Hey all been checking this board out for little while, so thought i better start a post of my own!!!
Got a few questions for you all, so here goes.
What do you define as your culture? What are the main aspects and reflections of your own culture? What type of cultural programmes would you like to see on TV? IS culture an individual thing or is it to do with grouping society? Either way what are the positive and negative things that arise from the exsistance of culture?
Well thats it for now, just throw in anything else about culture. Just interested in what culture is to you and all and how it is present in society.
I'll post a longer reply soon but for now I see culture as everything and don't believe in the concept of high or low culture. Yes, even Trakkie Boi is a part of cultural development (whether he knows it or not)!
Defining ones own culture is a difficult thing to get right. I think its always best to get the views of outsiders, who can make observations that, while not being free of prejudice, are at least free of mawkish sentimentality and, more dangerously, nationalistic jingoism.
I call on François-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire, and who was very taken by the English when he spent the best part of three years in exile here between 1726-9.
He was impressed by our system of constitutional monarchy and early democracy, which meant that - though we still had many years to go to eradicate injustices against the poor - meant we were more tolerant. Tolerant of religious differences, of conflicting ideals - not only in politics, but also in science. He was attracted by John Locke's philosophy on the rights of man and democracy.
Belligerence, but sense of fair play; proud, but noble in victory; magnanimous in defeat. These are my own interpretations of what Voltaire meant when he said: "The English, as a free people choose their own road to heaven. Here the nobles are great without insolence, and the people share in the government without disorder."
OK, this is very rose tinted and I know I'm talking about a culture of nearly 300 years ago. But I'd like to think of myself this way. Those millions of the population who would close the door to asylum seekers purely because of their irrational fears (promoted by that rag which should be ashamed to call itself a newspaper - the Daily Mail) are not representative of the majority.
One of the best known anecdotes about Voltaire goes as follows: accosted by an English mob while in exile, they were crying: "Kill the Frenchman, kill the Frenchman." Voltaire responds: "Men of England, you would kill me for being a Frenchman. Surely I am punished enough for not being born an Englishman?"
Would anyone else invite a famous foreigner to share their views on the English? Or anyone else for that matter?
I suppose you are correct in saying that the best people to evaluate a culture are those on the outside of it. The problem, as you rightly pointed out, is that when we try to evaluate our own culture, we generally only pick out the traits we aspire to. The result of this is as many views of what is 'our' culture as there is people in the country, mostly due to the overwhelming variety out there. As individuals, we no doubt rate certain types of culture over others.
I think we, as British (including English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish as a broad catch-all) think that we have a very complex and mixed variety of culture. A good example of this is in music, given the size of the country, we have produced more than out fair share of good bands, singers etc - and not just in volume, but variety as well. Or maybe we just think that, and it all seems the same 'pop' music to other countries.
