THE WORLD IS FLAT CULTURALLY




By Ted R Bailey

 

    Christopher Columbus faced a number of insurmountable public arguments against his adventure to sail off into the ocean to go where no man has gone before. For one, the looming question of whether the Earth was round or flat.  Rumor is, even Chris didn’t know for sure if he would be leading his crew over the edge of the world to their impending doom.

    Amusingly, it was not the edge of the world that impeded his planned adventure but a giant land mass that was occupied by indigenous tribes of humans, whom undoubtedly wondered at his calling them Indians.

  It is hard to believe Chris had no idea of the many other visitors to this land by the Norsemen on the east coast and the Chinese on the the west coast.  Surely, someone must have informed him along the way of others who had beaten him.  Maybe he was just keeping that for himself. 

    After all, this giant land mass was often visited on a regular basis by the Vikings and Chinese for centuries. Columbus’s so-called discovery was simply that of southern Europe’s. The Americas had been already well-known for centuries and by that time, the fear of falling off the edge of the Earth was a long-forgotten fairy tale.

    At least it was an adventure for the crew of Christopher Columbus.

    The real changes came as land-grabbing, power-mongering for the real powers of the time, namely England, Spain, France, and Portugal.  

    In the excitement of new lands to conquer, Chris Columbus’s trek changed the culture of Europe.  Adventurers abounded in the glory of  newfound discoveries and riches. 

    These quests would last for decades. The glorious stories that abounded in the pubs and newspapers stirred culture changes and built the beginnings of new economic ventures to be told to this day.

                     *****************************

    One comparison might resemble the prevailing American culture of today as the Europeans declared themselves the only real civilized beings in the universe and set out to civilize their new find in the name of God, the kings, the queens, and glory.

     Sound familiar?

     The European culture dominated the world in their minds and would do so for a couple of centuries to come.

     Of course the real edge of the world existed, as always, only as the end of one culture and the beginning of another one, a philosophical barrier at best. Columbus stumbled upon the edge of the European world, culturally speaking, and began new cultures that would eventually dominate the world of the future.

    It was the end of the European society as they knew it, and the beginning of a monster at the edge of the world beyond their wildest fear as America, Canada, and South America opened their collective monstrous mouths, baring their sharp teeth of political and economic dominance of a future yet to be seen.

    Effectively, the new world discovery created great cultural changes around the world. Imagine if social media had existed then. How would it have changed the culture of Europe? The effect would have been enormous in a very short period of time, creating a plethora of advertising to drive the known world out of their minds.

    Cultural shift can change society in a number of ways, including fashion, politics, ethics, education, manners, among everything else. But, how long does it take to change the culture and why does it change it? 

 The implications of an answer can be seen in the American present cultural challenges.

    Political campaigns are rife with persuasive rhetoric in an attempt to bend public opinion in the face of decades of hardened generational convictions. If those arguments go against the prevailing cultural norms held by the dominant generation, they usually fail.

    Overwhelming information inundates society from all directions from social media, radio, television, and movies.  Traditional peer pressure from face-to-face interaction is less influential than posts on social media in the hierarchy of influencers.  It seems people prefer to stare at their phones while sitting at the same table with their friends. 

    The massive proliferation of phones at the toddler stage has led to cultural changes from the elimination of typing classes in high schools and the early awareness of sex habits.  

    The younger generations like Generation Z place tech gear first for interacting with their peers, even pushing the traditional news media off to the side. Personal interactions among friends often suffer because of liking text messaging more than actual personal conversations.  What was once considered too informal for job applications, email has been pushed into the background in favor of chat modes.

    Predominantly, real changes happen once the older generation dies out, as was evident during the presidential election of 2020 when the millennials quite loudly predicted their rise to power once the Boomers were gone, claiming, “We will wait silently until all of us reach voting age.” Politically, their passive resistance shouted more loudly than the riots of the BLM movement.

    Every now and then, something falls into place, just so, to throw culture into a frenzy. Unpopular wars, popular music artists, and unforeseen catastrophes are among the most recent examples. In these cases, drastic cultural shifts happen almost overnight. Of course, these are unpredictable. Excuses for failures of political candidates and economic downturns were blamed on Covid, the climate, and even the Taylor Swift ticket fiasco.

    On the positive side many laws were adjusted, clothing designs introduced, business dress standards changed, and how and where you work has changed as a result of unforeseen influences. The video game culture, the rise of the new Pickleball sport, and the resurgence of movie theaters give credence to the old saying of change is good.

    In a sense, it could be said the Earth is flat when it comes to culture. The new generations find ground and the old ones get pushed off the edge. It is then that real changes occur.

    Is the Earth flat?

    Culturally, it is. 

 The edge of the Earth resembles the end of one culture and the beginning of another. Dynamically speaking, that edge changes constantly to reveal more cultural shifts all the time.

    As the world population continues outward to go where we have not gone before, our discoveries, like Chris Columbus’s, will only find those places where the rest of the galaxy has already been hanging out for centuries. 

 As we enter those new but old bars and restaurants, let us approach the monster that lies beyond the edge as just another culture with adventures of glory.

Comments

  1. To be honest, culture should probably take a back seat to technology, which is now, AI, which will be culture as well. The circle of evolution.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts