Glenn Beck refuses to define 'white culture'

[Richard]

Pots and kettles...

Richard's $.02

[Sigaba]

Originally Posted by stickey

Not a huge Beck fan, but glad he didn't answer it. Why give her the upper-hand?

MOO, there are many reasons, not the least is the rivalry between Sumner Redstone and Rupert Murdoch.

[dac]

I think he should have checked to make sure his sack was still there and answered the question. If he can't answer hard questions on the fly then maybe he should start looking for another line of work. I don't personally think it really is that hard to define white culture, or any other for that matter. Like it or not, there are activities that are generally associated with a certain race, religion, etc..., and this isn't a bad thing.

If I walk into my favorite Pub, Madra Rua, what is the ratio going to be on an average night? What about the random kid in urban Detroit that "acts black"? I went to the Highland Games last weekend, guess what the ratio was there.

IMHO, this country would be much worse off if there was only one amalgamated American culture because we lose our roots. I for one would be pissed if there were no more Mexican chili festivals in Pueblo.

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but I am SO F'N TIRED of race talk. I know someone who really is racist, and he has absolutely no idea what any of BO's policies are.

[nmap]

I suspect that ethnic culture has two elements. One of those is a type of sorting algorithm, and the other is an ideal - a sort of mythological vision.

In the first case, culture permits individuals to determine if others are "one of us" or "not one of us". I think every group - not just ethnic - has such behaviors. Those in the "not one of us" category may have a desperate desire to become part of some group or other, but it is largely a hopeless and futile endeavor. The subtle little nuances of language, behavior, and opinion will reveal the interloper. Thus a Boston Brahmin who loves opera will never fit in with a group of NASCAR fans who delight in country-western music - even though both are white, and each represents an element of what might be regarded as white culture. This effect might be superseded if the two individuals were each members of some group that was more important to them than their other affiliations - for example, if both became QPs.

The other type - and this may be what people mean when they refer to culture - is some sort of arrangement that people within the group may agree approaches the ideal.

I'm going to toss out an idea - and I recognize it may be badly flawed - but I offer it as a first attempt that others may be able to improve upon.

I suspect that "white culture" idealizes the late 1950's suburban American family lifestyle. This may connect rather nicely with Pete's view of the shopping mall, since those malls exist within a specific type of environment - the same kind necessary for suburbia. Further, the malls tend to serve suburbia.

Perhaps such television offerings as "Leave it to Beaver" are suitable examples. There was a stable, nuclear family - a relatively small family. The husband made, apparently, a good living and the wife was a full-time homemaker. They gathered at the table for shared meals. They lived in a pleasant house in suburbia. This vision was, of course, never reality for most - but it was a shared aspiration, and as such was a defining vision.

It occurs to me that the ideal will become steadily more popular, and may achieve a certain near-sacred status as the reality becomes more rare, and more out of reach for most. The environment that fostered the growth of suburbia, with all that implies, seems to have changed - and, for that matter, to be changing. The realities of both finance and society have forced both parents into the workplace - and the increased divorce rate makes the stable two-parent home environment less common by the year. All of this will make the myth seem more desirable - and people will fight harder to keep their dream alive.

Of course, Mr. Beck could not say such things. Telling people that their ideals are impossible does not win friends.

What does this imply? I suspect that anyone who offers the chance to hold onto the nostalgic image of yesterday will profit. Thus microwave meals that permit the illusion of a shared home-cooked meal will be popular. And politicians who promise the return of such arrangements will win votes - and, maybe, elections.

[Sigaba]

Before defining this culture or that culture, I'm still grappling with the question of questions: what is meant when people say "culture"?*


________________________________________________
* FWIW, I like Akira Iriye's definition of culture as “the creation and communication of memory, ideology, emotions, life styles, scholarly and artistic works, and other symbols.” Akira Iriye, “Culture and International History,” in Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations, ed. Michael J. Hogan and Thomas G. Patterson (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 215.

Or do I? Iriye's definition does not give much weight to the power of the human unconscious. Back to the drawing board. (I really liked this thread a lot better when it was mostly about Glenn Beck not answering a question. I had in mind some sternly worded (but not bitter) comments about Les Moonves, David Letterman, and Tina Fey.)

[nmap]

Originally Posted by Sigaba

Before defining this culture or that culture, I'm still grappling with the question of questions: what is meant when people say "culture"?*

Sure. Here's a culture. LINK

On a more serious note, I like the definition from Hofstede, G. (1997). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the mind.

Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.

