From: misdeva@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu (Devjani Mishra)
Subject: Re: .....Re: Heritage and Culture
Followup-To: alt.culture.us.asian-indian
Organization: Yale University
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 01:34:06 GMT

In article <1992Nov16.192236.11752@athena.mit.edu>, tyadav@athena.mit.edu
(Tapesh Yadav) wrote:
> 
> ===========================
>   tyadav@athena.mit.edu wrote:
> ] Personally speaking, I never care about what my forefather's 
> ] culture/heritage was/is. In social life, I present "myself," 
> ] and "my" thoughts/reasons.
> ] And I am happy with the quality of friends I make/keep. 
> 
>   mece1xg@menudo.uh.edu (purna) replies:
> ] [delete stuff]-------
> ] but i still wonder.....
> ] do you believe in murder and/or capital punishment?
> ] how about divorce?
> ] pre-marital sex?
> ] etc.
> ] your answers to these questions, WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT, WILL
> ] be influenced by what you were taught to believe as "right" while
> ] growing up.  and, in that case, it was most likely your parents who
> ] showed you "right" from "wrong".  if so, they were probably relying
> ] on their OWN beliefs as well as experiences.  thus, some part of
> ] your "culture" will be passed on.
> 
>  This appears to be excessive generalization. A conjecture/hypothesis 
>  stretched beyond the yield point.
> 
>  Lets remove the emotional rhetoric - "whether you like it or not" stuff -
>  and make some observations:
> 
>  [1] Children from the same family (even twins) have different (very 
>      different many times) beliefs and sense of "rights" and "wrongs."
>  [2] Individuals from same neighborhood differ dramatically.
>  [3] Above rhetoric doesn't explain the "where did it all begin" of
>      these common rights and wrongs.
>  [4] People disagree. What initiates that disagreement?
>  [5] If there is something really called culture/heritage, many readers of
>      this newsgroup should have overwhelming shared beliefs; but, with few
>      months of its life, all I observe is a set of very contrasting 
>      opinions/thoughts. 
>  [6] You can never completely know anyone other than yourself. So I don't 
>      how you can be sure that everyone IS influenced; Would suggest you to not 
>      generalize or underestimate the human ability to be a fountainhead of 
>      thought/reason/values. 
>      Yes, we learn. And we should. But, learning isn't programming.
> 
>  Given all this, I can hardly find any substance in your assertion: 
>    "Whether you like it or not, you answers will be influenced by....."
> 
>  Did I misunderstand you?
> 
> T.Y.
> ----
> tyadav@athena.mit.edu

But even if learning isn't programming, and you don't buy everything you
were raised with, the fact that you reject a certain set of beliefs doesn't
mean you weren't influenced by that set - only that the influence was
negative.

       /-                   Devjani Mishra, Yale University
      /   /                 misdeva@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu
  ___/  _  _   _  ___       diva@minerva.cs.yale.edu    
 /  /   /   | /  /  /
/__/_  /_   |/  /__/_       "What's right is what's left when everything
                            else is wrong." - Robin Williams
Xref: sparky alt.culture.us.asian-indian:1219 soc.culture.indian:37315