Out of touch with culture?

Most Paedos in the Church WERE prosecuted. The Church was only worried about Libel cases, against them. Though, in fairness, Paedos in the BBC and in The House of Commons escaped Justice.

Culture is only tolerated if that Culture respects the laws, and practices, of the local people. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Those who leave here, for America, don't bring our ways over there because they respect the ways of the host nation. Do we expect Americans to honour our Royals? No.

Desmond1979 said:

Rather than today, where Sex Offenders don't face the Consequences of their Actions, due to their Skin Colour.

To be fair there are enough proven pedos in the Catholic church who have not faced the consequences for their actions so I think this is a weak arguement.

Desmond1979 said:

We need Social cohesion

Given that society is made up of many different cultures already (and really always has been), how do you propose to make it work? Surely alienating those who are just the lastest additions seems unfair.

All I'm saying is that people who come here should respect our ways, and lifestyle. Rather than today, where Sex Offenders don't face the Consequences of their Actions, due to their Skin Colour.

Two Wrongs don't make a Right. We need Social cohesion, rather than 'Do What You Feel Like'.

I personally believe so, but I also don't think that is true. And i think if keeping up with it means I start losing my own sense of self then that is probably not a good thing tbh.

now i try to listen to radio 4, but because it is an easier way to get a broad sense of the different things that are happening in the world without trying too hard.

I think people mostly just live their lives and don't think about it too much.

They are busy with family and friends,  socialising and living, the odd cultural event, but mostly just trying to get by like everyone else.

Do you think we become irelevant if we don't keep up with culture?

There's a lot of cultural stuff that just dosen't interest me, so I don't engage with it, I'm fairly sure everyones the same.

aurelis said:

I think I don't feel connected to my own culture, and 'studying' it seems strange when my peers of the same culture don't feel they need to study it, they just are.

That is probably because the NT peers socialise and talk about this so they get to hear about it from others and make it the subject of conversations. A kind of osmosis effect from socialising.

When us NDs don't socialise we miss out on this so if we want to remain informed and relevant then we need to do the study thing.

Britain has always been culturally diverse, we've been trading with the rest of the world since at least the Bronze Age, the Romans enforced their culture on the Iron Age inhabitants of Britian and the rest of Europe. Roman Britain would have been a very multicultural place, we can see that from grave stone memorials, things like the Vindolanda Letters, even in DNA and artifacts found in archaelogical sites.

Anglo-Saxon England was diverse too, Christian missionaries from different cultures wandered about the place, they wanted others to conform to thier way of thinking, especially the Roman ones, who sewed division with other forms of Christianity and were very hostile.

The Vikings both did and didn't try and fit in with the native cultures of the places they occupied.

Probably the biggest dividers were the Normans, all across Europe and th Middle East wherever they went there was war and division, take overs of local populations and their cultures. In England the local people were more or less enslaved, a look at the Doomsday Book shows who owned what in 1066 and who owned what in 1086, the change in ownership was staggering, also English clergy were marginalised and replaced by Normans.

I come from a large town with many different people and cultures, it's normal to me to see different skin colours and hear different languages. Even after all the years I've lived in Wales and Scotland it still seems strange that there are so few non white people.

People are being allowed to form and celebrate their own cultures and sub-cultures, groups that were previously hidden, like us ND's, or LBGTQI are able to be out and proud and accepted, mostly, there are still a few dinosaurs that want a buttoned up, repressed and homogenised culture, where we're only allowed to be different behind closed doors, as long as nobody finds out.

Many things we think of as British, like fish and chips aren't they came along with Jews fleeing pogroms in Russia.

I think I don't feel connected to my own culture, and 'studying' it seems strange when my peers of the same culture don't feel they need to study it, they just are. They know the references and the food and the history in a natural depth that I have to pretend I know more of than I actually do. And studying it still makes me feel that I'm still not 'in' it.

Desmond1979 said:

No other culture is made to integrate. Which leads to societal collapse.

The USA is a classic case of many cultures coming together and not being forced to integrate to any standards (at least originally). They became incredibly strong off the back of it while many cultures maintained chunks of their own identity.

This seems to have swung to an extreme now and there appears to be a push to purge any non white, non approved cultures from the country and this is leading to tremendous strife.

In Europe it seems we have passed the point of no return with other cultures flowing into ours, and since the days of the empire there have been sizable numbers arriving and doing their own thing.

Some don't choose to integrate much. The Hassidic Jews keep to their own areas in London by and large but are not an issue to anyone. Indian, Pakistani and Banglideshi have formed sizable enclaves around the country but many have integrated well while still keeping areas that are very much of their own culture.

You just need to travel around London to find populations from the Carribean, assorted Far Eastern countries etc who keep much of the essence of their cultures while integrating for all essential purposes.

I even found an enclave of Brazilians in Shoreditch when I was there who kept apart from the Brits as they find our culture very bland and many of us to be rude. Talking to them about their experiences I have to agree with them.

I'm sure when the Normans invaded in 1066 there was little cultural integration, or when the Romans arrived or any number of historical inflows of peoples. Over time this sorts itself out and we, as a society, evolve. It is how society has always worked.

