Culture Evolution
I have heard the phrase "culture evolution" allot lately. I think it is odd how so many people seem to believe in this. Members of the church who think that evolution is against the gospel (which by the way, the church takes no stand point on evolution) will gladly accept culture evolution. I don't believe culture has evolved much if at all. Things have just gone from not that great to not that great. We trade one bad thing for another. We make things better by making others worst. Most of the theorist I have read as of late have this pessimist out look on government and the power that be. The governments are always bad and never doing things right. Now it is true that power corrupts, but not everything is bad all the time. Theorists try to place everything into small boxes that don't really fit all that much. They find a nugget of truth and run with it. Missing lager things in there excitement. These theorists try and use this little bit of knowledge work and fit to everything. Things are big and complex and trying to make them other wise does not make sense. Everything may be connected, but everything is not directly connected. I refuse to believe that my personal like for blue rather then pink makes Japanese economy better off. These theorist and their worshipers fill up books on the topic of their nugget to try and make up for it's lack of real value. Like a skinny man tries to puff himself up, so does a weak speaker fill his speech with meaningless words.
posted by Judge of the Whetten's at 12:17 PM
4 Comments:
An excellent agument and critically well stated. I think there are cycles in all social orders. When good men and women work for the benefit of society then the people prosper. When the the wicked rule (wicked means selfish in this case) the people suffer.
Change the people and you change government. Sometimes people become so entrenched that revolution is necessary but for the most part good people means good govenrment and bad people means bad government. Isn't that one of the main themes in your Book of Mormon.
The question is how do you get good people (who really don't want power) to participate in governing the people?
P.S. By Mike's logic God and Christ are absolutely corrupt. The argument has a grain of truth but should be restated to include honorable people who use the power they have for the benefit of others. Power only corrupts those who seek power for selfish reasons.
First off, between Mike and arkay, LOL. After reading the comments from y'all I had to laugh. Mainly cuz I do know Mike, and understand that he sometimes forgets to elaborate on his thoughts. No worries, I follow. Personally, I would have to disagree with you Judge. What is synonimous with evolution? Change? Progression?
Are these that bad? Now in regards with cultural evolutions, sure.. they are few and far in between; if at all. However... to evolve oneself is to better oneself yeah? For me in my studies, evolution=progression. Now I am not speaking of Darwin directly in that man evolved from the primate; I am speaking of a person's intelligence evolving.
As college students, each new semester we evolve. This information that is taught to us in our classes causes us to change a little everyday. It's hard, confusing and sometimes scary and painful. In one of my classes today, we were discussing print media's ideal woman, and how many of those ideals really haven't changed. It's ridiculous, but I find myself changing for the better because of this knowledge. I find that now I want to raise, if I have any, daughters to know that mass, appealing beauty is a myth. Beauty is an individual opinion.
I find that I want to raise, if I have any, my sons in the knowledge that crying is not a sin if it is worthwhile: i.e. a family member died or a friend decided to stop being your friend. Gender roles have evolved in today's cultures. They constantly are. Though they may not be the most ideal or sacred, today's cultures have learned about the evolutionary idea of adaptation.
Boy do I enjoy stirring the pot. :D
Kinda as a post script... my argument of culture evolving stopped pretty much at those words. Culture has evolved. Not into something better per se, but it has. Japanese culture was forced to evolve after World War II when the Americans drafted their new constitution in seven days. Before that, it evolved with the Meiji Restoration in the Japanese government's attempt to catch up with the Western world. Even before that, Japan's style of government before the Meiji Restoration was overthrown and the culture had to evolve from when Bushido, the way of the Samurai, and feudalism were intrinsic to Japanese culture and way of life.
Have the end results been bad? Have cultures evolved into something better or even good? These are questions I do not have opinions on, however, I do believe that cultures have the ability, like men, to evolve based on change. Just a thought.
A = You wrote "...Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
B = God has absolute power.
Logically then:
C = God is absolutely corrupt.
and
D = God absolutely rocks.
My only disagreement is with the maxium you quoted as your opening statement. I found the rest of your comments to be insightful and well thought out but in conflict with the idea you presented at the beginning of your remarks.
So, it it power that corrupts or is it something else?
In the Bible Jesus said that our treasure lies in the desires of our heart. Perhaps corruption comes from wanting power so that we can indulge base desires such as lust, hate, greed and envy. If my treasure, as Justin wrote in an earier blog, is that no one should suffer needlessly and I desired power that I might alleviate anothers suffering am I being corrupted?
Back to the orginal subject. our "culture" is just the social rules we live by. Thus "culture evolution" imples changing the rules of our society presumably for the better. My problem with the word evolution is that it also implies a natural or unguided approach to cultural change. Here I agree more with Mike. Improvements in culture are the result of Divine intervention. Left to ourselves our cultures tend to devolve and become beastly.
Sorry if I offended but after all I am ...
RK the Enemy
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