Culture is a Stronger Force than Religion

Seemingly, it might look a very strong statement but as a matter of fact, by each new evidence, I am becoming  more convinced that culture is much stronger force than religion and historical-global-process, such as modernity. I have stopped looking to people of regions based on their religious affiliations and modernization movements but instead got interested to look, how religion and modernization have reshaped by respective cultures.

In previous century, people might had high hopes for new movements both in secular and religious hemispheres. Communism's equality, Capitalism's liberty and Islamic movement's Justice had great promises  that appealed to  masses that a large chunk of people thought them, worth dying for, but in the age of internet, it is becoming evident, that humans are far from balanced by nature. The recorded brutalities, available on you tube is sufficient evidence (at least for me) that humans think, talk and like to appear as humane and civilized, but are too weak to their nature, when they have the power to make choices between evil and good.

Usually, we see the rationalizations of savage acts, either by name of social engineering or an act of religious devotion (a religious obligation) but what about the practices that have only an element of pleasure with them? How can we justify them other than human nature?

Middle East is thought as the birthplace of civilizations, graveyard of empires and the birthplace of Abrahamic Religions but watching the following video report, I felt as no empire, civilization and religion has touched this place. Dubai is seen as the symbol of modernization in the Middle East and yet the child slavery is an evidence that culture is much a strong force than religion and historical processes.  

So, Afghanistan was supposed to be on the ancient Silk road, cross-road of civilizations, the cultivating ground for Jihadists, the launching pad of communism and now melting pot of westernization and modernization. But apparently, none of these processes have been able to influence the cultures there. The culture of "dancing boys" have defied all these processes just to reassert, that culture is much a strong force than religion and global processes.

 

Just recently, four women and two men were sentenced to death in Kohistan area of Pakistan and reportedly, the four women were killed because the women had sung songs and men had danced in front of them (Kohistan video scandal: 4 women killed ). Even if the culture is beyond the common sense, against religion and Human Rights, again it is the culture that is going to reshape all those forces. 

To me, it is no more surprise why the violent sides of religions, sports and entertainment attract more certain regions and segment of societies, while the same are disgusted by others? It is quite understandable that cultures that promote and appreciate violent aspects of human nature have the tendency to look, appreciate and enjoy violent aspects of religion, sports and entertainments. 

The video that was used in sentencing to death, the four women and two men that appeared in it.

John Cleese on Creativity

Pessimism is learnt by suggestions

Some folklore stick to heart as they are sweet embodiment of hard-learned lessons, that people want to pass on. I guess, the following Hazaragi folklore was everybody's favorite, when they were young and weren't getting why teachers are so annoying,

There was a Mullah in the village, who was teaching Quran to students but he was really hard, when it came to misspellings. He was punishing students by beating them with sticks and students were looking for a way to get rid of him. One of the students comes with a solution. Next morning, when they go to mosque, the Mullah asks as usual the students to come forward one by one and read aloud, their lessons. As the first student arrives, he asks Mullah, why  he looks so pale today? Does he feel fine? Mullah gets angry and beat him with stick and replies, I am perfectly fine. But all the students repeat the same questions on their turns. Mullah becomes curious that he might be looking pale as everyone is not only noticing it but inquiring about it. When the students leave, he looks himself in the mirror and finds to his amazement, that he really looks tired and pale. In coming days, the students repeat the same practice and each day that Mullah looks himself in the mirror, he finds that the paleness is becoming more evident. Moreover, by each passing day, he feels really tired and exhausted. So, he starts looking for a remedy. After a week or so of persistent suggestions, the Mullah really gets sick enough to not be able to come to mosque and students get rid of him. It was just a suggestive disease.

Well, it might appear only a folklore but by reading Jane Brody's article, "A Richer Life by Seeing Half Glass Full", it reminded me of this story that was my favorite, when I was young but didn't have the courage to practice it. In fact, we do it often to others, mostly without knowing it, by discouraging them with our "suggestive rationales". 

I understand that, genes play a role in optimism and pessimism but it is also now known, that most of them are learnt. So, if there are prevalent pessimism, no doubt, it will affect most of people so in an age, when people are tightly connected and messages pass very quickly, there is a need for a more responsible and more careful behavior in suggesting things. 

Inspired by Facebook?

