Is "Culture" the Worst Enemy to Human Evolution?

[Big Thanks]

Hello everyone
I would like to ask you if you (also) think our need to extremely protect our "culture" and pride of our country IS the worst enemy preventing the next step for human evolution.

I completely agree our past is VERY important...but to me is just so we can LEARN from both our successes and failures.
Otherwise...culture is not your friend.
This is made pretty clear if you were born in a "wrong" country.
But even if you were born in the "right" country, with decent human rights and decent freedom...culture is not your friend when used as a means to dictate:
-Who you are
-Who you should or shouldnt be
-With who should you interact with
-What should you like and dislike

When is used as a means to differenciate ourselves from other human beings...culture is absolutely not your friend.
It even uses and abuses you sometimes by corporations and companies.

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I have a couple questions:

If the World would eventually "unite"...what do you think would happen with the cultures?
Its impossible for entire countries to give up their nationality...so how would we go about it?
Keep our names? Keep our borders?

Erasing the borders would be a sign of evolution BUT it will never happen So is culture our worst enemy?

I guess the true question is:
"How should we keep all the good in our culture, while at the same time get rid of the culture-chains preventing us from moving forward"

[Freighter]

Erasing the borders would be a sign of evolution BUT it will never happen

No, it would be a sign of devolution. It's a sign of losing any sense of self-preservation.

[Darkeon]

It has gotten us this far. How bad can it really be?

[igualitarist]

Hello everyone
I would like to ask you if you (also) think our need to extremely protect our "culture" and pride of our country IS the worst enemy preventing the next step for human evolution.

I completely agree our past is VERY important...but to me is just so we can LEARN from both our successes and failures.
Otherwise...culture is not your friend.
This is made pretty clear if you were born in a "wrong" country.
But even if you were born in the "right" country, with decent human rights and decent freedom...culture is not your friend when used as a means to dictate:
-Who you are
-Who you should or shouldnt be
-With who should you interact with
-What should you like and dislike

When is used as a means to differenciate ourselves from other human beings...culture is absolutely not your friend.
It even uses and abuses you sometimes by corporations and companies.

-------

I have a couple questions:

If the World would eventually "unite"...what do you think would happen with the cultures?
Its impossible for entire countries to give up their nationality...so how would we go about it?
Keep our names? Keep our borders?

Erasing the borders would be a sign of evolution BUT it will never happen So is culture our worst enemy?

No, culture is a sign of evolution. What you are doing is called Negative Dialectics, by taking a "negative " element of one thing, and reducing this thing to its "negative" aspect, no matter its complexity.

[Big Thanks]

No, culture is a sign of evolution. What you are doing is called Negative Dialectics, by taking a "negative " element of one thing, and reducing this thing to its "negative" aspect, no matter its complexity.

No, it would be a sign of devolution. It's a sign of losing any sense of self-preservation.

Wait a second...

How is it a sign of devolution? Could you explain?

So uniting entire countries is going backwards? And not moving forward?

[Freighter]

How is it a sign of devolution? Could you explain?

It's in my post, it's a sign of losing any sense of self-preservation. If you don't maintain control over your territory, someone else will seize it and take control.

[igualitarist]

Wait a second...

How is it a sign of devolution? Could you explain?

So uniting entire countries is going backwards? And not moving forward?

Tell me how a society without culture would work.

[Vash The Stampede]

If the World would eventually "unite"...what do you think would happen with the cultures?

Honestly the world is pretty united already, but the problem is still governments and capitalism. The only reason we Americans hate Russia is because our media pushes us to do so. The only reason China hates the west is because their government tells them to do so, and even ranks them with a score.

When I play games online and meet people from other countries I'm surprised how relaxed and friendly they are. I'm just as fascinated by their culture as I'm sure they are with my culture. The issue is that the media makes them into demons and we're suppose to hate them. We're suppose to be ignorant to their culture.

Its impossible for entire countries to give up their nationality...so how would we go about it?
Keep our names? Keep our borders?

You don't. You learn to appreciate other cultures and embrace it. Honestly when I leave America to visit other countries I don't want to see more America but with heavy accents. I want to see different cultures. If I want more of the same then I'll just drive 2 hours into a direction and find more of the same.

Erasing the borders would be a sign of evolution BUT it will never happen So is culture our worst enemy?

