Episode 88: What Is Culture? (& Why Should You Care?)

Culture is the beliefs and behaviours of a society. What do we think is true or false, and good or bad? How do we convert such thinking into action, habit, custom, etiquette? But one’s own personality is in essence an individual culture, while the family, community, town or city, country, continent and world constitute larger scale cultures. Each person within a culture is unique, yet far more similar to their fellows than those on the outside. Just as it is usually impossible to rank best-to-worst the various personalities in a friend circle, the same is true for cultures at large: we have our intuitions, but mostly these are open-ended experiments in what does and doesn’t work for our survival and flourishing. I contend that absorbing and integrating culture (especially true art) is not only in our self-interest but also a responsibility for any human being wishing to uplift existence. Culture must always be adapting, keeping the wise and letting go off that which no longer serves. You and I can be beautiful servants in this sacred mission, in ways big and small, to help.