged
nonconformity and rebelliousness (t-shirt I saw in Berkeley: "If you're not
outraged, evidently you're not paying ATTENTION!").

---
Hanuman Zhang
§  §  "Occupation?" "No, sacre bleu! Resistance!"

    "Those at the top of the social order are apt to preach benevolence and
righteousness to those at the bottom. Yet those at the top have typically
stolen their position from others. They are the greatest thieves, because they have
stolen the greatest amount of land and other property. So words about
benevolence and righteousness are usually the fruit of robbery." - Chuang Tzu/Zhuangzi

"O wise humanity, terribly wise humanity! Of thee I sing. How inscrutable is
the civilization where men toil and work and worry their hair gray to get a
living and forget to play!" - Lin Yutang, _The Importance of Living_

    "...So what is life for? Life is for beauty and substance and sound and
colour; and even those are often forbidden by law [socio-cultural conventions].
. . . Why not be free and live your own life? Why follow other people's rules
and live to please others?..." ~Lieh-Tzu/Liezi, Taoist Sage (c. 450- c. 375
BCE)

"...we may be able to prove conclusively that all men are born with
potentially brilliant intellects...and that the source of cultural creativity is the
consciousness that springs from social cooperation and loving interaction...the
majority of us live far below our potential, because of the oppressive nature
of most societies." - John Blacking

    "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more
violent.  It takes a touch of genius --- and a lot of courage --- to move in the
opposite direction."
 - E. F. Schumacker

    "Excess is excrement. Excrement retained in the body is poison." - Ursula
Le Guin

=> To Thine Own Self Be True <=

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