Two modern side effects of rapid technological developments and related modern life styles have emerged as increasing number of obese people and addiction to social networking sites, especially Facebook. Recently, the role of the brain reward system in food addiction and social network addiction have become popular to explain a lot of whys in this regard. Although, researchers are trying to find the genetic basis for obesity but there are evidences for links between brain reward system and obesity. 

In "Your Brain on Facebook", David Rock discusses the link between our brain reward system and popularity of Facebook. Our brains are evolved to be social and don't miss a chance in thinking about others even if it gets a chance of few seconds to be not engaged. Facebook uses two aspects of our brain, thinking about others (connecting with others and what they do) and our brains reward system by its "Like" button. 

Although the reports like those of two previous paragraphs are amusing to learn about but my interest is in something else. If brain reward system is so manipulative of our behaviors that it can hurt our health, education and even social lives, then can the brain reward system be used for something more positive? In fact, the answer is Yes. It is not just food or the social networking that are addictive but also "things that we like to do" or make us feel good doing that are linked with brain's reward system. Just if we make them habit, then they become our real strength and even lead us to fulfill our dreams. In fact, brain is an amazing organ in the sense that it usually change the reality. The mental reality is usually not the same as the external reality and it is not the virtual reality that is mostly products of mental realities are so different and addictive. 

Just as Facebook uses two aspect of our brains, linking with others and brains reward system, if we design what we "like to do" to link with others then, it would definitely ending up  boosting our performances and sharpening of our skills.

The reason that, I am saying that we can use, the phenomenon of Facebook addiction, as a model to reinvent our behaviors, and use it in our advantage is because, Facebook has emerged as a parallel mental ecology to those of earlier ones like culture. By parallel, I mean, culture is still dominant force in shaping our behaviors however, the cross-cultural and self-reflective environment of Facebook is introducing new behaviors that are at times go beyond social norms.

This means, if we create a parallel environments that are more productive then consumptive environment like that of culture and Facebook, we can use it to our advantage. The brain's attention is a limited resource and if it is not managed well, it will be wasted mostly.

There are 200,000,000 neurons in the mouse brain and only very small fraction of them - about 10,000- are dopamine neurons. Despite of making a very small fraction of neuron, they are proved to be very powerful in shaping behaviors of the mouses.

A comment on neutrality

I really like to be neutral but I do feel that option is not available. In fact, neutrality is a self-deception, if it is not an intentional lie (Silence is not neutrality). The only thing that can be neutral is nature. Humans is not neutral even if they claim so... As it is a short comment on neutrality, so I try to exclude my wordings and include as much as I can of others words (It might not be a good practice to compliment my opinion with theirs but somehow, I thought it suits here) 

"There is no such thing as problem. It is situation"... I heard it is a Jamaican proverb (I am not sure as the wordings do not match?)..So, what if the situation that we are in, is much bigger than us, tied to millions of people, as are in political situations? What should be our response, as it is not the situations but our responses to them that define us? At least, neutrality is not an option. One of my favorite Pakistani drama artist, Sania Saeed - She has a well rounded, graceful personality and acts naturally- says, "Cars don't run on neutral gears (unless, you push or pull them - that is definitely not a good option-).. every acts are political even if one chooses to be neutral" ...

So what if the situation is bigger than a single person's capabilities? So far, I have seen two suggestions that I have liked; It is an opportunity to change ones' situation - "When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves"....Viktor E. Frankl - ....(We normally do not go for very bold and basic changes unless we do not run out of all others options)... Do not react hastily (From my personal experience, I can say that reactionary acts mostly backfire) ...

Well, as we do not have any scale for timing of response that distinguishes sanity from insanity, I like an alternative suggestion by Omar Khayam's (Famous Persian Poet) teacher to him, "For a boy to become man, he has to do three things, see things, write well and do not tell lie"... Seeing things help only for partial understanding of situations and to get more clearly, one needs to think and I don't see any better way for an organized thinking than writing...

And last do not worry (Just to calm down nerves)... The world is not going to end (Even, if it is ending for someone, others still have ways to make it a good one..  A charming example is "Internet users shower dying man with letters"  )..... George Soros says, "The worse a situation becomes the less it takes to turn it around, the bigger the upside."... I agree with that..

Just one thing more, the situations that we are in are mostly caused by us and even if the nature has a role in it, it stays neutral. So it is upon us to not be neutral... "The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent.".... Karl Sagan

So, in short, I think, situations are not natural and we can't be neutral, reactions are bad options are we have not to act alone and just for ourselves as we are tied together either we like it or not...