Tut tut

Human babies are born hard wired to behave this way rather than that. But the hard wiring just sets the big picture; the details of how to behave in a given culture are supplied by the family, community, tribe and nation. For example the baby is hard wired to learn a language in its early years but the details of the language are supplied by the social environment.

Note – the baby is programmed to ‘absorb’ a language during its early years and it does so very easily and without needing to be taught. There is no hard wiring to learn a second language later in life and the process is famously tough.

As with language so with other aspects of belonging to a particular culture. There are many existing and theoretical possibilities. The process of enculturation involves promoting some of the options and rejecting others. Any given culture will have its myths and magic and the educational task is to ensure that the babies, children and youth accept and apply those that are favoured in a given time and place.

In the West there is a continuum of formal education methods ranging through training (sit down, shut up, and listen) at one end, to enlightenment (what do you think?) at the other.  The education system is doing well if it results in graduates believing and behaving in a culturally appropriate manner.

Despite globalisation and the availability of ‘news’ from all parts of the world it is still possible to rear people who are parochial and xenophobic in outlook. Unquestionable information now exists in support of cultural relativism (ie that there are many possible worldviews none of which are absolutely ‘true’) but there are still many zealots who believe that their ‘small world’ view is THE correct one.

In one of Shakespear’s plays it is said, “That man thinks too much, such men are dangerous”.

Effective education, enculturaton, indoctrination, and brainwashing depend on both the carrot and the stick to promote particular value systems and world views. This is a power issue and it can make crude and inelegant use of torture. But there is the possibility of elegant power wherein the hegemonic techniques of the ruling elites are able to convince the exploited masses that they deserve what they have been given and that they will get their rewards in heaven in the  next life (- jam tomorrow!).

I have worked in five foreign countries and now live alone and work at home. But, even so, I am not free of John Knox’s 16th century hegemonic inputs to my natal culture in the NE of Scotland in the 20th and 21st centuries. The Presbyterian Work Ethic is deeply grounded – ‘no pain no gain’ and take care as ‘the devil finds work for idle hands to do’. I am humbly born and should thus defer to my elders and betters who are the good and great. I should not think too much or have opinions of my own.

I live alone but God is omniscient and sees what I am doing. My parents have now passed away but they, and the other ancestors, can see what I am doing. And, amongst the living, there is a fear of ‘what people might think’. So I am being perpetually watched.

When I notice these thoughts and feelings kicking in I can see them for what they are and thus be amused and dismiss them. But they never totally disappear. Deep in my mindbrain lies a foundation layer of shame and guilt and a dread of eliciting an external cultural ‘tut, tut’.