LINK

[Sigaba]

Originally Posted by nmap

Software of the mind.

nmap,

As always, you provide food for thought.

Some quick questions.

• If culture is software, what are the middleware and the firmware?
• How does one 'program' cultural change?
• Can people or groups be 'reprogrammed'?
• Does the authors' definition of 'knowledge' include both declarative and automated knowledge?
• Does gender differences included differences in gendered identity?
• As culture is defined by what is transmitted from generation to generation, how does one define the emergence of culture practices during a generation? (Should one conclude that what appears as a 'new' culture is actually the appearance of sensibilities from previous generations?)

[Penn]

As culture is defined by what is transmitted from generation to generation, how does one define the emergence of culture practices during a generation? (Should one conclude that what appears as a 'new' culture is actually the appearance of sensibilities from previous generations?

Leslie Alvin White, American anthropologist and author of The Science of Culture (1949) states that “Culture may be defined as behavior peculiar to Homo Sapiens, together with material objects used as an integral part of their behavior; specifically, culture consists of language, ideas, beliefs, customs, codes, instruments, tools, techniques, works of art, rituals, ceremonies, and so on”; seems most accurate, and I tend to agree with this incomplete assessment.

Incomplete as in process, when process is present as Jerome Bruner outlines in “Acts of Meaning”, it then encompasses the full discussion of culture; whereas culture as define by White is progressive over time in nature; the development of a “Folk Psychology” referenced by Bruner evolves continually.
Bruner stating that the anthropology of mans metamorphic evolution: brain size, bipedal ability and free hands “would not have mattered save for the concurrent emergence of shared symbolic systems” with ways of “living and working together”. Concluding, that the divide in human evolution changed when “culture became the major force in forming the human mind” not nature. Culture then, resulted from the Bruner’s shared “Folk” knowledge being transferred linguistically, with White’s understanding as “product of mans history”. Thus, making culture the force we must “adapt” along with the “tool kit”, or “folk knowledge” for doing so. Bruner states that the tool kit “of any culture is a set of prosthetic devices by which human beings can exceed or redefine the natural limits of human” experience.

Leslie Alvin White 1900-1975, American anthropologist The Science of Culture (1949)
The Culture of Education, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996. Jerome Bruner, Acts of Meaning


Leslie Alvin White 1900-1975, American anthropologist The Science of Culture (1949)
The Culture of Education, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996. Jerome Bruner, Acts of Meaning, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991

[echoes]

Originally Posted by stickey

Not a huge Beck fan, but glad he didn't answer it. Why give her the upper-hand? I have never liked Couric or that snotty looking smirk thing she does when she thinks shes got some one pegged by a question.

Simply put, I like this answer sir!

And, IMHO, White Culture is as different as "Indian Culture," or "Asian Culture," or "Black Culture!" It is...what It is.

Katie Couric can kiss the ass of IRAN & LYBIA, but please let it be heard...Real Americans can think for themselves.

Holly

[Richard]

Personally - I think the question was valid, Katie Couric handled herself very well, and Glen Beck came off looking like another hyperbole spewing talk radio buffoon.

Richard

[Chris Cram]

Gentlemen

IMHO, it seems that we are over complicating the question.
I believe that Beck was speaking of the Presidents view of 'White Culture', as is reflected in the Presidents two books, his words, his actions and his associations.

Would anyone like to give a guess at what the Reverend Jeremiah Wright's views of 'White Culture' are?

[Sigaba]

Originally Posted by Chris Cram

Gentlemen

IMHO, it seems that we are over complicating the question.
I believe that Beck was speaking of the Presidents view of 'White Culture', as is reflected in the Presidents two books, his words, his actions and his associations.

Would anyone like to give a guess at what the Reverend Jeremiah Wright's views of 'White Culture' are?

Chris--

Were that the case, then why would he not give that as his answer to Ms. Couric's question? He then might have seized the opportunity to skewer the entire CBS news division by pointing out that they were getting questions from someone via Twitter. "Nice research department u have there, U+003B U+0029."

Instead, Mr. Beck made the decision to employ an interesting marketing technique. Nothing says "Buy my book" quite like boldly declaring "I have no idea what I'm talking about."

[P36]

If Beck has a message, it gets lost in his wackiness.

[Chris Cram]

Originally Posted by P36

If Beck has a message, it gets lost in his wackiness.

The message is there. Do your research.
Part 2 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qMMPk1_vJE
(If you have the time, watch Parts 1-5)

If we look to CN or MSNBC or CBS or SNL to echo Becks message...
or present it clearly w/o distortion. Well, then I think we get what we deserve.