Debunking Culture Wars

Throughout history whenever an exploitative elite have found a way to amass wealth and power for themselves – through their control of weapons or markets – they have had to face up to a tricky question: how can they divert the exploited from joining forces and end their dominion?

If people could see what was happening – their common resources, the fruits of their combined labour, all taken over by a few who give them the odd crumbs in return – they would surely unite in rejecting the status quo. So the key is to divide them into rival camps amongst themselves and fan their animosity towards each other to such an extent that they pay little attention to the real oppressors.

And the easiest way to do this is to set alight the mythical flame of ‘Culture Clash’. The formula is simple enough. Tell people that they are wholly defined by some monolithic culture derived from their tribe, their ethnic customs, their country, their religion, or anything else that comes in handy. Make each group think that ‘their’ culture is so inherently precious that any hint that another cultural group may attempt to change it or deviate from it in words or deeds, must be met with dismay, outrage, or even aggression.

Once people succumb to the viral deception that their ‘own’ culture has all the answers and cannot possibly be modified or improved in any way whatsoever, their misguided loyalty to a mere label is ready to be channelled into ferocious hostilities against false enemies, leaving the oppressors to go on luxuriating in their mansions and palaces.

In reality, cultures are of course not hermetically-sealed entities. At any time, people carry with them a multitude of cultural tendencies which undergo continuous development. And in the light of on-going experiences, beliefs are revised, priorities are shifted, and inclinations are altered. Furthermore, these adaptations do not follow any single path. People reflect on their experiences, experiment with options, and learn new ways of thinking. In truth, rarely, if ever, do people of the same city, religion, country, or broadly the same skin tone, possess exactly the same interpretations of what their apparent cultural inheritance means.

So instead of allowing the world to be presented as composing of a series of self-contained cultures, each binding its exclusive ‘members’ to a uniform set of detailed beliefs and practices, we should teach everyone that what exists is a vast number of overlapping cultures – each offering a mix of notions that people associated with it interprets in their own ways, and all of them contributing elements which over time are combined or reconfigured in diverse manners.

Cultures do not in fact divide us into watertight, internally homogenous camps. Whatever ethnic background, tradition, religion, geographical attachment, customs and loyalties, people may in some sense share, they will also have differences within those groups just as they will have similarities with other groups. Cultural development, except perhaps under the most fanatical totalitarian regimes, has never been about moulding people into identikit followers of a single set of prescribed doctrines. On the contrary, multiplicity of cultures enable us to compare, contrast, revise and enrich our beliefs and dispositions.

There is no absolute culture, superior to others in all places for all time. Such a concept has only been put forward to fool people into diversionary conflicts. Once the illusion of ‘Culture’ as battle encampment has been removed, people will see where the real threat to their wellbeing lies.