ankitgokani
Ankit Gokani
Culture: Is the term loosing its meaning?
On TV today Ram Chandra Guha, defending the call for a ban on CheerLeaders, said that these things while in addition to diluting the game of Cricket are also against our culture.
The question is not what is it that is against our culture, we already know what he's pointing out. But what exactly do we mean by Culture and what is it that exactly that makes us so protective towards it? Do we really have to bring up the banners of Culture against any sort of change? Haven't been there hundreds of changes already invading our lives, which don't comply to our so called culture.
What is culture? Simply put, a way of living. And aren't these cultures made by adding small changes at a time, slowly and steadily over the centuries. Looks true. So why are we so averse to only certain kind of changes even when they may not be more harmful than many other changes which actually go unnoticed.
In Al Gore's documentary on Global Warming there a portion where he shows an animation of a frog. The frog is first thrown in a boiling tub to which the frog responds by quickly jumping out. Then another scenario is shown. The frog is thrown in a normal temperature tub of water, and slowly the temperature is raised bit by bit.The change is so subtle that it's barely noticeable. But the temperature keeps on rising nevertheless and the frog stays there bit nervous but still there. and after some time it's almost at the same temperature from the first experiment but the frog is still there. And the temperature keeps on rising. And while ending the animation Gore says that he will still be sitting there unless someone rescues him.
Cultural changes are also like that small, subtle, almost noticeable, always approaching, always on the edge and there's one day when they are no more the change but part of the existence. Talking about Guha he's just like the frog in the first experiment and we are the frogs of the second experiment as we, the next generation, have been in touch to such changes all our lives and People like Guha, say from the last or the foregoing generation have been in touch a bit less while talking in terms of percentage, and that too with skepticism.
A person goes out to live in some western country he's moved at a greater extent than what we are here as his chnages are more vast are much more noticeable. Thats why there is so heavy a folklore of Exile in Literature. That's why we have books like Namesake or much lighter Inscrutable Americans.
Yesterday as I was watching Anand (no am not a fan of old movies, but was just a passenger in the bus in which they showed the movie) there was a scene where Renu's(Bacchan's finance) mother says to Rajesh Khanna, Wo purane zamane gaye aajkal toh ladki ladka apni pasand khud ki karte hain. So even after 35+ years the same lines hold the weight, not not as much they used to then. Point being the such cultural changes are always approaching.
But still the one pertinent question hat crops up is how do we judge these changes? as going by above points there will be always too late to judge the merit of such changes. Frog was just a single entity and could have been easily rescued in due time, and that too by a more intelligent specie but when its about hundreds of crores of mindsets its almost inevitably impossible.
Not saying that I have a concrete view that this cheerleader thingi is bad but still it brings up many more pressing questions on this term called Culture.:SugarwareZ-098:
On TV today Ram Chandra Guha, defending the call for a ban on CheerLeaders, said that these things while in addition to diluting the game of Cricket are also against our culture.
The question is not what is it that is against our culture, we already know what he's pointing out. But what exactly do we mean by Culture and what is it that exactly that makes us so protective towards it? Do we really have to bring up the banners of Culture against any sort of change? Haven't been there hundreds of changes already invading our lives, which don't comply to our so called culture.
What is culture? Simply put, a way of living. And aren't these cultures made by adding small changes at a time, slowly and steadily over the centuries. Looks true. So why are we so averse to only certain kind of changes even when they may not be more harmful than many other changes which actually go unnoticed.
In Al Gore's documentary on Global Warming there a portion where he shows an animation of a frog. The frog is first thrown in a boiling tub to which the frog responds by quickly jumping out. Then another scenario is shown. The frog is thrown in a normal temperature tub of water, and slowly the temperature is raised bit by bit.The change is so subtle that it's barely noticeable. But the temperature keeps on rising nevertheless and the frog stays there bit nervous but still there. and after some time it's almost at the same temperature from the first experiment but the frog is still there. And the temperature keeps on rising. And while ending the animation Gore says that he will still be sitting there unless someone rescues him.
Cultural changes are also like that small, subtle, almost noticeable, always approaching, always on the edge and there's one day when they are no more the change but part of the existence. Talking about Guha he's just like the frog in the first experiment and we are the frogs of the second experiment as we, the next generation, have been in touch to such changes all our lives and People like Guha, say from the last or the foregoing generation have been in touch a bit less while talking in terms of percentage, and that too with skepticism.
A person goes out to live in some western country he's moved at a greater extent than what we are here as his chnages are more vast are much more noticeable. Thats why there is so heavy a folklore of Exile in Literature. That's why we have books like Namesake or much lighter Inscrutable Americans.
Yesterday as I was watching Anand (no am not a fan of old movies, but was just a passenger in the bus in which they showed the movie) there was a scene where Renu's(Bacchan's finance) mother says to Rajesh Khanna, Wo purane zamane gaye aajkal toh ladki ladka apni pasand khud ki karte hain. So even after 35+ years the same lines hold the weight, not not as much they used to then. Point being the such cultural changes are always approaching.
But still the one pertinent question hat crops up is how do we judge these changes? as going by above points there will be always too late to judge the merit of such changes. Frog was just a single entity and could have been easily rescued in due time, and that too by a more intelligent specie but when its about hundreds of crores of mindsets its almost inevitably impossible.
Not saying that I have a concrete view that this cheerleader thingi is bad but still it brings up many more pressing questions on this term called Culture.:SugarwareZ-098: