Despite the overly long and somewhat serious sounding title; this is a post about us. Not about anyone in particular, except maybe in the context of the whole.
We are humanity. And I know, humanity is also a bunch of individuals, but we're all still human so it stands to reason that we're actually more alike than we are different, no?
Anyway, about culture, and the places that breeds it then.
Trying to identify culture is pretty damned hard, but a few things comes to mind. One would be Dawkins memetics, another Jungs collective unconscious.
The wordbook says something like "the expression of thoughts, emotions and abstracts notions trough a variety of different forms".
So, communication, then. And not just any form of communication. It's social communication to boot.
Art is usually for the great mass of people, although in a few cases it might be aimed at a single one of us. If it hits or not doesn't really matter, it's firing it that's what important. Sure, getting done, putting time and soul into it will of course help. These are the things that turns it from a 9 mm bullet into a cluster bomb of .44 hollow point magnum rounds.
(I just read up on the difference between hollow point and FMJ, and I'm not sure which fits the best here. The one with impact, or the one that can hit more people. I'll leave it as is, though.)
Of course culture should have impact, but it might be hard to find a target at times.
These gun parallels are making me a bit uncomfortable, though. They're not very fitting in this case either, considering I'm trying to make a point of culture as a global form of communication and closeness with others. Culture is in the end a shared experience. It builds of previous ones, both in the receiver and sender, and creates something that is partly new and etheric, and partly old and physical.
Sometimes you have to wonder if the only obstacle for the realization of an idea is time itself?
Back to culture then. It creates a connection between people, it gives us something to talk about and helps us relate with others. It's a useful form of social lubricant in that regard. It's also interesting how different groups form around different forms of culture. Mainly with the music scene, but there's probably some with movies, art, literature, and so on, as well.
It never ever stops changing either. It keeps coming in wave after wave. Sometimes smooth and nice, sometimes it's a tsunami smashing everything in it's wake. But when it comes down to it, at it's core it's still human.
No matter how bizarre and alien you might find it, the base is always in the human heart and mind. You too can go there if you so wish, or should at the very least be able to grasp it roughly in the palm of your hand.
Like with everything else it's hard to leave your cultural comfort zone for the first time. But the more you do it, the easier it gets. Listening to a form of music you've decided to hate could be a step in the right direction here. I personally don't understand how anyone can stick to just one genre, or for that matter, category of music. I prefer to listen to most forms of music, though I have a few I tend to return to. Electro is one, bebop another, trip-hop, hip-hop and rap yet a few more. But who cares? It's not about what you listen to anyway. Or even if you're active, passive, or just want the music as a form of company while droning in front of your computer in the middle of the night. When it comes to music the first criteria is that you listen. The second could be how you do it, but I'm getting sidetracked here.
The human library, as I was saying. Thought saying that it's culture alone might be too limiting. We might even have to think about society, culture, cities, infrastructure, and all the things that make up the modern world as the global brain of humanity. Maybe we're just the braincells rubbing together, trying to start a chain reaction of sparks?
Maybe we're a lot more...
But I haven't even mentioned cities yet, or maybe I have? Can't remember it in any case, so at the moment it doesn't really exist in my personal sphere of reality anyway.
So, cities, then. The hubs of humanity, the strongholds of culture, creation, destruction, seats of power, and all the other things that goes on there. Nerve clusters maybe?
In any case, it's in the boiling pot of humanity that tends to exist in cities that interesting things happen. Or that's at least what we tend to believe. It might actually only be true because we think it is. The artistic and creative grows up learning it, and move to a city to express themselves. That might actually be what's going on. What if we're only slaves to out memes in some cases? What if we usually are? Is it a side effect of culture then, that shapes us into adopting certain preconceptions? Maybe it's necessary for it to work as a social lubricant. It's worth considering. What balance of critical thinking of our preconceptions, and acceptance of them is needed?
And I've gone from proclaiming my truths, to asking questions once again. Maybe that's how it's supposed to be. Questions leads to truths that leads to new questions, and on it goes.
Culture, society or whatever you wanna call it, we seem to be stuck with it, so we might as well try and figure out what it is. Or at least what it isn't.
