📘 Part 3: Culture and its influence

This episode's vocabulary

Top-down (adj.) - used to refer to a situation in which decisions are made by a few people in authority rather than by the people who are affected by the decisions.

Bottom-up (adj.) - starting at the lowest levels or from the smallest details of an organization, system, plan, etc.

To feed back (phrasal verb) - to have an effect on something.

Subversive (adj.) - trying to destroy or damage something, especially an established political system.

To crave (verb) - to have a very strong feeling of wanting something.

Taboo (noun) - a subject, word, or action that is avoided for religious or social reasons.

Immaterial (adj.) - not important, or not relating to the subject you are thinking about.

Primordial (adj.) - existing at or since the beginning of the world or the universe.

Сounter-culture (noun) - a way of life and a set of ideas that are completely different from those accepted by most of society, or the group of people who live this way.

Rebellion (noun) - violent action organized by a group of people who are trying to change the political system in their country.

Norm (noun) - an accepted standard or a way of behaving or doing things that most people agree with.

Launchpad (noun) - something that provides you with the opportunity to follow a particular plan of action.

Outright (adj.) - completely or immediately.

Centrifugal (adj.) - (of a turning object) moving towards the point around which it is turning.

Centripetal (adj.) - (of a turning object) moving towards the point around which it is turning.

To bind (verb) - to tie something or someone tightly or to fasten something.

To devolve (verb) - to (cause power or responsibility to) be given to other people.

Questions and Answers

M: How is culture formed?

R: Oh, god, that's the big question. I suppose it's a top-down and bottom-up thing, really. I mean, the people that make up the culture contribute ideas to make sense of the world, and the biggest, most successful ones feed back down to help them make decisions. I make it sound so simple, but it's probably actually a very messy process.

M: What kind of culture is popular among young people?

R: Well, usually it's portrayed as new or subversive since young people crave novelty and like to challenge boundaries. You can see it with things like phones which come out on an annual basis, or some TV shows which are produced as if they break some kind of boundary or taboo. Whether or not that's true is immaterial, but it's at least part of the reason why these decisions are made.

M: How do young people learn about different cultures?

R: Probably, just by being alive in the world. It's hard to go anywhere these days without bumping into or coming across something or someone that's different to you in some way, shape or form. Aside from that, they're probably told things about other people and places and ways of living at the school. And I'm assuming they must be told by other adults as they go through life, it would be difficult to imagine otherwise.

M: Which is more important in terms of culture, literature or music?

R: Well, by and large is probably music. I mean, you can see or hear that demonstrated in the number of famous singers and bands compared to the number of well-known authors. As someone like Kylie Minogue, who has an almost global audience, whereas most authors are isolated to their genre communities. Moreover, music, it kind of has this almost primordial quality to it. People have been making noise for millions of years, whereas writing is a relatively new invention. So it makes sense that its impact has been more limited in scope.

M: Does the culture of the past have an impact on today's culture?

R: Well, it has to, when you think about it. The things don't just appear from nowhere. Even in the case of things like a counter-culture. It's usually rebellion against the established cultural norms. So you need to have that foundation as a sort of launchpad almost for anything new to happen.

M: How does the internet affect culture?

R: Probably, in, well, as many ways as there are people. Although it's not clear how you would measure that. In 2011 there was this wave of revolutions and protest movements that kicked off, partially as a result of coordination on the internet. And it also serves as a place to create and transmit memes of all descriptions all over the place. So the ways that it can influence culture, if not just outright created are easy to see or should be easy to see.

M: And what about the future? How do you think culture will change in the future?

R: I think that depends on where we're talking about. I mean, culture will change everywhere in the future, because everywhere is changing all the time. But how? I don't know. And if we think about how it could happen. When it comes to culture, there are centrifugal forces and centripetal forces. One of these acts to bind the culture together, and the other acts to do the opposite of that. And one is about order, and the other one is about control. So you'll probably find that one of these things dominates more than another. But where that will happen will vary based on what the culture is like at the time.

M: And do you think more people will be interested in their own culture? In the culture of their own country in the future?

R: It's hard to say with any accuracy because it will depend on the strength of the national spirit. Lots of people think we're moving in a direction of having lots of supernational entities where the power of the nation is sort of devolved to these bodies like the European Union or the Organization of American States. So if that happens, then... And it might be a sign that people are becoming less interested, and it seems to be moving in that direction in lots of places, but in other places, it's not. You have lots of breakaway countries with very strong national identities, so it depends again, on the context.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your cultured answers!

R: No worries!