Why Culture Shouldn’t Have Borders
“No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive.”
— Mahatma Gandhi
The spread of culture is one of the most beautiful things in humanity. Sadly, in recent years, so much has been done to try to avoid it. The thing is, when culture is shared, people not only learn more about others, but about themselves. We have set ourselves up perfectly to have a massive spread of culture. Through modern technology and social media, so many ideas and traditions are so easily sharable. Yet for some reason, many people try to say there are dangers within this process. They say that traditional values are corrupted when culture is spread and changed. But tell me, are traditional values more important than contemporary values in a world where, as Heraclitus said, “the only constant is change”?
It is extremely disrespectful to deny the beauties of other cultures. For example, Bad Bunny, a very popular singer from Puerto Rico, was recently announced as the performer for Super Bowl LX. I supported this decision, especially being that the NFL is trying to go international, and having many games outside of the US recently. Yet many fans were not happy with this decision, even starting a petition for the performer to be changed to George Strait, a country music icon. The funniest thing is, I guarantee you those people didn’t listen to any Bad Bunny music, just to see what it’s like. Because, for all they know, he could be their favorite artist. This shows how quickly people refuse to accept new ideas. People take things with a closed mind, and turn to what they know rather than what they can know.
With all of that being said, culture is the true representation in society of bringing people together. Instead of embracing this, many advocate for division, saying that traditional values are the only values that should be respected. But there is no way to move forward if we only look at the past. Modern culture, like hip-hop, for example, speaks out against the system. Many speak out against discrimination of race, culture, and contemporary values. People took this as a disrespect, making it seem dangerous. Yet it continues today to bring people together to share values through emotions and ideas. When you take something like this with an open mind, you might find that the way you had been thinking previously was not the way you want to think anymore. I’ll quote myself on this, “Move yourself away from anything that is stopping you from thinking how you want to.” But if you want to think differently, take everything into consideration. We should always embrace each other, not put a border wall between our cultures and beliefs. People will always be more likely to get things done when we work together and share ideas. Thanks for reading Social Science 43, and have a terrific day.
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