What the hell is 'Western Culture'?

[libertybrewcity]

I posted this in a comment and thought it deserved its own thread.

And what is Western Culture anyways? Corporate mainstream media driven trends that spark consumerism and decimate traditions? Westerners don't have much culture compared to many Islamic countries and Mexico especially. Look at almost every single holiday we have. Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July...buy, buy, buy food, candy, gifts. Sorry to burst your bubble but western culture is crapola.

update~~~
Yes, Mexico is part of the West so Western culture can be expanded. I constantly see and hear people talking about the "preservation of western culture" from immigration (mainly referring to Hispanic and Islamic ethnicities). What are we so afraid of, and why do humans think like this?

[Anti Federalist]

Umm, Mexico would be considered part of the "West".

[libertythor]

I would define Western Culture as individualism. At least in the United States there isn't that much of a universal and collective culture, but you can go into households, neighborhoods, and states and see culture.

Islamic nations just appear to have "more culture" because it is more collective and officially displayed.

[silus]

Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll. Western Culture is freedom to explore yourself and your surroundings. The culture you see in other countries acts as a barrier to individualism.

[emazur]

I used to think like this. The grass is always greener on the other side. Have you been to a non-Western, foreign country? In my experience, most people don't really give a damn about culture but they will go where the wind blows (including nowhere), and if that includes "wasteland Western culture", so be it.

There was a thread awhile ago where I posted some good examples of America culture but I couldn't find it, but here's an excerpt from another post I made:

So, your international friends think Americans are uncultured idiots like you see on those Jay Walking skits put out by the tonight show? Ask them:
"America is the birthplace of jazz, rap, rock, baseball, basketball, football, & pro wrestling. We are a big country and have different foods in different regions of the country from brick-oven pizza in New York to grits and pecan pies in the south. Hollywood forged the film industry and American movies are world renowned. We like our jeans and t-shirts, but so do many countries, and we are a driving force of new fashion styles like hip-hop and goth that other countries wind up copying:
http://www.thisiscrystalkay.com/2009...ng-to-america/
http://www.motifake.com/japanese-got...ter-47923.html
We did all this in more in a country less than 250 years old, and a good fifth of the states only joined within the last hundred years or so. What the hell has your country done in the last 250 years that so greatly contributes to culture? And your previous cultural contributions - were they formed in a vacuum or were they influenced by the peoples of neighboring countries?"

[RM918]

We don't have just one 'culture'. Consumeristic Jackassery is certainly one of them, but it can vary wildly from region to region and state-to-state.

[libertybrewcity]

We don't have just one 'culture'. Consumeristic Jackassery is certainly one of them, but it can vary wildly from region to region and state-to-state.

what culture in the United States isn't influenced by consumerism?

culture isn't just about what we where and eat, it is about traditions too.

[Number19]

Western culture has its economic roots in Lutherism and the Christian Reformation breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church, with the resulting development of the Protestant work ethic, allowing, as Libertythor implied, individuals to raise themselves in life through personal effort and responsibility. This ushered in the Renaissance.

Western Culture has its legal roots in Greek democracy.

These two, taken together, is at the heart of "Western Culture".

[TheFlashlight.org]

It's White man culture. You know, the West is Europe before the New World was discovered. Science, logic, inventing 99% of everything that's ever been invented, breeding hot blonde chicks... Unfortunately it also connotes sucking up to the Nazarene by now.

[Akus]

I posted this in a comment and thought it deserved its own thread.

And what is Western Culture anyways? Corporate mainstream media driven trends that spark consumerism and decimate traditions? Westerners don't have much culture compared to many Islamic countries and Mexico especially. Look at almost every single holiday we have. Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July...buy, buy, buy food, candy, gifts. Sorry to burst your bubble but western culture is crapola.

update~~~
Yes, Mexico is part of the West so Western culture can be expanded. I constantly see and hear people talking about the "preservation of western culture" from immigration (mainly referring to Hispanic and Islamic ethnicities). What are we so afraid of, and why do humans think like this?

Western culture is that of individualism. Your life is the way it is because you made it that way, not because it is destined to be that way. Western culture is that of equality. It doesn't regard your physiological traits, only personality traits. Western culture is about being the best you can be and pursuing your ultimate happiness in life.

[libertybrewcity]

Western culture is that of individualism. Your life is the way it is because you made it that way, not because it is destined to be that way. Western culture is that of equality. It doesn't regard your physiological traits, only personality traits. Western culture is about being the best you can be and pursuing your ultimate happiness in life.

amen.

[JustinTime]

what culture in the United States isn't influenced by consumerism?

What culture anywhere isnt influenced by consumerism? People are always wanting things, trying to obtain them, and there aint a dang thang wrong with it.

