“Culture is a perversion. It fetishizes objects, creates consumer mania, it preaches endless forms of false happiness, endless forms of false understanding in the form of squirrelly religions and silly cults. It invites people to diminish themselves and dehumanize themselves by behaving like machines."
– Terence McKenna
What is culture? I'm sure this question came up at some point in your life. Maybe a teacher asked the class. Everyone gave the typical answers: art, music, food, clothing, language, etc. But what is it really? If someone asked you, "What is a car?" would you reply, "Steering wheel, motor, engine, windows!" Culture is a set of rules. Historically they were set by religious groups, but now it is more common for governments and brainwashed people to set the rules. These rules are 'moral' guidelines. They will tell you what is good or bad.
– Terence McKenna
What is culture? I'm sure this question came up at some point in your life. Maybe a teacher asked the class. Everyone gave the typical answers: art, music, food, clothing, language, etc. But what is it really? If someone asked you, "What is a car?" would you reply, "Steering wheel, motor, engine, windows!" Culture is a set of rules. Historically they were set by religious groups, but now it is more common for governments and brainwashed people to set the rules. These rules are 'moral' guidelines. They will tell you what is good or bad.
Let's jump into what is morality. If you haven't seen my short post on universal morals, please take a look HERE. To summarize, universal morals must apply to everyone at all times. Let's just go through a few examples that weren't in the other post. If it is moral to believe in Jesus Christ, then all the people who lived before Jesus must have been immoral. Anyone who has never heard of Jesus must be immoral. Anyone who died in infancy must be immoral. As you can see, this, as all things to do with religion, is ridiculous. Obviously believing in Jesus has nothing to do with being moral. So, how do we determine morality?
It must be valid in all cases. If it is wrong for me to steal from you, but right for the government to steal from you, something is inconsistent. Clearly, it has to be that either it is moral for everyone to steal from everyone, or no one to steal. I'll leave the topic of universal morals here for now, but if you want more I would be happy to write on it.
Culture takes the logic out of morals. If people 'believe' that it is wrong for you to smoke marijuana in your home, then it must be evil. This of course has nothing to do with logic or morals. It is culture. If someone believes that it is ok for the government to steal, then it is moral. If people believe that that family is holy, even if they are horrible people, then everyone must obey their family. It is absolute insanity. The world can be as the leaders want it to be. If the president wants to invade a poor country in the Middle East, just figure out a way to justify it. Say that it's unpatriotic to not support the troops.
Today I invite you to analyze reality. Do you think something is good because it is truly moral, or because the culture you live in says so.
“Culture is not your friend. Culture is for other people’s convenience and the convenience of various institutions, churches, companies, tax collection schemes, what have you. It is not your friend. It insults you. It disempowers you. It uses and abuses you. None of us are well treated by culture.”
– Terence McKenna
It must be valid in all cases. If it is wrong for me to steal from you, but right for the government to steal from you, something is inconsistent. Clearly, it has to be that either it is moral for everyone to steal from everyone, or no one to steal. I'll leave the topic of universal morals here for now, but if you want more I would be happy to write on it.
Culture takes the logic out of morals. If people 'believe' that it is wrong for you to smoke marijuana in your home, then it must be evil. This of course has nothing to do with logic or morals. It is culture. If someone believes that it is ok for the government to steal, then it is moral. If people believe that that family is holy, even if they are horrible people, then everyone must obey their family. It is absolute insanity. The world can be as the leaders want it to be. If the president wants to invade a poor country in the Middle East, just figure out a way to justify it. Say that it's unpatriotic to not support the troops.
Today I invite you to analyze reality. Do you think something is good because it is truly moral, or because the culture you live in says so.
“Culture is not your friend. Culture is for other people’s convenience and the convenience of various institutions, churches, companies, tax collection schemes, what have you. It is not your friend. It insults you. It disempowers you. It uses and abuses you. None of us are well treated by culture.”
– Terence McKenna