Dear Friends,
It seems to me, we are the same as the ancient Egyptians, Carthaginians, Vikings, Mongols, Founding Fathers, Russians in 1917 or Germans in the 1930s, in short, the stock is the same, it is the culture that gives rise to our different temperaments. You could say we are no better than any of them, nor are we worse… we are the products of our culture, as were they. If you accept that this is the case, quite a few ideas present themselves. If we are indeed the same, and it is only the culture that differentiates us, then you and I are almost as guilty of every crime committed by everyone in the past as they… almost. Most importantly, this idea shows us that the opulence we live in, has nothing whatsoever to do with our virtue, wisdom or worthiness… it is a happenstance of fate.
All our individual attributes are randomly handed out, then as now. From athletic ability to creativity, we each fall on a spectrum, with true greatness distributed on a Pareto curve. Nevertheless, when we are born, regardless of our attributes, we learn from our parents, family and culture. That inculcation determines our attitudes, what we think and what we cannot think, regardless of our personal abilities. This is suggested by the chasm in the understanding of cell phones between the youth and older people. The same is true of computers. Our comfort level with them largely depends on when we were born. An INTJ born in 1940 is simply not going to understand computers as well as an ESFP born in 2000. Despite the fact their individual temperaments would normally lead to the opposite.
Which makes our arrogance all the more a consequence of ignorance. We are not smarter than ancient Egyptians, stronger than the Romans nor are we wiser than the Founding Fathers, Yet our culture arrogantly tells us we are. With little to no life experience, and armed with only an ideology that has failed every time it has been tried, our youth stride into the world with the fervor of a zealot to change it for the better, led by overly educated psychopaths. People who consider themselves much smarter than Archimedes, stronger than Samson and wiser than Solon, they will bring utopia to the world… or so they think. It is the pernicious culture that teaches our kids to be so self destructive. Their ignorance, ideology and temperament cannot be blamed on them, they are a product of our culture.
All our problems and opportunities flow from our culture. If people are the same today as they were a century ago, why didn’t they have the drug problem we do? Why was it they had so much more freedom and less crime? Why did the African American community have intact families then but not now? Why is there an opioid overdose problem today despite all the knowledge gained since the 1970s? Why do our kids emerge from school not knowing if they are a boy or a girl? Why is the work ethic lost today? Why is abortion common now but unheard of a century ago? Every one of these questions can be answered with one word, culture. All these problems arise from our culture. There are opportunities as well, the “glass ceiling” has been shattered for example.
What this all shows is that culture is extremely important and has been overlooked for too long. Culture should not be left to random variation, progressive monopoly or a grasping malevolent elite. It should instead be created by polity, with the intention of fostering entrepreneurial, hard working and wise people. We know from history, if viewed pragmatically, what improves the lot of man and what lowers it. To that end we must wrest the culture from today’s cultural elite. If we make our culture gleam with the Golden Rule, then the utility of freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of conscience becomes obvious. Let’s create a culture of prosperity, tolerance and reciprocity, that fosters awe at the divine… and our problems will melt away like so much dew before the August sun.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
