Black lives matter? All lives matter. The gross injustices and institutionalised racism in TUSA is the most broadcast example of this version of inhumanity, yet it certainly is neither rare nor unique. The culture of the American States is grounded in exploitation of one racially identifying group by another, something which grew out of British colonialism.
What supports culture?
Culture is the extension of history into the present. Educational systems and concomitant cultural indoctrination processes combine wth social interaction to reinforce cultural norms. Altering educational content and influencing group knowledge or media are the only ways to significantly manufacture change in culture. Shaping attitudes shapes culture.
What defines cultural differences?
Language, food, racial identity, religion and economics all contribute to our personal definition of culture, and these demonstrate who belongs and who does not. While it is natural and necessary to know these differences, it is neither natural nor necessary to rank such in terms of superiority. Doing so is the definition of bigotry.
What supports society?
Society is supported by the present and is aimed at the future, demonstrated by a group of people with vested interests in associating together. The temporal nature of society is fuelled by the active engagement of its participants; culture the passive engagement.
Personal identification and threat identification.
Humans are social creatures, and most people seek to identify with a flag, an icon, a religion, a location, a skin colour, and identifiers of income and status. A primary function of the human brain, as will all organisms, is to identify threats and respond to them. Once a signifier is perceived as ‘other’, automatic threat responses engage to protect ‘me’.
Dominance and survival.
Continuation of ‘me’ relies upon resources, and ‘other’ is usually perceived as a threat to resources. Consequently, most organisms seek to monopolise resources before another may so as to ensure survival. Being the most powerful, the most capable in dominating resources is survival.
Morality and cooperation.
Protection of one’s resources and identity is vastly different from the annihilation of one other’s identity or monopolisation of their resources. Protection demonstrates recognition of other’s sovereignty; annihilation does not. Protection evinces integrity and mutual respect; annihilation evinces invasion, theft, and murder. Cooperation requires balance; dominance results in obliteration.
Adaptation and survival.
Common knowledge, often wrong and easily manipulated, statues that only the fittest survive. The actual theory proven is that only the fittest to adapt survive. The institutionalised racism present in most countries results from identifying ‘other’ race, religion, and culture as threat the majority society, which then removes resources from the minority. Yet when a culture adapts and includes, the whole becomes stronger.
Fascism and egalitarianism.
The use of violence to erase ‘other’ is merely the extension of inequality. Bullying, harassment, violence and murder are all steps on a path renouncing ‘other’. As can be analysed historically, this path invariably leads to an imbalance of terminal proportions in society. Multiculturalism requires insightful education and moral representation which appraises all differences as ‘humanity’.
Changes in identity.
Personally identifying with some element of culture or of society results in instinctually protecting that locus. By moving that locus to a definition which includes differences, we can form connections together, rather than reacting against other. Recognition that we are all human provides the beginning of adaptability.
Biology and inertia.
All biology, like culture, builds upon past developments and can only react to environmental changes. In every organism, there is inherent inertia to change. Existing is the primary force of life; life is the functional objective of biology. Throughout the development of all species, all organisms, all cultures, all organisations, all people, the ability to adapt to new forces has resulted in all extant life today. Overcoming inertia to change is the recognition that change is the key to life.
Survival and adaptability.
The failure of so many societies around the world to adapt to changes in identity, to choose cooperation with ‘other’, has resulted in so many injustices – not just murder by those who ostensibly protect civilians – that societies have been broken due to inertia.
Change and life.
Cultural dominance based on superficial identifiers, rather than recognition of mutual and fundamental similarities, continues to result in no change. Existence is an exercise in adaptation and change, and here we all have a touch stone by which we can gauge our identities, our societies, our nations, and our global morality.
We are the same species with the same needs. Are ‘they’ really ‘other’, or are ‘they’ human, like you and me?