[constituent]

Western culture is that of individualism. Your life is the way it is because you made it that way, not because it is destined to be that way. Western culture is that of equality. It doesn't regard your physiological traits, only personality traits. Western culture is about being the best you can be and pursuing your ultimate happiness in life.

now that is a GIANT load...

it's been entertaining watching all these half-assed definitions of "western."

it should be clear to everyone by now that there is no unique set of circumstances, entertainment interests, manners of behavior, religion
nor economic/political constructions by which one (or a nation for that matter) can be defined as EXCLUSIVELY "western."

It's just another silly contrivance to help little people feel like they're part of something bigger which happens to make them
BETTER than others... whom they exclude at random. :confused:

[Theocrat]

http://www.regnery.com/imgnew/book134_pigwestciv.jpg (http://www.regnery.com/books/pigwestciv.html)

[Imaginos]

Western culture is that of individualism. Your life is the way it is because you made it that way, not because it is destined to be that way. Western culture is that of equality. It doesn't regard your physiological traits, only personality traits. Western culture is about being the best you can be and pursuing your ultimate happiness in life.
+1

[lester1/2jr]

can't hekp but think of this Pt buchanan piece

http://www.antiwar.com/pat/?articleid=2599

"What Does America Offer the World?


by Patrick J. Buchanan



.....When the president speaks of freedom, does he mean the First Amendment prohibition against our children reading the Bible and being taught the Ten Commandments in school?

If the president wishes to fight a moral crusade, he should know the enemy is inside the gates. The great moral and cultural threats to our civilization come not from outside America, but from within. We have met the enemy, and he is us. The war for the soul of America is not going to be lost or won in Fallujah.

Unfortunately, Pagan America of 2004 has far less to offer the world in cultural fare than did Christian America of 1954. Many of the movies, books, magazines, TV shows, videos and much of the music we export to the world are as poisonous as the narcotics the Royal Navy forced on the Chinese people in the Opium Wars.

A society that accepts the killing of a third of its babies as women's "emancipation," that considers homosexual marriage to be social progress, that hands out contraceptives to 13-year-old girls at junior high ought to be seeking out a confessional – better yet, an exorcist – rather than striding into a pulpit like Elmer Gantry to lecture mankind on the superiority of "American values."

[libertybrewcity]

can't hekp but think of this Pt buchanan piece

http://www.antiwar.com/pat/?articleid=2599

"What Does America Offer the World?


by Patrick J. Buchanan



.....When the president speaks of freedom, does he mean the First Amendment prohibition against our children reading the Bible and being taught the Ten Commandments in school?

If the president wishes to fight a moral crusade, he should know the enemy is inside the gates. The great moral and cultural threats to our civilization come not from outside America, but from within. We have met the enemy, and he is us. The war for the soul of America is not going to be lost or won in Fallujah.

Unfortunately, Pagan America of 2004 has far less to offer the world in cultural fare than did Christian America of 1954. Many of the movies, books, magazines, TV shows, videos and much of the music we export to the world are as poisonous as the narcotics the Royal Navy forced on the Chinese people in the Opium Wars.

A society that accepts the killing of a third of its babies as women's "emancipation," that considers homosexual marriage to be social progress, that hands out contraceptives to 13-year-old girls at junior high ought to be seeking out a confessional – better yet, an exorcist – rather than striding into a pulpit like Elmer Gantry to lecture mankind on the superiority of "American values."

oh god, that's really messed up. i was talking more about culture buddy, not death and what the us does wrong. im trying to come up with a definition of western culture. how does that relate?

[Free Moral Agent]

Do you not mean "American culture" because the nations of Europe certainly have defined cultures?

[fisharmor]

I think "western culture" is a valid concept, but I don't immediately think of Christmas shopping or cell phones with data plans.

Westerners drink alcohol. More whisky and beer and wine, less vodka and kumiss and sake.

Westerners wear suits to semiformal occasions, and jeans and sneakers informally. Some anomalies exist, like kilts.

Westerners eat at tables. They see the value in eating as a family without the TV on. They don't tend to split off portions of the group to sit at other tables, except the kids table at holidays.

Just some examples there... these are basics that we don't think about, but when you do think about it the rest of the world really does do things differently. For that reason I'm not really sure I'd include a lot of the Spanish speaking western hemisphere in the set of "western culture" because there are still an awful lot of Indians who still pay tribute to pagan gods down there.

More to the point, the indigenous people down there (and up here!) were kind of forced into western culture.

[JustinTime]

Its tough to see something when you've been cocooned inside it your entire life. Even if you leave the west, its still difficult see how minds work differently, not because of genetics are any racial nonsense, but because of whats those minds have been taught since birth.

Its a million tiny things. Just one very minor example, when I was in a univeristy religions class we did surveys on what God looks like, the most common image conjured up was a man with a beard and long hair, with some sort of robe or cloth wrapped around him. That goes back to Zeus.

Ouside the west people dont perceive that image at all, and often have trouble understanding the question.

Not that that makes me any different than someone from say, Iran or Bangladesh, but that and a million cultural threads running back millenia can yield some very different ways of seeing the world.