DrZoidberg
Contributor
How else would you measure culture? People do whatever they do because it works for them in whatever context they find themselves in. How other people in the same cultural context respond to them is how you measure how well it works for them.
Let's change the terminology. I think "best" is too value laden. Let's use evolutionary terminology. The topic is memetic evolution, so I think it fits. Let's instead call it "most adaptive" instead of "best".
If you need to steal to survive you will steal. So if you find yourself in a context where stealing is necessary you will justify it. That then becomes your culture. Extreme punishments are most adaptive in cultures where there is less of an incentive to behave. I think western mild punishments is the result of the low degree of corruption and functioning justice systems. So if you move somebody from a culture with a lot of corruption (and extreme punishments) they will keep those values until they start seeing that people around them are actually behaving really nicely without the need for extreme measures.
I'm sorry but you're going to have to back this up somehow. It isn't what I'm seeing.
Yes, the cultural evolution is less quick in some people, while sometimes it's a step back for every step forward. I agree that it's a mosaic, with both good and bad parts. What sets us apart is that overall I see more good than bad change. I don't see things merely being shaken up. I see continuous change toward a more adaptive synthesis.
Yes. More adaptive. The problem is that immigrants tend to want high status both in the culture they're coming to as well as having high status in the country that they're coming from. That can make success in the new culture hard. As it gives a bit of a schizophrenic behaviour at times.
Now you're in the "us" vs "them" mindset. When "they" come here they may have all kinds of horrendous values (honor killings, female genital mutilation and so on) but also a bunch of positive values. It's pretty arrogant to assume that we have nothing to learn from "them". In general I think immigration makes the world a better place for everybody. We're all learning from each other. We get new and better cultural aspects and they take new and better cultural aspects back to their home cultures. Everybody wins.
Oh, fuck me sideways. I was wrong. That is fucked up. Points to you. But what it doesn't say is whether this caused an outrage in Saudi Arabia. I'm guessing it did. I don't think this is kosher anywhere. I don't think it was kosher in Saudi Arabia when this happened and I don't think Saudis were cool with this happening. There's a big difference between shit like this happening and people in the culture being ok with it.
I guess Saudi Arabia is way worse than I thought. I didn't know that was possible. I learned something new.
I'm not holding Sweden up as some shining example for the world to follow. I think we're doing everything wrong. When it comes to handling immigration (once they've been accepted and let into the country) I think USA is the shining light for us to follow. They impose no restrictions. Once they're in they're free to do whatever.