If you want borders erased then you need to go after capitalism, not culture. Even then, borders serve many purposes besides keeping them out and us in. Makes it easy to manage people and delivery mail. Right now a border serves the purpose to help keep an economy stable more than anything. As long as money is a thing, so too will borders. Remember, before we had democracies we had Kings and Queens and the borderlands of a country were more of a line they drew to keep all their stuff in. When monarchies fell, they left a border that people use to identify themselves with their culture. It really was a rich mans tool.

[Big Thanks]

It's in my post, it's a sign of losing any sense of self-preservation. If you don't maintain control over your territory, someone else will seize it and take control.

We do not live in the stone ages.
Nothing is preventing USA from taking over Canada by force...but wait, there is something, because we are no longer animals.
I live in the tiniest of countries, nothing is preventing my neighbor countries from taking us over, LOL we would lose 100%...but they dont...because?

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Tell me how a society without culture would work.

We dont necessarily need to erase our entire culture from existing...
The thing is, our past is preventing us from making a bright future.

- - - Updated - - -

Honestly the world is pretty united already, but the problem is still governments and capitalism. The only reason we Americans hate Russia is because our media pushes us to do so. The only reason China hates the west is because their government tells them to do so, and even ranks them with a score.

When I play games online and meet people from other countries I'm surprised how relaxed and friendly they are. I'm just as fascinated by their culture as I'm sure they are with my culture. The issue is that the media makes them into demons and we're suppose to hate them. We're suppose to be ignorant to their culture.

You don't. You learn to appreciate other cultures and embrace it. Honestly when I leave America to visit other countries I don't want to see more America but with heavy accents. I want to see different cultures. If I want more of the same then I'll just drive 2 hours into a direction and find more of the same.

If you want borders erased then you need to go after capitalism, not culture. Even then, borders serve many purposes besides keeping them out and us in. Makes it easy to manage people and delivery mail. Right now a border serves the purpose to help keep an economy stable more than anything. As long as money is a thing, so too will borders. Remember, before we had democracies we had Kings and Queens and the borderlands of a country were more of a line they drew to keep all their stuff in. When monarchies fell, they left a border that people use to identify themselves with their culture. It really was a rich mans tool.

Your post is very rich...and i dont know which quote to grab (>_<)
Culture is a good thing...but is also...THE thing preventing us from doing...some crazy stuff with humanity in general...dont you agree?

[Calfredd]

We dont necessarily need to erase our entire culture from existing...
The thing is, our past is preventing us from making a bright future.

It is literally impossible to not have a culture. The U.S. has it's culture, Japan has it's culture and it changed halfway through it's lifetime, even the Borg is a culture believe it or not.

Also you were one of the last people I was expecting to make this... slightly ignorant post.

[igualitarist]

We do not live in the stone ages.
Nothing is preventing USA from taking over Canada by force...but wait, there is something, because we are no longer animals.
I live in the tiniest of countries, nothing is preventing my neighbor countries from taking us over, LOL we would lose 100%...but they dont...because?

- - - Updated - - -



We dont necessarily need to erase our entire culture from existing...
The thing is, our past is preventing us from making a bright future.

We are a product of our past, and so is our culture. Our culture has been tested by the time and survived so far, which means it has its merits. Things that need to be changed, will be changed. Maybe not so fast as you want, but thats a good thing. Fast cultural changes are not good, as they do not tend to be natural and are usually promoted by political forces in an authoritarian way.

We do not need a borderless society, we need a society that works based on the balance of competition and colaboration. If one day borders become useless, they will naturally vanish from existance.

[Big Thanks]

It is literally impossible to not have a culture. The U.S. has it's culture, Japan has it's culture and it changed halfway through it's lifetime, even the Borg is a culture believe it or not.

Also you were one of the last people I was expecting to make this... slightly ignorant post.

What part is stupid about saying "culture is not your friend?" (if its not to learn from past successes and failures)
Could you explain how is it stupid?

The "culture" of your country was made without your participation.
You took no part in the culture of your country.

Is something from past Kings and Queens, filled with bloodshed and some crazy stuff...you never took part on.

So why worship whis?
If not to learn from past mistakes and successes, why worship something that is preventing us from moving forward?

I guess the true question is: "How should we keep all the good in our culture, while at the same time get rid of the culture-chains preventing us from moving forward"

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We are a product of our past, and so is our culture. Our culture has been tested by the time and survived so far, which means it has its merits. Things that need to be changed, will be changed. Maybe not so fast as you want, but thats a good thing. Fast cultural changes are not good, as they do not tend to be natural and are usually promoted by political forces in an authoritarian way.

We do not need a borderless society, we need a society that works based on the balance of competition and colaboration. If one day borders become useless, they will naturally vanish from existance.

