To the thread's question, culture is a tool box one can use to manage all sorts of stuff we are confronted to, including indeed death and sorrow but also pleasures, resources and opportunities. Cuisine is a big deal in many cultures. Art and literature start with a pleasurable story, etc. No to undue cultural pessimism!
@Olivier5,
To expand that one step further, it's interesting to see cultural taboos. One is the culture of bowing in Japan.
@cicerone imposter,
Body language in general is almost as varied as spoken language. Afghans carress each-other's beard to express foundness and respect.
Two interesting 'terror management' aspects to the article linked below.
Britain is considering building replacement Trident submarines but equipping them with non-nuclear missiles (thus lowering the 'terror' of more nuclear weapons). Using These unimaginably expensive subs for that purpose is like using a 16" Navel gun on a destroyer to fire a 22 caliber rim fire bullet, it makes no sense at all to anyone aware of all the facts.
But - producing the Tridents eliminates the 'terror' of all those ship yard job losses. This is a classic case of societal 'terror management'.
Even more interesting to me is that it illustrates that our economies have entered an era of almost complete artificiality. None of the conventional economic theories of either the left or the right apply anymore. We simply have the capability to produce all the population's needs with far less than the workforce we have.
This reality places us in a very vulnerable position where it could crash badly if the political leaders either don't get this or make a miscalculation in handling it. Hiding this economic reality from the public is probably the greatest terror management task in the world.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jan/17/jeremy-corbyn-trident-compromise-no-nuclear-warheads
@Leadfoot,
There are currently several terror management topics that there will be 1. a world stock market crash of at least 50%, 2. dramatic climate change that will destroy many low level cities, and 3. the Chinese currency will become the world currency. Fear works.
I'm not sure I do subscribe to that theory.
I see culture as inevitable, but not progression; attacking culture is easy, and truth is the recognition that progression requires effort.
If people aren't going to make an effort, why should others be attacked for creating culture?
@Thomas33,
I don't subscribe to fear either. Fear is used by many writers whether it's about the stock market, the US economy, or the drowning of cities along the coast all over the world.
Many writers are now telling people who own stocks to sell, because there will be a stock market crash that will wipe out 50% of their value.
We own stock investments, and it's done very well for us. Our investment has stayed at the same level for over ten years even though we have withdrawn 40% of the original value of our investment. Scare tactics just will not work for me.
If anyone has taken Econ 101, there is no way any person can predict the world's economy. That's because economics is not science, and nobody can come up with a mathematical formula to predict future economic performance. Nothing remains static in economics. Everything is always in flux.
Who could have predicted Brexit just a few years ago that resulted in currency value fluctuations after the announcement, and how that ended.
@FBM,
This is the poor man's version of
The Denial of Death
by Ernest Becker
4.2 out of 5 stars 198 customer reviews
@FBM,
Thank you. Experiment 3 demonstrated that mortality salience also leads to larger reward recommendations for a hero who upheld cultural values. What is your matroc btw ? it does affect me individually due to the level of close proximity observation.
The sociology voice (my mother Mary), maintains the culture of manual labour (just now, the work of rebooting the area). Because of the accomplishment, of inversion to do with sociology voice using brilliance and its being amidst the focus being concentrated, I'll adapt terror of the title to the Amityville mythology.
After the aristocracy of atoms, of the UK's Love Island; after the aristocracy of atoms, of not harming the physics of the air whilst using the keyboard; after the aristocracy of atoms of master vampires having to enter the Earth realm, in order to enter the job centre; after the aristocracy of atoms, of tanning salons; after the aristocracy of atoms, of White House staff being able to copy my Click on Daylight routine, so that they can use the Llandudno-Rhyl-Neve Campbell triangle; after the aristocracy of atoms, of weekends using the 6 weeks summer break-up routine, of being able to watch the Sky Premiere movie out of order; after the aristocracy of atoms, of the multiverse of sociology voices having to be the same audience, to the same house of rebooting the area, despite those voices consisting of Heaven authority, master vampire authority, and abstract mythology, there is finally the Amityville mythology.
Amityville, essentially, is the real United Nations. It is the glue of not mythologies, but of sociologies. To compound Amityville, despite the reference, there is the power within myself, and my mother Mary, to be a socialist intersector, in the context of while deflecting the real aristocracy's use of the same house's reboot the area logistic, so that it can switch back to abstract from particular (i.e. master vampire goes back to master vampire from being sociology intersector), being able to be a bluff to the PC keyboards and to the television remote for the society interplay war, surrounding the Am-I-T-V.
Of the aristocracy of atoms list, the Llandudno-Rhyl-Neve Campbell triangle is the heart of Amityville's society interplay war interface struggle, with myself
@FBM,
Well that one caught me by surprise once I often defended that exact same position/stance without ever having read anything about it!
I often tell to my wife that 90% of all human activity is entertainment, a construct to forget about our mortality!
That set aside, over the years I have personally come to the conclusion that death is not only desirable but NECESSARY, as truly living into infinity would be hell, and to take a good measure of what is being debated we have to take the limit to get the point across!
Piggy ever defended that exact same position/stance: if somebody can ignore entirely what piggy post here, piggy would say thanks to him, especially J - 10 bully bully. haha
The temperature just bounce ahead here in Guangdong province these days, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38 degrees Celsius, no matter who “defended that exact same position/stance without ever having read anything about it (the weather report / temperature meter)”. Piggy doesn’t know whether it would reach 39 today…
Piggy really doesn’t think that Americans would love in an idiot’s recommended rubbish which consuming American resource only.
But piggy heard the Americans has the spirit of exploration and sense of humor.
Was there an Oscar Award for entertainment in America in ww2? When the mortality of Nazi was rampant in somewhere in Europe and the mortality somewhere in Europe was just like the *SS?
Piggy suggests that “lobotomised” idiot directly retire hereby.
Perhaps he should go home and treasure the last a bit time with his wife. Perhaps this is more meaningful to himself at least.
