First of all, I don’t think it’s right to call people stupid. It’s a stupid word that betrays our ignorant beginnings–whereupon (and still) people thought (and still think) they can legitimately blame others for their general intelligence and the health of their brains–before we know their capacity for change and brain health. But it’s a funny and instructive expression said in jest, which makes the point. Culture is key to solving most of our societal challenges. And too many people don’t want to admit this.
This has to do with a post on Facebook, which is making reference to police brutality and violence and the attempt we make to mitigate it with body-cams. It was posted by my friend Robert Mathew Adamson, who lives in Korea and who re-posted it from someone else, who may or may not have been the originator of the post, a person named “Ally”. Here it is, below. Please read my short essay-length comment as it was posted on Facebook, the image.
I haven’t been to many countries, but those who know me may remember that I have visited 3 more countries than the 3 I have lived in, with one of those three being the United States; with this limited experience—but having the benefit of perspective from having lived amidst disparate differences in the cultures between them (and seeing the words and sentiments of those in my home country repeated ad infinitum over and over again across social media), the following is probably the most important idea that I can express about issues in nations.
What I find most amazing about life in America and in a few other places in the world, is that the people creating the cultures in these places are continually surprised by what they’ve made—and they complain about it—while only some of them are trying to find solutions to those troubles in ways that not only do not work and can’t work—not only that they are the same ineffectual solutions applied over and over again before—but that these solutions are causing the problems.
Culture is the answer. It can include training, but the way people live, think, communicate and relate to one another underlies everything. The reason I mentioned other countries is, having lived in two of the most civilized among the family of nations, I know the police have far less to do, be worried about, be trained for and lose their tempers over, because they come from societies in which mutual respect and personal image trump absolutely everything. That is all optional and variable in our culture–personal and divided by different ideologies.
Am I saying that the society needs a comprehensive philosophy anchored in an inclusive ethos and set of ethics? Yes. Multi-cultural-ism is nice, but decoration and division don’t a unified society make, and without that, you have attitudes of inferiority and superiority, too much competition, politically and a lack of responsibility.
Much of this is poisoned by the exaggeration of natural prejudice systemic in all human societies, but in ours, we still have not agreed on who should be responsible for prejudice, de facto- and institutionalized discrimination, healthcare, education, infrastructure and general equality under the law–all exacerbated by a political system based on money and popularity instead of taxes, integrity and education of the candidates. So–we are fractured, and that ‘should’—sociologically–translate into violence–and violence in a society is not going to exempt the police, like they are some form of Zen-master-guardians or Jedi knights. It’s fantasy.
CA
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