Visiting the St Peter’s church in Rome ten years ago it suddenly occurred to me how and why religious culture is so binding. The ultimate anxiety for human beings is our own mortality (a by product of consciousness and self awareness) and our desire to live forever. The Catholic Church gives us the opt out (or rather the opt in with conditions attached). The promise of an afterlife in heaven (consistent with many other religious cultures – beer and the Valkari in Valhalla for the Vikings, Paradise for Muslims, Nirvana for Buddhists, etc.) These promises are very persuasive especially when linked with a hint of sex for eternity – for the blokes anyway, sorry ladies... They are promoted by leaders the people believe in – Lama, Guru, Ayatollah, Pope etc. They are made binding through a contract that swaps eternal life for good behaviour and the whole construct is made memorable through the signs and symbols of the culture – most often guys wrapped in various colourful blankets wearing silly hats wielding unworldly amounts of power… It’s all wrapped up in this model of PROMISE / RULES OF BEHAVIOUR / AND SIGNS. The model is present in every group where people are required to behave in a particular way together in order to achieve a higher goal. From the local, kids play gym where the promise of fun is only achieved when the group behaves in a certain way as a collective group – no eating on the play equipment, no fighting, no wearing of shoes etc, to the highest religions via the Hell’s Angels – wherever there is a group, there is a culture and culture is glue. Strong culture = strong group, weak culture = weak group.
Moses and the Israelites – a master class in the creation of culture.
• They were in the crap and their anxieties were high…
• Moses, the identifiable leader gave them a vision – the Promised Land, the land of milk and honey – which the Israelites could desire and in the process God gave Moses and the team a vision to believe in to reduce their fears.
• Moses understood that the journey to reach their vision / goal would be a long one with many known and unknown obstacles… not least the small issue of the Red Sea.
• In order to keep the gang together Moses listened to a burning bush(…?) went up a mountain and came down with a bunch of rules for how they were to behave in order to achieve the vision… the ten commandments
• And off the all went … and founded the first religion to exploit the power of publicity when they realised that a temple was anywhere where their words were present (the Torah) – this saved on the architects, builders, bricks and expensive columns and stuff
Culture is linked to the environment we find ourselves in.
We find it difficult to change culture when the environment changes and this can then threaten our survival The US also has a good example of what I call cultural lag. Culture evolves as a response to the environment within which people find themselves and this culture gives them strength and aids their survival – this is fine so long as the environment remains the same. If the environment shifts, the culture that sustains them then starts to work against them and instead of aiding survival it begins to hinder it – there are many examples of nations, teams and companies that have failed to adjust their culture in time with changing environmental conditions. In the American case the right to carry arms would be a good idea in the context of the Wild West and the need to kill rattle snakes and baddies… in a modern, urban, 21st century society it is a cultural trait that is positively working against the common good… the recent headcount? 12 killed at Fort Hood and British back packer killed because he liked the song ‘Amarillo’… It is strange that in Canada where there is no gun culture there are no killings – same country/land mass different cultures. Strange that.
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