Cosmo 7-8

CH 7, question 1) Culturual Imperisalism seems to be the way in which one culture dominates another or is supreme in its own rite. I believe that this can not be, as each culture is different, and they all have something to offer. By studying cultures, we can learn from them, no culture needs to feel like they are obliged to dominate.

2) The Golden Rule is "I am human, nothing human is alien to me". This definition means that humans can all relate to each other on at least some base level. We are all human, and we all live on this earth, therefore, we should all be able to connect.

3) Cultural purity is an oxymoron. This claim has a lot of truth to it. This entire book is about the way values are formed and interpreted by cultures and individuals. For a culture to be "pure", it needs to satisfy the values in which the culture believes in. This would mean that this culture saw their society as pure and moral. However, what I think is pure may not be what you think is pure. It is for this reason that purity is subjective, and that one culture can never be "pure" in everybody's eyes.

CH 8
1) Art is cosmopolitan because it can easily be moved between local and global. Art is always created on the local scene, there is a lot of art that is important to the community in which is was created in. However, art can also be respected on a global basis, people can view different art from all over the world created in communites unlike their own and learn from the art by viewing it. Different artists will represent different things, then we can look at and analyze these new things.

I agree with Appiah when he says we must make sense of strangers. This is the only way to learn new information and view points about the world. Trying to speak to strangers and learn more about them might be tough, but it is important to remember that as humans there is common ground that we all share between us. By identifying in this common ground, we can then bridge the gap into thicker issues, ones we may not agree on, but certainly should discuss. In fact, if we never made an effort to talk to strangers none of us would have any friends. Part of life just happens to be meeting new people and learning about their personality and thoughts.

An instance where I was able to connect with another despite our differences at UK came pretty early in the semester. One night, me and my roommate were relaxing in our room, tired from the days activites, it was the evening, not too late, but late enough to be tired and in the mood to rest. During this time, a few clearly inebriated girls showed up on our floor, banging on doors and causing a stir. This was quite disruptive to our rest, as it was to many others. We went outside to investigate, and then saw that another guy was bothered in the same way we were. We didn't know this kid, he was from a different state from us and was a total outsider, however, we were then able to connect about this incident and have now become pretty good friends. Maybe it isn't the best story, but it allowed us to bridge the gap to another human and interact with him.