Can we really say that the old culture was really that good? 

I believe that we, as a people, became too postmodern. Other cultures here are fine, but in the past they had to integrate into the native culture. Diversity, on the other hand, made us dog-eat-dog. No other culture is made to integrate. Which leads to societal collapse.

I'm English, but I've lived in both Scotland and Wales, I don't feel I have a cultural identity as such, I don't identify with a lot of the flag waving, 'For England and St George' stuff, but then I don't really understand why anyone wears flags and the American thing of flag worship seems utterly strange and weird to me.

I supose if I could be said to identify with anything it's the landscape itself, the places were my soul feels young, south Dorset, Somerset and the wild places of Scotland and Wales.

I think not being Christian plays a part too, we're told we're a Christian country, but most white English aren't Christian, it seems that we keep Christian holidays of Xmas and Easter, but with the undertones of their previous Pagan festivals, eggs and rabbits at Easter, tree's, greenery and the darkest longest night of the year at xmas, even though most now agree that if you look at the "Xmas story" then Jesus was born around september and a lot of the "xmas story" was lifted from Mithraism.

I can only live happily on the Western Seaboard, it's like I need the rain and wind and the everchanging skies or my soul dries up. It seems to have nothing to do with ancestry or anything as most of my family are from kent, Sussex and Wiltshire going back generations, we were quite probably here since the Anglo-Saxons and maybe before the Romans. Personally I hate that part of the country and don't feel at home there at all.

TheCatWoman said:

obviously the Scots and Irish are incredibly proud of thier cultural heritage, even the Welsh after 800 years of suppression are.

Do you identify as Scottish or Welsh? I know you were born in Scotland and have obviously moved and eventually settled on a Welsh island but wondered where you felt you mostly "belonged" to.

I was born and raised in Scotland, lived most of my adult life in England with spells in Germany and Brazil but always feel Scottish as an identity but have moulded myself to fit in with wherever I live.

I was born into a family with 2 quite different cultures, attended school on 3 different continents, usually enjoy working with people from multiple global cultures. 

The culture of my Husband's family often feels quite different from either sides of my own family.

Now, quite recently, as a much older adult, I have been given the opportunity of getting to know my Autistic people and culture.

Sometimes, I fear that I am rather at risk of feeling rather "State-Less" or "A-Cultural".  However, that isn't the whole story; as I have been influenced and absorbed some good aspects of culture from the many people I have encountered to date.

For me, when I am trying to connect with an aspect of my culture(s), or to reach out in friendship to discover more about someone else's culture: I find sharing food is a good common ground and place from which to build a foundation for an ongoing relationship.

When it comes to how I view myself and my household - I ask who makes the rules anyway?  For myself and my household; I believe in making memories and building into my / our lives: new traditions of my / our own choosing ...which become "culture".

When it comes to my Autism / Neurodivergent aspects of "culture" - I am still exploring and forming my; awareness, knowledge, outlook, opinion, habits, preferences, adjustments and support needs - in support of embracing the more helpful, newly discovered, aspects of my Autistic community and culture.

I get what you mean, I think it's something that happens when you get older, it also bothered me when I started mixing more with people from different backgrounds to mine, that they knew so much more, they were taught things that my school and friends and family wouldn't thought about, and if they did would of thought of as snobby. Things like art, politics, literature, theatre' listening to radio 4 rather than radio1, even trips to museums. I did do a dive into most of it, found what I like and what I don't. Pop culture has always been a bit of a mystery to me, I didn't like most pop music when I was growing up and still don't.

I don't know your cultural background or heritage, but one of the things I've noticed is for the English is how embarassed we are about our folk culture, how it's looked down on and denigrated. It's like our past started with the Industrial revolution at the earliest and maybe WW 1 and 2. It's something I've talked about with friends from other countries and they find it odd that we celebrate our folk culture so little, a Spanish friend told me that even though she comes from the north of Spain and flamenco from the south, they're all incredibly proud of it and if a flamenco track is played at a disco or club, eveyone will start dancing, stamping thier feet and clicking their fingers. A German friend told me the same about Oompah music, obviously the Scots and Irish are incredibly proud of thier cultural heritage, even the Welsh after 800 years of suppression are.

Its like if you're English the only cultural heritage you're allowed to have is that of Empire, which oppressed the ordinary English person almost or just as much as the Scots and Irish and others.

What do you mean by culture?

It normally means, history, traditions, customs, laws, traditional clothing, ways of speaking such as slang, even religion, etc.

You can study all of those. People do. There are courses, degrees, you can do.

By pop culture I suppose you mean things like media studies.

While you can study this, you are normally immersed in it and just absorb it. No-one knows all of it, as no-one would want to know every music genre, so you would be part of a sub-culture. If you are not interested in any music genre, studying it will not make you part of it.

Same for food and art. You can study them, but there has to be something you like and identify with.

If you don't identify with, know about, like, believe in, get involved or interact with elements of a culture you will be an outsider, which means you won't feel you belong.

I suppose in a multicultural society you end up with parts of several cultures so you don't belong to any. This is how new cultures are formed over time.

I think most people don't worry about it too much.