For Harald: race and culture…

Harald asked a great question in comments about my blog post Monday:

Is it just me, or is race today less an issue and are culture and religion the subjects of this time? Or are those just different words for the same thing? 

I think it's a sign of our changing worldview, that we see race as not the only issue but as part of the entire interrelated spectrum of culture. 

Note the definition of culture from Merriam-Webster:

a: the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon man's capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations;  b: the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group; c: the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes a company or corporation.

Religion can spawn a culture, according to this definition, but I tend to believe that the culture must exist in order for religion to take root.  Any way we slice it, race/ethnicity, culture and religion are intertwined.

Consciousness has been defined as one's experience of reality.  Culture has been defined as the outward manifestation of one’s experience and values.  It’s difficult to separate culture from one’s state of being, and denial of culture is an obliteration of experience by removing the frame of reference.  We frame our experience in an effort to make sense of it, couching life in terms of our culture.  To have no frame, no reference, means life could well be psychotic nonsense.

Imagine living in a dream world, where things don’t happen contiguously and may not happen with any congruency.  Our culture helps us establish what is congruent and contiguous, helps us build on otherwise shifting sand.

Of course, when one talks about a continuum of consciousness, culture, religion, race/ethnicity, it makes it more difficult to understand the nature of racism.  Race is only the most superficial portion of this continuum.

Perhaps the real problem is not racism, but active discrimination against persons of a certain consciousness?  In which case, what’s the beef?

9:01:49 PM    comment []

Normal training for Sweden's Crown Princess: good enough for every woman?

Ran across an AP article (which I can no longer find!) which describes military training for Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden.

She's obligated as heir to the Swedish throne to learn about the military.  Although the actual boot camp is short and she won't be serving in a traditional military role, Princess Victoria will be trained in the art of conflict resolution and negotiation.

It occurred to me this should be appropriate training for any and every woman, princess or no.

(If you find the article, please drop a link in Comments.  Thanks!)

10:13:08 AM    comment []