firecat: damiel from wings of desire tasting blood on his fingers. text "i has a flavor!" (tongue)
firecat (attention machine in need of calibration) ([personal profile] firecat) wrote2002-06-01 02:51 am
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Culture Construction Kit

[livejournal.com profile] cjsmith wrote:
if you can't stand the culture you are in, if the mores and assumptions that surround you are detrimental to your own mental health, you must create your own culture. Great idea. I hereby pronounce myself a culture of one.

And I replied in a comment:
Woo fucking hoo! I really needed to hear that right now.

My culture: Being of use matters. Making and/or appreciating beauty matters. Curiosity matters. Politeness matters. (Miss Manners is the Secretary of State in my culture.) Communication matters. Not taking yourself too seriously is encouraged. Please confine dishing/whinging to designated areas. Thank you.
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[identity profile] elynne.livejournal.com 2002-06-01 12:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Hmmm... sounds similar to my culture. :) I may have to give that one some thought on my own.
ext_6279: (Default)

[identity profile] submarine-bells.livejournal.com 2002-06-01 04:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Can I join your culture too? Sounds like my kind of people! *laugh*
firecat: damiel from wings of desire tasting blood on his fingers. text "i has a flavor!" (archie)

[personal profile] firecat 2002-06-01 05:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Kinda figured it might. Glad it does.
firecat: damiel from wings of desire tasting blood on his fingers. text "i has a flavor!" (sing)

Yep!

[personal profile] firecat 2002-06-01 05:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Very open immigration policy.

Re: Yep!

[identity profile] femmediva.livejournal.com 2002-06-01 05:11 pm (UTC)(link)
I'd like to join too.... I have to brush up on the taking oneself too seriously (working on it), but I am polite to a fault.
firecat: damiel from wings of desire tasting blood on his fingers. text "i has a flavor!" (Default)

Re: Yep!

[personal profile] firecat 2002-06-01 05:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Me too. I figure it's more important to recognize it as a value than to achieve it all the time.

One addition I'd make

[identity profile] figmo.livejournal.com 2002-06-02 03:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Embracing differences in others.

After all, isn't that what makes the world more interesting?
firecat: 3 totoros. the largest one has an umbrella (totoros in garden)

Excellent addition!

[personal profile] firecat 2002-06-02 03:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Only I think I'll go for simply "embracing differences." It's harder for me to embrace my own contradictions than other people's...

[identity profile] cjsmith.livejournal.com 2002-06-02 10:07 pm (UTC)(link)
I like your culture a lot! Perhaps we'll have to set up embassies right quick. :-)

Re: Yep!

[identity profile] cjsmith.livejournal.com 2002-06-02 10:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Defining politeness is part of the challenge, perhaps, because I've slowly come to realize that what is perfectly polite and respectful to one person can be downright rude to another...

Ah, people. So complicated we are.

Re: Excellent addition!

[identity profile] figmo.livejournal.com 2002-06-02 11:59 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm used to my own differences. I grew up with them. :-)

I also grew up assuming nobody was like me because, just within my immediate family, we had three different religions, really different intelligence levels, highly varying education levels, "lefties" and "righties" (referring to dominant hands here), varying political beliefs, varying physical builds, and multiple ethnicities and colorations.

I'd watch "Lawrence Welk" with Mom's parents and find it highly entertaining because I didn't know anyone who was actually like that. Dad's parents couldn't stand him. Somehow, though, I heard this was supposed to represent "middle America." I saw TV families, and they didn't look like mine.

The only thing we all had in common was we were all human beings (except for Peppy and Djinn-Djinn.... ;-) ).
firecat: damiel from wings of desire tasting blood on his fingers. text "i has a flavor!" (fiona)

See?

[personal profile] firecat 2002-06-03 07:22 am (UTC)(link)
Only people who care about politeness realize that...
firecat: damiel from wings of desire tasting blood on his fingers. text "i has a flavor!" (Default)

Your family sounds great

[personal profile] firecat 2002-06-03 07:29 am (UTC)(link)
My parents' generation of my family started out pretty homogenous (somewhat intelligent white small town protestant professionals married with kids) but my generation has been somewhat exogamous.

It was cool to discover how much I was like my cousins who I never saw very much growing up. There's going to be a family reunion in Las Vegas in August, and that ought to be a real trip. (If we don't all just turn into salt, in the heat.)
firecat: damiel from wings of desire tasting blood on his fingers. text "i has a flavor!" (archie)

[personal profile] firecat 2002-06-03 09:05 am (UTC)(link)
I'll have my ambassador contact your ambassador :)

Re: See?

[identity profile] leandra333.livejournal.com 2002-06-03 10:29 am (UTC)(link)
Exactly!
ailbhe: (Default)

Re: Broken links?

[personal profile] ailbhe 2002-06-04 09:14 am (UTC)(link)
Hrum. Seems like the culture I live in. But I can only think of about a dozen of us who actually interact regularly.
firecat: damiel from wings of desire tasting blood on his fingers. text "i has a flavor!" (Default)

Re: Broken links?

[personal profile] firecat 2002-06-06 12:45 am (UTC)(link)
Are some of them people I know?
ailbhe: (Default)

Re: Broken links?

[personal profile] ailbhe 2002-06-06 07:05 am (UTC)(link)
Doubt it; none of them are alt.poly people, at any rate. I don't interact much with most alt.poly people except in ap and lj.
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