Discussing Brexit with some young people I was struck by their lack of confidence in Britain’s ability to succeed outside the EU collective. They bemoaned the likely loss of EU subsidies, jobs and their future prospects.

Similar sentiments of dependence also predominate any discussion on public expectations of NHS, Social Security safety net, Housing, Education and almost everything.  A sense of entitlement for the metaphorical Free Lunch seems to have taken a firm hold in the national psyche. Media happily complies by fanning the flames of these expectations and discontent which make for great copy and increased sales.

As an immigrant, and not used to any government handouts, I was struck by the lack of any concern about where the money for all these almost unbridled expectations was coming from?  Why wasn’t anyone talking about the mounting national debt recklessly being used by politicians to gain electoral favours?  But more importantly what happened to the confidence and can-do attitude, bolstered by blood, sweat and sacrifice, which had made Great Britain one of the most successful nations in the world?

Was this an early symptom of the inevitable fall of almost all successful civilisations in world history?  Are we doomed to follow the path of the Egyptian, Greek and Roman civilisations?  But is it inevitable?  The answer to this question came to me in the form of Bill Clintons famous 1992 presidential campaign slogan – It’s the economy, Stupid!  Only in this case – It’s the Culture, Stupid!  Clinton’s slogan succinctly captured the importance of a healthy economy for a successful presidential election campaign in exactly the same way as a healthy Culture is central to the success of a nation, business, organisation or any group of people.

But if this was true why wasn’t anyone talking about it?  Ask a dozen people about British culture and you will perhaps get two dozen different and vague answers!  Why has culture been excluded from the vigorous and almost endless national debates about race, religion, gender, sexuality etc. when solution to all these problems lies with reforming cultures?  Was it because culture is unimportant or was it because of its pervasiveness which makes it almost invisible in plain sight?   I suspect the answer lies in the following parable recounted by David Foster Wallace,

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water? 

Does the older fish here represent the wisdom that recognises the importance of culture in sustaining and nurturing a community?  In the same way as polluted water can kill fish, can polluted culture kill a civilisation?

The problems of race, religion, gender, sexuality etc. are only the symptoms of a disease with its roots in fallacious cultural beliefs. Fix the cultural beliefs and you fix all these problems. Yes it is not easy, but nothing worthwhile is!

Defining Culture

Culture by its very nature is an intangible and abstract concept which defies any definition.  However, to understand and investigate it I suggest we define it as a set of unwritten shared values and beliefs which bond a group of people and manifest in their daily life and collective psyche as thoughts, actions, conventions, rituals and laws.

Culture is the laboratory in which its beliefs are put to test for their validity and effectiveness.  Could it be that like a scientific experiment a culture which continually produces failure, unhappiness and violence points to false assumptions and beliefs which underpin it?

Like religion, Culture comes in a variety of shapes and sizes.  Some of the more recognisable forms of culture are national, religious, business, political, community and family cultures each designed to serve a specific need.  However, unlike religion, culture is much more malleable and undergoes continuous change due to the influence of its leaders and a majority view.

The susceptibility of Cultural change depends on the strength of the beliefs on which it is founded.  For example the caste system in India was so deeply entrenched in strong Hindu religious orthodoxy that despite strong leadership by Mahatma Gandhi through his Harijan (Untouchables) Movement, enactment of laws and passage of 85 years it still hasn’t been totally eradicated.

So why is Culture important?

In Defining Belief  we concluded that “beliefs based on falsehoods create a false and misleading world view making True beliefs an almost essential criterion for a successful and happy life”.  Since culture is a set of beliefs it must by implication have a cumulative and more powerful impact on the success or failure of a community.   While beliefs are individual, culture has the potential of affecting not only communities but whole civilisations which make them one of the core issues of our life.  Surprisingly Culture rarely gets the attention it deserves with the exception of perhaps in the business world.

Historical guilt about western imperialism, combined with political correctness has further pushed Culture totally out of the public discourse.  Will ignoring a problem however painful and contentious make it go away?  Without shining the disinfecting light of truth on our culture, we risk incubating falsehoods and a diseased culture.

How do we know it to be true?  Well the evidence is all around us.  If we accept that the success or failure of a nation is a reflection of its culture, it is instructive to note that the same people who were failing to the point of desperation suddenly become successful and valuable citizens on immigrating to a successful nation.  Race, religion, gender etc. become almost insignificant obstacles in their march to success due to the singular change of their move from a failing culture to a successful culture.

What are the attributes that make a Culture successful?

Culture is a collection of wide ranging beliefs which can be represented in the following hierarchical Cultural Pyramid:

Success or failure of a Culture greatly depends on the strength of the beliefs that underpin it.  The higher the hierarchy of the belief greater its contribution to cultural success.

