Culture definition / of RITUALS and SOCIETYdefined / Definicao de Cultura
CULTURA DEFINICION / KULTUR DEFINITION / DéFINITION DE LA CULTURE

Ethics are sets of BEHAVIOR (local sense rituals). Logics are only adding structure, and sometimes also hallucinations.
Abstracts ideas (like 'spirit') are like Bubbles in a Swamp. 'Spirits' explode in common sense air, and even if perfumed often smell like hell.

'Senseware' used by 'tribes' to make sense of 'moods', after millennia resulting in 'intuition. After Aristotle as tutor of Alexander the Terrible 'Roman Catholic' mindware deviated from 'Bodyware' because his Nicomachean Ethics replaced 'common sense dominancy' (strong leadership,family behavior) with 'logical dominancy' (law and order). This ancient 'fascism' was ages later formalized by Descartes in rationalism and made myth by Immanuel Kant in pure reason. Warning: Not valueing differences in 'appearance' (hardware), and recognizing 'software' as temporary infection of some hardware. Cultures might be seen as reactive schools of fishes trying to survive. Schools fight or fly. When in total confusion easily show cannibal power behavior. Schools react to sense experiences within local paradigms (morals) like 'rational behavior'. These are try-outs of different extensions of common sense. When schools get too big and reactions became rigid the most successful variants need leadership and are attracted by a twinkling fish showing refreshing behavior. [shift] Persian Zoroastrianism was such a twinkling fish and inspired evolutionary change from Ukrain, Ethiopia, India to China. But this original Christianity only survived in bottom conditions in Ethiopia and Buddhism was not expansive. Millions of ages ago the 'branch' sharks split in rigid sharks and playful dolphins. Living fossiles might look succesful (i.e. crocodiles), but (lesson of evolution) because of rusted religious behavior don't change anymore. Both sharks and crocodiles are vehemently territorial. The apostles of Jesus were fishermen. Carpenters, farmers, fishermen are cultural indexes. Fishermen are the adventurers, astronauts resemble 'interstellar fishermen'. The melting pot of mixing cultures is violent (learning might be bloody). During mixing sub-schools follow different 'leaders', and on 'hotspots' will show ferocious 'cats and dogs' behavior' Left Brain using Western World swamp 'sharks' execute the 'ten commandmends', Total Brain using playful 'dolphins' from Buddhism perform the 'eightfold path' (see Christianity and Buddhism). Such adjacent schools (cultures) need massive import to remain flexible in 'common sense'. Because evolution with creativity shapes fertile schools OUT OF the fossilizing ones. A while with counterintuitive taste. Two basic mythical cultural survival forces are 'collectivism' and 'individualism' (survival as a whole or as individual). These two sides of the unity 'being human' always battle, but stay close to balance. Intelligence is structured AT RANDOM associating of sense experiences. The 'Christian World' in top became totally corrupted. In lesser degree also the Muslim World, and much lesser the Buddhist World. Temporarily dominated by shy predators with queer habits. A common sense prophet fish appears...goto shift

Mind that some persons say 'people', 'society' or 'nation', to indicate 'culture'. Or 'nacion' and 'cultura' (Spanish), etcetera. The definition of the final goal of the United Nations can be stated as 'accomplishing one mixed World Culture'. Forget about thick law-books full of rules, and focus on the ethical reason of their existence. Courts of Justice became mainly absolute rule-checking computers of the present paradigm, but should be relative 'direction beams' of life.
An abrupt culture change is a paradigm shift (revolution). Not only caused by the type of culture shock of entering a different culture, unless that different culture can also be your own one during a state of essential change. For my definition of the notion paradigm look here, because further in this article I'll focus only on the consequences. Rules only limit knowledge products, but creativity is doing the actual building (think of rules in Formula1 racing).

A culture is made up of billions of individual rituals (paradigms), and certainly not only abstract logic ones. For any individual the most important ritual is the mother-child bonding paradigm. That's already in itself a composure of thousands of small rituals (paradigms). Each represents a mood.
Then often the close-family-child ritual relating. Then primary school rituals, secondary school rituals and study rituals. Individual rituals intertwine.
Another possibility is to see a culture as a huge ritual phantom, consisting of billions of tiny ghosts.

The leader of a culture should be a kind of DJ (disck-jockey or ghostbuster), valuing every individual ritual, but also continuously screening the accumulated ritual (musical).
That's a lot more than the intellectual poverty of only a ritual rationality, or being able to perform 1 set of rituals. It takes being master in many ses of rituals AND ALSO being intelligent concerning all sense experiences, together with taking INSTANT decisions. Such DECISIONS should preferrably be taken before widely even is taken notice of a ritual conflict.

Cultures are 'mythical balloons', accumulated 'bubbles of thought'. Such 'thought balloons can become terribly strong, but in the end ALWAYS are 'busted'. That takes a 'mythbuster' relatively 'outside' the culture, but enough inside to be accepted as such.
Cultural balloons can become quite agressive, attacking other uncomprehended balloons as being 'terrorist'.

