Culture:
a system of shared beliefs,
values, customs, behaviors,
and artifacts
that members of society
use to cope with their world
and with one another, —
transmitted from generation to generation
through learning.

culture as widely defined

A fact is that which
from being an object of the intellect
becomes a matter of conscience;
a fact is that which
one cannot criticize or attack
without being guilty of a crime.
The denial of fact
is not a matter of indifference;
it is something morally evil –
a disowning of what is known
to be true.

Excerpt, Lectures on the Essence of Religion by Ludwig Feuerbach

The record
rotating endlessly
in the same groove;
the entire society running straight ahead,
because they have lost the formula
for stopping.

Excerpt, America by Jean Baudrillard

A few days ago, I had  something to say about culture.  A friend responded with an observation about the expansive umbrella term, ‘culture’. Today, Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, the matter still echoes in my mind.  The first quotation of my series of three is a good definition of ‘culture.’  The shared elements delineate the meaning of “membership.”  Enough beliefs, values, etc., must the shared to make membership possible.  If few are shared, and if big differences of habits and belief prevail, — then we are considering distinct cultures.  The members of each collective will not understand how the “others” think or why they behave the way they do.

The second quotation is chosen because we dangerously underestimate the consequences of living in a “fact-free” society.  What I mean is that we live in a time when certainty about a core of factual reality has evaporated.  There is dispute about the truth-value of science, manifested in the disparagement of wide spread evidence of global warming.  Even the deadly covid-19 sickness is still dismissed in some parts of the country as no different than a bad case of the flu.  A “fact” according to Feuerbach’s observation has a moral component.  Morality, living according to conscience is a matter of recognizing facts.  To live, to behave in a fact-free manner, is to traffic with evil.

The third quotation from Baudrillard, is a judgment of America.  I need add no further comment to Jean Baudrillard’s statement.

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The first project for this Sunday was an early visit to Home Depot.  I joined with many others, to purchase 20 tomato plants, and a few cucumber and pepper plants.  Waiting in line, appropriately spaced, wearing a mask, I had leisure to observe those in line with me, carts filled; bags of mulch, fertilizer, materials needed for yard projects.  I knew instinctively that this is “1 percent land.”  Knowing the net worth of those around me is unnecessary if you observe purchasing habits.  I recognize that I too am included in this rule-of-thumb.  The majority of humans now alive globally could not afford to be in the check-out line at Home Depot.

Memorial Day is usually a day for remembering our war dead.  The national day of remembrance started 1868 in the aftermath of the Civil War.  Today it is appropriate that we remember those taken from us in the past few weeks, as a result of the covid-19 sickness.  Today’s issue of the New York York Times featured a front page listing 1,000 names of those who died in the onslaught of covid-19.  Here is the paragraph which prefaced the listing of each of the dead, along with their age, and place of residence.

They Were Not Simply names on a List.  They Were Us.

Numbers alone cannot possibly measure the impact of the coronavirus on America, whether it is the number of patients treated, jobs interrupted or lives cut short.  As the country nears a grim milestone of 100,000 deaths attributed to the virus, The New York Times scoured obituaries and death notices of the victims.  The people here reflect just 1 percent of the toll.  None were mere numbers.