What we have been conditioned to accept and reject by our culture.
Our cultural values and choices.
Our differences boil down to our different cultural beliefs and philosophy.
Most things we know and believe come from outside of us.
We came into earth with no idea of what’s going to happen, or what culture we are going to find ourselves in. We didn’t even have a chance to access different cultural beliefs and make a choice of what tribe we’d want to belong to.
Want to know the good part? While we’re on earth and must have spent some quality time accessing different tribes and cultures, we can now make a choice, choose a path that we want, analyze and see if our culture is too hard to keep up to or too soft we lose our willingness to be disciplined.
We can as well find a balance between cultural beliefs.
We have choices on earth.
Now, what is culture? What is conditioning? And how have we been conditioned by our culture?
Culture expresses the uniqueness of a society since it describes the method a tribe of people do their thing. For instance, the processes of child birth and child bearing, marriage ceremonies, burial ceremonies and rites, doctrines and religion, knowledge, law and customs, arts, morals and ethics all differ across different cultures.
These are specifically learnt subconsciously and transferred to the next generation through interactions.
Culture is an embodiment that directs people's way of life. It is the identity of the people of a society. It means there's varieties of food, languages, music, fashion, dances, customs, festivals, arts, works, tradition, ceremonies, values, behaviors, skills and technologies. And in actuality, everything that is acceptable and shared by members of the group or society.
A person is expected to learn these shared values and interests in order to fit in properly to that society. For an individual to be seen as cultured, he or she must have internalized the expected and desirable behaviors required for living in that society. “He is a cultured man.” That is he meets the standards of which his society requires of him.
A society is formed when there's a shared value and belief within a group of people. They make this their culture
It is almost impossible to have a culture without a society likewise a society without a culture because culture and society are instinctively aligned.
And it is this culture or way of life of these groups of people that conditions you into what you are.
About Conditioning, this is becoming liable and dependent on your environmental stimulus. In essence, it is you having a narrow view on things outside your immediate dwelling environment or a place you function. It could be how you are expected or taught to learn, talk, eat, think, believe etc.
Most of what we do and our measures of standards are resulted from our conditioning from our cultural perceptions.
An individual is conditioned mainly by external sources within the individual’s dwellings compared to the innate within.
Ever thought about certain things and disagreed with it because of how terrible the thought was? Even when your culture accepts it?
Those are the type of thoughts that are manufactured from within you, not the ones you were made to accept.
Think freely inside you, analyze those thoughts, weigh them, see the possible repercussions and benefits, and adopt wise decisions.
At a point in life, you think about these things especially when it doesn't benefit you.
Understanding biases in culture and why some people may be conditioned a certain way.
Learning and exposure to different cultures, accommodates the differences that radially deviate from what we call normal or abnormal in our own culture.
When life throws you to Asia you're more likely to be born into Hinduism than any other type of religion or belief.
Lack of awareness about yourself is like sitting on a toxicant compared to unawareness of your neighbors’.
It is therefore necessary to reflect on your current and past conditioning to know those that can be harnessed into your future self and those to be left behind.
Conditioning yourself to a certain way can help you become more rational. It broadens your view on many things. However, being confined to one culture can condition you to be askew.
Bear in mind that there are strictly morally good etiquettes that are accepted generally in every form of culture or condition.
The same way we trick our brains into believing certain things are not true because of what our culture teaches, the brain also tricks us to believe strictly on only one thing if we lack exposure.
Vituperation caused by cultural biases.
Spreading false information about other people's culture is demeaning. It is okay not being comfortable with how people behave, what they believe in, how they think and their views.
To be a prude about your culture implies that you respect that of others because they find it valuable or where made to find value in it.
Cultural biases which lead to vituperation are majorly caused by Anger, pain, envy, power, unintelligence, folly, ignorance and hate.
Understanding your culture and knowing that it can have numerous distinctions from your neighbors’ is not pejorative but smart.
Many may find trouble trying to obliterate a culture that is not theirs. It would be better to have an understanding of different cultures,even with no plan of adopting it, than struggle with not accepting it.
Life is constantly changing, you have to periodically check in to see if your habits and beliefs are still serving you, or would still serve you.
Here's a list of how to break free from an embedded conditioning that doesn't benefit you;
- Realizing that you can decide to reset your programming.
- Resetting your core programming.
Carefully analyze what you want. - In all honesty to yourself, recognize the things you do subconsciously and consciously that may prevent you from adjusting to a new condition or culture.
- Stay true to yourself, cut out the slacks and be devoted to learning new things.
- Don't speak ill of the new culture or form of conditioning.
- Be open to change.
- Be conscious of your thoughts and actions.
- Reward yourself as you progress.
It is pretty normal for a dog trained with poop to love poop, while a dog trained with a processed dog diet would love its canned meals.
Your culture or way of life may be comfortable to you, but when you look outside and see things differently, you might consider a change that may best benefit your way of life.
Some may say, when adopting a culture, adopt all of it and don't sideline some. Put your two feets together. Meanwhile, it can be beneficial when adopting two different cultures and making them one. (Context may vary as it isn't always applicable in every situation.)
