Culture Rock

I sit at my desk, combing my memories of Thursday’s class and the prior readings, attempting to formulate a position to take. Stimulating as the subject is, it’s not an easy task.

I glance across the desk at my roommate, who sits opposite me. He has his headphones on, connected to his iPod, and sits nodding his head and mouthing the lyrics to a faintly-audible rock song. We glance at each other, and he starts to exaggerate his own actions, mocking a real-life rock star. I respond with a silent, concentrated glare, hoping to convey my lack of enthusiasm without appearing too indignant. Seeing this, he slips off his left headphone and says, “Aww, come on, man! It’s Coldplay! Get into it!”

I can’t hear the song he’s listening to. I can’t determine from the words he’s mouthing what song it might be, nor do I feel any urge to “get into it”. I don’t even like Coldplay.

This brief vignette illustrates how ubiquitous cross-cultural communication errors can be. Consciously, my roommate is aware that I can’t hear his music. So why does he expect me to share in his excitement?

At that moment, in his world, rocking out is the only natural thing to do. He hears his favorite music, and lets the familiar flow dictate his actions. Yet, when he faces someone under a totally different mindset, he’s thrown for a loop; surely if he feels so good, the rest of the world must feel so as well, right? If that were case, my response, or lack thereof, would seem naturally odd.

Though we don’t like to admit it, it’s a common human tendency to misidentify our current surroundings as the global norm. We may tell ourselves that the outside world is very different, but to understand this concept is an entirely different matter. It requires the suspension of many deeply-held beliefs, things that may seem completely logical, things that everyone you’ve ever encountered agreed upon. For a first-time communicator, identifying and shedding deeply-rooted beliefs can be a shocking reminder of just how trapped in the cultural quicksand we are.

For the college sophomore, cross-cultural communication issues may start and end at music preferences. But for the career diplomat, as well as anyone else pursuing an international relations profession, the issues are greater in magnitude and importance, yet are just as easy to run afoul of.

The belief in universal values is an outmoded concept; the only value shared by all humans is that we walk on two feet. Though having a basic code of human rights helps to create a sense of transnational order, the code will never properly fit all societies. The two examples brought up in class, honor killings and female genital mutilation, are points where Western value systems collide with the systems of certain other societies. An overarching judgment on the rightfulness of these practices is entirely theoretical; in fact, most people of the West are more likely to assume such societies are “naturally barbaric”, rather than attempt to understand how infidelity can be seen as tantamount to murder.

With that in mind, what should the response of those in Western societies be when confronted with such a moral and ethical dilemma? A final answer is hard, perhaps impossible to formulate. At the very least, they can provide an “out”, so to speak, to any individual in these societies who wants to live by Western standards. Provide them with an opportunity for resettlement, and a chance to live according to Western ideals. However, attempting to enforce new cultural ideals across borders should only be done after close and careful consideration of the situation.

It is a fallacy to think that all people operate in the same way, towards the same purpose. Our worldviews are molded by our own unique experiences, and attempting to enforce them on others, even in a passive sense, can lead to great discord. The fact that there are countless people around the world willing to take up arms for countless causes illustrates just how varied one’s view of the world can be, and how stubbornly we act when we lack understanding of this reality.

Perry Landesberg