Power Corrupts…
I am absolutely struck by what great lengths people with power go to to make sure they stay in power. On Tuesday we talked about the evolution of the perception of “culture” in the West in the 19th and 20th centuries. As the educated theorists developed their definitions of culture and who had it, they made sure it belonged to them and not to the “others.” If culture was a good thing, then it had to be theirs. When did we get like this? Why must we always start with ourselves and then put everyone else in boxes to fit our mold? Margaret Mead, a 20th Century American anthropologist, said that culture is the learned behavior of a society or subgroup. But tell me, when did the educated of the 1900s learn to hoard education and the arts for themselves and keep the working class out? why did culture not start with the “other?” where did we learn to always begin with ourselves?
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