Mid 17th century the paradigm shift Enlightenment in the Western World introduced the mythical balloon Rationalism. It was based on thinking that EVERYTHING fitted in this balloon. And on endlessly cutting of this already severely limited reality (differentiating) and shuffling the results (analyzing).
The rational 'thought condom' perfectly fitted a Roman Christian pre industrial Europe that already for a long time near to an orgasm of change.

The French Revolution looked like a rebellion of the poor, who had sufficient reason for protest. In fact the whole revolution was directed by a middle class that was murderously jealous of nobility. And it was this middle class that afterward inside this 'balloon' grasped power (at present still seen in the mediocre quality in the Western World in politics and management).
The taken direction was industrialism. That's why I gave rationalism the name "Machine Thinking". In fact poor people in Industrialism only met even worse conditions. Rationalism as a straightforward mathematical view was ideally suited for junior industrialists to split the revolutionary minds of workers from the heavily needed muscles in their bodies (mind-body problem).
The rational names to point to similar mind-body relations frequently change: master/slave, became director/worker and at present manager/laborer.

The mathematical world view called 'rationalism' of the priest Rene Descartes was a gift from heaven. A lucky mistake though was that just like his 17th century wordly and religious protectors Descartes saw the activity of mind only as logical thinking. And another mistake was to presume that this rational thinking could be limited to workers. Descartes was a sympathetic fellow, and had no clue of his thinking being misused. And his rich protectors only wanted to prolong their power, but certainly didn't know that they were strongly influencing world history.

The present result: a definition of =Western Society might be: worlds crowded with people believing in angels, and behaving like devils. Or in other words: judging in good and evil, and believing in understanding. In general that created a top of total Western society fanatically believing in the thought models 'consciousness and understanding'. Because essential for Roman Christianity is the belief in the notion 'spirit' or 'mind'.
Mistakenly in the rational Western World 'thinking' got seen as having far more value than bodily labor ('working'). That's why most people want to be 'manager'. Western countries started importing 'third world' workers, because 'own' inhabitants needed time for 'thinking' (not thinking as in philosophising, but lessening the workload and start playing manager). That dubious rational process has no end, it is slavery disguised.

To describe the consequences of this paradigm shift in the 17th century is far too much for one site, that's why I used many all linked from my site Enlightenment and Present.

It shouldn't be exaggerated at all but 'truth' indeed completely differs per culture. That is a phenomenon that is known very well in math. That's why it makes no use to compare apples with pears. These fruits have a lot in common, but have two esssentially different tastes. Some like only apples, some like only pears, and most both.

That cultures can be essentially different, some in top hardheaded Western Christian cultures in 2003/2004 are learning the hard way in Iraq. Every day that they extend their presence things get worse. Calling all Iraqees terrorists, who actively engage in resistance won't help. That tric is as old as the 'terrorists' Robin Hood and Billy the Kid. The next to be expected surprise is the discovery that King Arthur in fact was a terrorist.

On earth the major cultures are: Buddhism, Western Christianity and Islam. Maybe a few more, and some completely different ones like the dolphin paradigm line and the octopus line. Of these cultures (or points on Total Paradigm lines) the 3 human ones share many concepts, but also ESSENTIALLY differ on a few points. Discussing till doomsday won't help. To prevent losing a awful lot of knowledge (relative truths) at least all major human paradigm lines on earth should merge. Like ropes of different color and substance adding to the strenghth of one thick cable.

Real change after a period of continuous innovation happens by pure chance. But to accelerate the process fast recognition is needed. The present total paradigm shift to force a change of direction in knowledge was already attempted by Friedrich Nietzsche, so it took at least 150 years to take place. Afterwards the 'direction-change' force was given more power by Ludwig Wittgenstein and Thomas Kuhn, but it not yet did appear to be sufficient.
A longer period without essential change takes a bigger and possibly more bloody force to end. That's The Law of Change. Let's be happy that Osama bin Laden started in a cautious way. That seems bloody, but things can get worse OUT OF IMAGINATION.
'My' cultural tornado has to succeed, because if dampened the next one would be of murderous force. The choice between some thousands of victims now, or uncountable in future (think of billions). Evolution can be 'criminal'. Then an ice-age is 'peaceful' compared to war.

Continuous Change is not noticeably different from a linear truth, it keeps truth at a practically constant value. That means that gradual change seen from a distance is no change.

Every high school student from Linear Algebra knows the mathematical model of the linear line in three dimensional space or in n-dimensional space. Take the speed of this line as symbolizing truth. Then on this line truth is constant, however fast changes may happen inside this sub-world.

Now see Buddhism, Western Christianity and Islam as almost parallel lines, nearing but still a bit distanced. Their truths mainly differ by a constant or absolute factor. But still nearing is a movement perpendicular on their truth. The necessary force is supplied by the chance process paradigm shift.

To get an impression of the unimaginable size of Truth, follow this fantasy. A rocket in space passes an unlimited number of parallel truths in any direction. All of Truth is apart from absolute constants on any point in space, but it has unlimited directions.

Thus Truth can be seen as the universe, but also as one point in it.

Mathematics can be seen like in the 17^th century Descartes did as a 'divine knowledge'. But ONLY for unveiling the logical part of truth.

Henk Tuten, iniated November 2003, updated till 2012

This article is part of the series Leap away from the 'Western World'