Language and mores, Part X

The last of this series, blog continues here.

Ten is a good place to stop as I quit social media and cancelled online subscriptions - incl. a decade or so of map data I could no longer afford to keep online, tho I kept some on my dev channel (top right here). This is a winter view from where I moved to, for now, in Pau SW FR where I enjoy the mountains up close&personal, say, here.

Click to enlarge or if not showing

 I discussed far&wide various cultural habits in the West vs. the Middle-East, and the tribal vs. the industrial. I also hinted that one needn't go abroad to see to see it: my immediate families' visits brought a pastiche of social interaction unfettered by social decorum; the true dynamics in trusted environs really brings out how individuals fashion their persona at home and in public.

We went to an open air free concert in the park hosted by the City of Pau, Asian Dub Foundation above: it was interesting to see family engaging with stall staff by explaining them their own wares -  it's like my late Dad lecturing his doctor what ails him, rather than wait&listen for a diagnosis - I feel for those in management careers put in a position "to fake it til you make it": do they really have to lecture all who listen, whether they're interested or not?! It's a form of cultural empirialism I witness in the West, where we feel entitled if not obliged - esp. toward "others", say, in the Middle East - to explain everything, with the subconscious assumption we know better and need to educate others.

I made a career in fact at large US multinational service companies like so: my predecessor went in with his big Texan boots, "telling it how it is" to national oil co. (NOC) clients... late last century, just as emerging nations were recovering their identities après-colonialism, of which NOCs were prime exponents! I'd go in saying "you tell me, I know nothing"... That not only  cut thru post-colonial dynamics instantly, but it also told them I was listening to their needs! No-one needs others telling them what they think they need... all interlocutors get are speaker's own "stuff", in what in fact is seeking unaware if not inappropriate attention if not counselling! This runs from private one-sided conversations, thru scenarios as above, to nation states lecturing each other like Israeli PM does to US Congress every year or two.

 The "issue behind the issue" is that former colonialists broadcasting their knowledge to others considered in need of westernisation - that is today the Global North taking the pulpit for the Global South in, say, Climate Emergency matters - find themselves closed off not only from their audience's perceived needs, but also from learning from others' experiences. The root of the issue, however, is deep-seated insecurity: we all know colonialism is passé , and that say 'white' dominant cultures will soon be outnumbered if not overtaken: not only in sheer population... but also, as identities of formerly oppressed colonies emerge as in my vignette above, with their needs at variance with former "overlords'"!

And in order to protect this social bubble, formerly dominant groups will isolate themselves into what I call "mutual admiration societies". It not only cleaves my family of origin into "cultural haves & have-nots", as some of us emigrated and recast our lives or questioned original values. It also reinforces as sense if entitlement as we feel threatened that our bubbles may not survive otherwise.