It does not need an intellectual debate or scientific research to establish the truth of this assertion.  You just need to observe the outcomes a culture produces to confirm its validity.  Without fail you will find that failing societies with poor ratings in the Cultural Pyramid will inevitably produce moral, family, social, economic or political failures due to the degree of falsehoods on which the Culture is founded.

It is important to remember that cultural success or failure is not a zero-sum game where either you are winning or losing.  Due to the range of beliefs which constitute a culture it can result in its success in one area with failures in another.  Economic success of western nations and the incremental erosion of their family institution might be an example of such a compartmentalised cultural influence.

How does a culture change?

All the factors which influence our lives impact our culture, be it economic, environmental, religious or political.  However, the biggest change in the culture is due to entropy where a successful community starts taking all its blessings for granted resulting in the natural cycle of atrophy, stagnation and finally death.  Arrogance of success also plays an important role in speeding up this cycle where reckless adventurism and experimentation with shiny new-fangled Utopian ideas are embraced at the cost of time tested beliefs at the foundation of past success and prosperity.

A study of the rise and fall of civilisations consistently reveals that it was when these societies started engaging in abstract Utopian ideals that they lost not only what they had but also descended in unimaginable chaos and destruction.

Is it possible that we might be embarking on the same path where with little attention to the pressing problems of national debt, family, health, education, crime and social inequality we are focusing a disproportionate amount of time and effort in solving the almost intractable problems of race, gender, refugees, multiculturism and all the pseudo problems pushed by the hustlers of political correctness?  Where are the national priorities which should dictate the importance and packing order of each issue?  Why aren’t the politicians and media highlighting these priorities?

Role of Academia and Media on Culture

In the Information Age with almost universal access to social media, Culture is more susceptible to change than ever before.  In this environment academia and mainstream media have a huge responsibility to maintain a semblance of sanity in public discourse which has a powerful influencer of culture.  Dishonesty in either risks cultural corruption.

The American academia and media discharge their responsibilities in this area quite effectively when it comes to their fair criticism of President Trump for his bombastic and sometimes exaggerated tweets.  However, they have some difficulty applying the same standards to their ideological bedfellows.

Consider the case of Hillary Clinton, a white married woman, who besides calling all Trump supporters deplorable also denounced married white women for the loss of her presidential bid because “they did what their husbands told them”.  And the evidence she has of married black women acting differently is …?

In another example Ricky Jones, an African American professor in the University of Louisville, in an article dated 3 July 2018 supported the notion that all white people were “moral monsters”.  This is but one example of the many similar charges constantly being levied against the white majority in America.

In both these cases the fallacy of each statement is obvious considering that Hillary’s husband Bill Clinton was strongly supported and elected president twice through the support of the same white married women being criticised.  Similarly, the same white people branded as moral monsters  also elected Barack Obama as the first black American president – Twice! The same white people also created the system of governance which allows the freedom of speech for Rick Jones to demonise the whole race in such strong terms.

None of these critics of the supposed evil white America take the trouble of pointing to any black, brown or yellow society which accords it minority similar level of freedom and equality.  However, this inconvenient fact does not stop them from aggressively and incessantly demonising the same culture which affords them more freedom, opportunities and prosperity than any other nation in the world.

This is where an unbiased academia and media have the power and credibility to stop the propagation of obvious falsehoods which contribute to cultural decline.  False narratives repeated often enough couched in the language of ideology, emotion and guilt infect cultural beliefs with falsehoods resulting in its incremental corruption and decline.

Conclusion

I am proud of my Indian cultural heritage which gave me the necessary tools for my seamless assimilation in British society.  I am also equally proud of what is also now my British culture for its long tradition of a fair, just and democratic society which values equality and freedom along with all the Core Values of a successful culture.  What justifies the word Great in Great Britain is its culture which celebrates and encourages me to retain my culture without the least hint of any cultural imperialism.  Who said you can’t be a product of two or more cultures?  However, it must be a Union of cultures resulting from assimilation and not through the divisions of Multiculturism.

Is any culture perfect?  Of course not. No culture is.  However, to focus on its shortcomings due to either historical guilt or for Utopian aspirations risks throwing the baby out with the bathwater.  We must always remember the price Chinese people are still paying for their cultural revolution which tried to impose rapid changes in a society seeped in centuries old traditions.

Say Yes to reforming your culture but No to rejecting it.  Or at least not before you have found another model culture which has produced better outcomes for its people.  Also, when you find such a culture assimilate its good values in your own. This will definitely improve your life and make the world a much better place!

Muse

1. Does this justify the title – It is the Culture, Stupid!
2. No intellectual effort is worth sacrificing the joys of a beautiful English summer!

Next Week 

Muse Week is taking a summer holiday

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