The Transparency of Western Culture
14 Aug 2018

When we think of great cultures, we might think of the cultures of Ancient Sumerian, Greek, Egyptian or Roman cultures, the aboriginal culture in Australasia, the Chinese cultures of the Great Dynasties, the Mayan and Aztec cultures of South America, and the Native American cultures of North America. There have been many great cultures but modern Western culture is certainly not considered one of them. In fact, Western culture is increasingly regarded as a "non-culture" — one which only destroys other cultures, levelling them to its baseline of crassness and unconsciousness.

As one Western man attests on Youtube (caution, bad language if you are offended):

I find it interesting that this man is unable to see the value of his own culture. He is unable to see that almost every freedom and right that he has, and almost every means of his self-expression and protest, is the product of this "non" culture. But he does not understand this because, from his perspective, culture should be pushing back harder rather than just facilitating individual expression.

The thing about Western culture is that, in its tolerance to various ideas and belief systems, in its ability to carry a diversity of individual and cultural expressions, it has become increasingly refined and transparent, to the point whereby few actually recognise it as a culture per se. When the colours fade in order to allow individual pan-colour expression, it is all too easy to become unappreciative of the clear space that facilitates that expression, allowing for a diversity of individual expressions.

Of course, it can only accommodate multiple belief systems when belief systems themselves are regarded as less fundamental than the system that supports their expression. This requires a minimum level of intelligence that allows us to see belief systems as belief systems, rather than confusing them with reality.

If you don't have that intelligence or refinement, or have been indoctrinated to reject Western culture out of hand, you will not appreciate Western culture's unique tolerance and ability to support diverse expression. You will not have the perception to see what is essential but invisible to the unappreciative eye, leading to inane outbursts such as above: "You don't have a f****** culture!"

And because a tolerant culture can be difficult to see as it melds with the various cultures and beliefs it supports, it is usually the last to be defended. But remove the underpinning Western culture support of the various belief systems people have, including religious ones, and you are left with a survival-of-the-fittest scenario whereby the belief systems themselves vie for foundational supremacy (usually in numbers and voice volume).

If you are a fundamentalist — that is, if you confuse your beliefs with reality — then the loss of a cultural underpinning that gave your precious beliefs only belief status rather than reality status (in the interest of allowing a diversity of beliefs and opinions) will be considered a step in the right direction, especially if your fundamentalist beliefs are widely shared. For this would remove the state interference that limits the authority of absolute belief systems in the interest of maintaining a coherent society.

So just because a culture has become deliberately transparent in order to accommodate various other cultures, does not make it redundant or less valuable than those cultures it supports. If anything, a transparent culture should be treasured, especially considering how long it takes to develop and how easy it is to lose. It only takes a single generation of naïve and indoctrinated individuals — those who reject Western democratic culture because of its associations — to reinstate oppressive fundamentalism of one kind or another. And just because that fundamentalism is considered more politically correct or non-Christian or non-Western or non-white or whatever, does not make it less oppressive. Indeed, ALL fundamentalism is oppressive, and only by realising this and appreciating tolerance can we stay in the 21st Century. Otherwise, we will relegate to barbarism.

So the man in the video above does not seem to have the intelligence to see that by rejecting Western culture — for whatever reason — will encourage fundamentalist belief systems that will certainly oppress him one day. Then he really will have something to protest against! Let's hope that individuals like him remain a minority and that society retains the priceless tolerant transparency of Western Culture.