Wednesday, July 10, 2013
COM 325 / Week Three Discussion: Deep Structure: Are We Destined to be the Prisoner of Our Culture?
Western pioneers were smart to follow the wagon ruts of frontiersmen before them in order to arrive at Oregon City before the winter came. A civilization's deep structure (God, family, and history) differentiates one culture from another. It is also exactly where the civilizations clash with each other in our contemporary world; technology only facilitates this clash. It is time for all the civilizations to seriously reflect back on their deep structure and ask themselves: are we destined to be the prisoner of these "ruts"? Can we stop using suicide bombers or drones to solve our differences?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The fire service has a saying, "100 years of tradition unimpeded by progress." Truly some things we do in the fire service is simply because we've always done them this way (or for a really long time at least!). Sometimes change takes time and sometimes a changing of the guard. Rarely significant changes happen quickly or without conflict.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly deep structural cultural changes are typically slow and involve conflict. In the mid 1800s our country went to war to determine the fate of slavery. The late 1800s saw the Women's suffrage campaign. Our country is currently defining what rights gay and lesbians will have and the future of healthcare. Just as the transcontinental railroad replaced the Oregon Trail, most cultures will evolve, however, will face new obstacles (globalization, changing gender roles, clashing cultures, etc).