Culture

I have been meaning to share my thoughts about religion, culture and such. Then, I stumbled on this beautiful post I came across on culture and its nuances. Couldn't have expressed it better myself. The stories cited here bring out the essence of this word beautifully.
I think this word is used loosely and out of context many a time. Culture is such a multi-layered and composite concept, you cannot tie it down to any single attribute like religion, geography, ethnicity. It encompasses all these and yet retains the core essentials/features of a society. Just like how it is not uncommon for a Christian in India to celebrate Diwali. Just like how turkey is a symbol of Thanksgiving for people of any ethnicity, religion living in the US.

I like to think of it as the state-machine of a society, or a neural network of the collective brain of the people making it. Something which evolves over time, reacts to the current conditions (inputs - food, religion, language, climate) by way of imbibing some of them and transitioning to a different state. In this process, the external agents themselves undergo transformation making this input-feedback cycle go on. But these changes take time, should take time. A stable society is one where these transitions happen over reasonably long time and once a new state is attained, the likelihood of transitioning to a previous state is minimal.
Can this state machine ever reset? Well, technically it could. It could unlearn all its transformations and become a closed network. This is tantamount to amnesia of the society. An example that comes to my mind is - when fundamentalists get to the helm of affairs driving the society to such a state where heretofore (learned) values are no more relevant. When such transitions happen often, it results in an unstable network/unstable society.

Say a little prayer

Been reading the depressing news coming in from Somalia. My heart goes out to these children and the mothers. Feel so helpless sitting here. Wish there was some way to help these unfortunate people.
In a way, maybe it is good that these children are left to die rather than live a suffering life of deprivation and disease. Hope and pray that things get better for these people very soon.

PS: Turns out there is some way we can help these victims. Please make your donations here