Zombie_Babies
First Post
i am not at all sure that is true at all. Really you are just proposing the creation of a monoculture, the process of doing this requires the destruction of existing cultures (destroying good and bad elements). Can't think of anything more othering than telling people they need to stop being who they are.
Some elements will be lost, others will not. This is not a black and white situation. I also never once suggested than anyone would tell anyone else that part X of their culture had to die. This is evolution, not edict.
I know, you think it's impossible. Well, it's not. See, I'm an American. My family came to this country in the late 1800s and early 1900s. I'm Polish, German and Irish in heritage yet I do nothing specific to any of those cultures. I'm American and I celebrate American holidays, dress in an American manner, etc, etc. So, as you can see, this sort of thing happens all the time. It will take quite a bit of time to get to where I'd like to see us (longer than I'll be around) but it's possible. And nobody has to tell anyone else who to be.
Honestly, it's a strange assumption and I'm puzzled as to why it's the first place some of you have chosen to go.
You said the notion of culture needs to "die in a fire" to which I agreed (admittedly facetiously), the notion of cultures dying in a fire is inherently destructive and oppressive, very much in the maner of imperialism.
*sigh*
Death by fire - since you want to be so literal - doesn't have to be murder, you know. Don't blame me for your assumptions, please, and don't call me a liar when I correct your errors in interpreting what I've said. What you've decided to assign to me as my argument and my argument are two different things.
That you recant now and instead call for a blending of cultures into a single cohesive hegemony is on the face of it a positive step, but as Mr Bedrock points out who decides what cultural elements are worthy of inclusion? How does this blending of cultures proceed without becoming Assimilation?
I'm not recanting anything - I'm telling you that you made an assumption and that it was wrong while also trying to help you understand exactly what I am saying since I didn't get terribly into it with that first comment.
And, again, I simply can't understand why evolution never enters anyone's mind. It's happened, it's happening now and it will continue to happen. No one has to decide anything, no one has to have a gun held to their head while their holiday is erased from history. That's not something I've said, it's something y'ins have chosen to read into things I've said.
I was simply recommending that, as I believe my culture is sufficiently worthy, if you wish to abandon yours then mine can remain as our shared monoculture.
Evolution, not edict. No culture has to go away completely, no one specific culture has to erase all others. This isn't a Highlander kind of thing, it's an English (language) kind of thing. I ... I honestly don't know how else to put it.
You do see that you're the one that's calling for a specific culture to dominate and replace all others and not me, right? You chose to assume that's what I meant, of course, and you're wrong. Am I getting anywhere or are we gonna be hung up on this Strawman forever?
PS as we are currently sharing thoughts on a forum dedicated to DnD, using a shared language, doesn't that imply the 'blending of cultures' is already happening anyway with no fiery death required?
Yes, it is happening. That doesn't mean that disparate cultures are a good thing, though. If, say, polio is going away for whatever reason does that make it a good thing? Nope. In other words, the event you cite says nothing about the problem I'm addressing.
And THANK GAWD that someone mentioned hyperbole. For Jeebus' sake ...