I appreciate what you write here, and I am going to share some thoughts that I usually keep private for fear of offending others. This is to write them down in a hope to clarify them as well as to invite your perspective.
The entire multicultural thing baffles me. I come from a blended heritage, I am a Southern-Baptist. OK, that is a joke, but I could not help it, actually I am a white Presbyterian Southerner. Technically a Scotch-Irish white dude living in the South. My discomfort about the multiculturalism concept comes from the sociological research as well as my personal experience.
The research consistently shows that any group you can form has more variability within the group, that is between members of the group, than between group variance, that is differences between the group and another group. In orther words, Presbyterians are more different from each other than they are from Hindus. Same for race, culture, sexual orientation, same same same. Now maybe this is a statistical problem, but it is a VERY robust finding in the social sciences.
Also, I personally know and hang out with folks who should be very different from me given our cultural or racial or religious differences, but we are very similar. I am sure that this is because I like people like me, guys who love their family, who do not cheat on their wives, who want to make good moral decisions, who enjoy some kid of sport, and enjoy talking about politics. That is the culture I enjoy most in my friends. It is not racial or religious (well not specifically religious) or cultural in the general sense of the word.
I think it comes down to the microculture being so much more important than the macroculture. It is the personal and little things that matter more in my life.
The whole thing could come down to my being a white guy in a nation with lots of white guys, but I am suspicious of that because I am not like all the other white guys, some of them I cannot stand.
Well, I remain confused, the writing did not help, maybe your thoughts and experiences regarding culture can help me Tony. Thanks in advance.
Trey
Drtrey3 Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Father of Four including 5 year old triplets
clueless
I appreciate what you write here, and I am going to share some thoughts that I usually keep private for fear of offending others. This is to write them down in a hope to clarify them as well as to invite your perspective.
The entire multicultural thing baffles me. I come from a blended heritage, I am a Southern-Baptist. OK, that is a joke, but I could not help it, actually I am a white Presbyterian Southerner. Technically a Scotch-Irish white dude living in the South. My discomfort about the multiculturalism concept comes from the sociological research as well as my personal experience.
The research consistently shows that any group you can form has more variability within the group, that is between members of the group, than between group variance, that is differences between the group and another group. In orther words, Presbyterians are more different from each other than they are from Hindus. Same for race, culture, sexual orientation, same same same. Now maybe this is a statistical problem, but it is a VERY robust finding in the social sciences.
Also, I personally know and hang out with folks who should be very different from me given our cultural or racial or religious differences, but we are very similar. I am sure that this is because I like people like me, guys who love their family, who do not cheat on their wives, who want to make good moral decisions, who enjoy some kid of sport, and enjoy talking about politics. That is the culture I enjoy most in my friends. It is not racial or religious (well not specifically religious) or cultural in the general sense of the word.
I think it comes down to the microculture being so much more important than the macroculture. It is the personal and little things that matter more in my life.
The whole thing could come down to my being a white guy in a nation with lots of white guys, but I am suspicious of that because I am not like all the other white guys, some of them I cannot stand.
Well, I remain confused, the writing did not help, maybe your thoughts and experiences regarding culture can help me Tony. Thanks in advance.
Trey
Drtrey3 Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Father of Four including 5 year old triplets