You speak truth
But as long as we worship culture and as long as there is a fear in losing this "past-identity" our country has...it will be hard uniting countries.

[Calfredd]

I guess the true question is: "How should we keep all the good in our culture, while at the same time get rid of the culture-chains preventing us from moving forward"

Same way public executions, slavery, bans on shellfish, and women not allowed to vote changed.

[Dezerte]

Culture is such an intrinsically human thing, however it also an ever-evolving thing - "adapt or die", static cultures tend to disappear.

[Pannonian]

Culture is such an intrinsically human thing, however it also an ever-evolving thing - "adapt or die", static cultures tend to disappear.

How do you define culture?

The thing is: What we call civilization might be the biggest game changer in human history ever. Humans existed for a long time before civilization, and while it's true that we achieved a lot before civilization, when we came together to build cities, our evolution as a species exploded.

Which brings me to the OP: Why would we never do that? Because it is in our nature? Everything that happened to us in the last 12,000 years is so unexpected, so fast, so miraculous, that i wouldn't pretend to be able to predict the future.

[Teleros]

I would like to ask you if you (also) think our need to extremely protect our "culture" and pride of our country IS the worst enemy preventing the next step for human evolution.

/sigh

Evolution doesn't have a direction. If you want to play eugenics - or indeed, dysgenics - then sure, you can say that "intelligence" or "high time preference" is "good" or and then try to breed for that, but evolution in and of itself has no direction.

When is used as a means to differenciate ourselves from other human beings...culture is absolutely not your friend.

But human beings are different from one another. Men and women, adults and children... do you want me to go on?

Look, can you determine where someone is from using genetic tests? Yes.
Do our genes control things as varied as muscle density, intelligence, skin colour, average hormone levels, and sex? Yes.

Culture and population genetics are inseparable because they feed into each other. Killing murderers will reduce the rate of genes associated with high murder rates (eg poor impulse control), etc etc etc. If you have to plan ahead for the winter or die... guess what happens to the genes that encourage a high time preference? Yeah, they tend to become less frequent. Conversely, if your growing season lasts the whole year and fruit & food is always in plentiful supply, you don't need a low time preference to survive & prosper. On & on it goes.

If the World would eventually "unite"...what do you think would happen with the cultures?

Option 1: You have a very minimalist world government, concerned with little more than basic law & order (and defence, if aliens arrive :P ). Countries govern themselves & do basically everything else within their own borders, there's minimal / no immigration, etc. Huge cultural differences will still exist.
Option 2: One nation conquers the world, imposing its will on everyone else. You serve the empire or else, and those from the conquering nation get to enjoy being on top for as long as the empire lasts. But even then, big cultural differences will exist from place to place, if only between rulers and ruled.

Its impossible for entire countries to give up their nationality...so how would we go about it?

Countries are not nations. Countries are on maps. Nations are people. A country can thus have, or claim to have, no favoured nations within its borders (see the USA today), but as we're seeing, that's a recipe for social strife and, I expect, civil war and/or balkanisation.

Erasing the borders would be a sign of evolution

No.

Just think about this way: how can a sub-species develop if it keeps breeding with the original population? Answer: it must be genetically isolated from the original population, which means borders.

"How should we keep all the good in our culture, while at the same time get rid of the culture-chains preventing us from moving forward"

Forward to what though? How about you first figure out a goal we can all, or even 50% + 1 of us, can agree on? Because looking at, say, the USA or UK today, I see people who can't even agree on Brexit, or gun rights, or abortion, or what-have-you, and you want us to all move forward in some grand utopian scheme to... well what exactly?

[Spectral]

No, culture is the special feature of human evolution that allows for the creation of both social and technological development over time. This book covers the topic in depth or read this blog post for a summary. Some attempt at a purely technocratic society denuded of humanity would be about as monstrously inhuman as every other utopian attempt.

[Miracle Mira]

That said, nationalism to the point of racism and willingness to hurt others or thinking they are inferior is bad.

No, that's healthy. You have to recognize that some cultural values are better than others.

[Kiri]

No, that's healthy. You have to recognize that some cultural values are better than others.

You do realize that, by answering in such a way in that context, you do imply an inherent link between race/nationality and cultural values that can be problematic, yes? People of other races and nationalities can have the same cultural values you have, yet you call it healthy to treat them that way anyhow?

[Bodakane]

Tradition is the enemy of progress, not culture.

Doing or celebrating things simply because we've always done it that way is flagrantly stupid.