An Excerpt About Culture

[Debater Slayer]

A while back, I finished a puzzle game called The Talos Principle. It is thought-provoking and heavily philosophical, and you can tell a lot of passion went into it by the sheer amount of religious, philosophical, and cultural allegories and references in the game, not to mention the ingenious puzzle design.

This excerpt from one of the in-game terminals (computers) has stuck with me:

Excerpt: The Invention of Borders, by Fatimah Nguyen

"What today's nationalists and neosegregationists fail to understand," Kwame said, "is that the basis of every human culture is, and always has been, synthesis. No civilization is authentic, monolithic, pure; the exact opposite is true. Look at your average Western nation: its numbers Arabic, its alphabet Latin, its religion Levantine, its philosophy Greek… need I continue? And each of these examples can itself be broken down further: the Romans got their alphabet from the Greeks, who created theirs by stealing from the Phoenicians, and so on. Our myths and religions, too, are syncretic - sharing, repeating and adapting a large variety of elements to suit their needs. Even the language of our creation, the DNA itself, is impure, defined by a history of amalgamation: not only between nations, but even between different human species!"

Invention of borders.html

Excerpt: The Invention of Borders, by Fatimah Nguyen "What today's nationalists and neosegregationists fail to understand," Kwame said, "is that the basis of every human culture is, and always has been, synthesis. No civilization is authentic, monolithic, pure; the exact opposite is true. Look...

talosprinciple.fandom.com

I thought some RFers would appreciate this excerpt, so I wanted to share it here.

 

[Heyo]

"No civilization is authentic, monolithic, pure"

I guess that is not 100% correct. There are still some uncontacted tribes who live in self chosen isolation. That's why they haven't made it out of the stone age.

 

[libre]

"No civilization is authentic, monolithic, pure"

I guess that is not 100% correct. There are still some uncontacted tribes who live in self chosen isolation. That's why they haven't made it out of the stone age.

I reckon it is better to live in the stone age than for the bulk of the tribe to face annihilation - given the many threats that come with 'contact'.

The existence of uncontacted tribes does pique interest, but I hope they are left alone and that other countries follow suit with legal protections on tribes and prevent them from being contacted, unless they choose to reach out.