Julia Rossiter<\/p>\n
Professor Sullivan<\/p>\n
ENG101<\/p>\n
14 November 2016<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How many people have been told, \u201cYou think too much?\u201d The theories that Ruth Benedict stands by in\u00a0Patterns of Culture\u00a0all point to an idea that our species\u2019 most valuable strength, being capacity for symbolic thought, is simultaneously threatening. As cultures thrive nearby one another, our \u201cgeneral practice,\u201d Professor Sullivan points out, is \u201cto assume that everything we believe and value is \u2018normal\u2019 and \u2018good\u2019 and that everything different than what we believe is abnormal and bad.\u201d It seems we are naturally eager to utilize this skill and assign a quick, dispensable judgment to all that we find. In many ways, today and yesterday prove the severe weight of our tendencies.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Joshua Frey, I thought your post was reasonably on fire. If that makes any sense. The term you used, \u201cfaux national[ism],\u201d excellently encompasses the guise that shields Western culture\u2019s forceful pervasiveness. Not only do we \u201ctake culture like no tomorrow,\u201d as you said, but we often let it be used as commodity\u2014a tool to connect, demean, or profit on an agenda. The internet\u2019s newfound role in globalization is interesting to me. Though it often seems to foster an unfortunate disregard for customs in many areas (looking at you, racist Facebook memes), it only makes sense, as it is an extension of our physical world. However, it could be said that the internet\u2019s space has developed a culture in itself, with sub-cultures on various websites, containing a population dispersed throughout the world. And I think this is worthwhile to consider when we step back and see room to expand our ability to think relatively. We have access to the most tremendous advancement human communication has ever seen.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Will we ever really transform these somewhat primal habits of assessment, though? The claim Ruth Benedict makes on page two is critical: \u201cNo man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes.\u201d Perhaps, similar to Wineburg\u2019s work on historical thinking, this is simply a disadvantage that we need to see and acknowledge clearly. Instead of building ourselves up to believe that our minds can simply dispose of cultural influence, it may be more beneficial to put the energy into seeing where it has already sunk its claws. These are the \u201cpreliminary propositions\u201d Benedict argues we need to accept. Is it possible to achieve? I am not so sure. On a broad scale, it seems like a fantasy that Professor Sullivan describes well: \u201cNo moral superiority. Only objective and dispassionate acceptance of all forms of human societies \u2026 driven by the idea that difference is not wrong, it is just relative.\u201d At the very least, a focus on these anthropologist values should direct its growing presence in the sciences as a whole. Right now, they are about as good as it seems to get when we consider powerful institutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Julia Rossiter Professor Sullivan ENG101 14 November 2016 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How many people have been told, \u201cYou think too much?\u201d The theories that Ruth Benedict stands by in\u00a0Patterns of Culture\u00a0all point to an idea that our species\u2019 most valuable strength, being capacity for symbolic thought, is simultaneously threatening. As cultures thrive nearby one another, our \u201cgeneral […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-72602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-paper-writing","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}