Counter Culture

• ·         What happens when an entire culture is threatened by another?
• ·         Does the attempted control of nationwide panic make it okay to lie or sugar coat reality?
• ·         Why is it vital that not everyone agrees with each other in a democracy?

I recently took a class that focused on various cultures and a topic that often came up were the feelings of one culture towards another, or towards a person who is a stranger to a unified group of people. It is often human nature to feel fear or hostility towards a stranger or towards someone who is different from personal norms. How many of us fear the unknown? A person’s culture is held in the highest regards because it signifies of the foundation of their existence. Culture is language, heritage, family, religion, and traditions that bind a group of people together. We all want to feel like we belong somewhere and are a part of a group where we feel acceptance from others like us. After all human beings search for their own personal identity at least once in their lives. When we find the group of people whom we identify with, we hold onto it and harbor protective feeling towards it.

So what happens when an entire culture is threatened by another? Well the feeling of being threatened is not a direct threat towards a specific person per se, but it is the possible compromise to the wholeness or sanctity of the culture itself. When we encounter a stranger we generally feel a bit perplexed, but this confusion can dissipate with acceptance and the ability to adapt to change. However when the culture itself risks either dilution through melding with another culture or dissolution through exposure to different ideas and ways of life, harsh feelings may arise. If I look at what Susan Sontag says about September eleventh being an “attack on modernity” with all of this in mind then yes, as horrific as the incident was, it was only a matter of time before action resulted from an apparent group of cultural fanatics.