I personally blame cultures for most of the strife and hostility that plagues our species, yet nations are still willing to go to war to “defend our culture”
Everybody wants to defend their culture yet it seems to me that not one of them is worth defending. Take our own–we are proud of our music, our architecture, our scientific achievements, true, but we do not like to dwell on the Inquisition, the harassment of the Jews, or all those religious wars, and as near as I can tell the same goes for most, if not all other cultures, including that of our native Indians.
None of us have any right to be proud of our past and what’s worse is that these cultures begat traditions. There are many good or at least innocuous traditions but what about such traditions as’honour’ killings or the caste systems?
Are we to honor such traditions? Do we have the right to oppose a tradition in the country from which it emanates? I think most humanists would say yes. In my humble opinion we have the right,even duty, to criticize another’s culture wherever human rights are concerned.
My dream is that we can all agree to replace these individual, defensive cultures with a common culture, a Human culture that encompasses all of us, one whose principles are common to all and unique to none .
( and that’s my two cents worth.)
Cheers
Andy
(and here is one of my older sigs and the least popular)
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Kulture excludes, Kulture Kill
Kulture is the Krime