Cultures as Contracts and the Risk of Being a Contract Breaker
What cultures do you belong to?
Culture is the more or less silent agreement between people on what is right and wrong, important and not, appropriate or not, moral or not, and so on.
Each culture has its own codes that all the culture-bearers must follow, close enough to not stand out. If you fail to follow it closely enough, you will become an outlier to your own culture. And possibly live fully outside of it or on the fringes of it.
Culture is about feeling at home. Feeling one belongs. That you are amongst your tribe. That people understand where you come from and who you are. Feeling you belong is one of the strongest fundaments in the building of yourself. It consists of the equally important parts of belonging to oneself and belonging in the world.
There are markers to all cultures, showing up in: language and dialects, traditions and habits, religion, food, clothing and accessories (including tattoos), ethics, biases, geographical anchoring, education, or jobs — all relying on a sense of sameness. There is no end to what the basis of a culture can be. Out of cultures then sub-cultures are formed . . . it goes on and on.
It never ends because we humans have such strong needs to belong. We are a herd animal…
