The Cultural Conflict of Environment

Last Updated on Wednesday, 23 February 2011 01:58pm Written by spunky Tuesday, 22 February 2011 10:39pm

If you grew up in India you would be a product of that environment. This is probably the first and only time you can blame, or credit, your environment because you have absolutely no say in the matter. Beyond this point your environment becomes increasingly decided. At school you decide to hang out with the stoners or the nerds and you will likely adopt that culture/head space. It is feeble to blame the culture, environment, location or anything else. When in fact you arrived here solely based on your decisions.

“Move some place else, that will solve your problems.”

Places have different populations or “markets”. If you were a gay man the possibility of finding another gay man is greater if you lived in the city than a rural town because it has a much larger market. So if you define opportunity as meeting people who share your interests, beleifs, hobbies or whatever then a place with a huge population will have more opportunity.

For some the “right people” might only be found in rural areas in which case it isn’t a numbers game at all, it is about being in a rural place. For others the definition of opportunity might be solidarity which equally favours rural areas as to receive a less distracting environment. However this is all just subjective meaning, or more strongly a belief, often stemmed from a perceived or actual threat.

Meaning and beleifs are just that. Yours don’t mean much to anyone else, they only mean something to you. You could share a convincing story about how you came to that conclusion but that’s all it is, a story you tell yourself. It doesn’t make it real to anyone else but you.

“Oh it’s society, it’s the economy, it’s the previous generation.”

Complaining, blaming, justifying, “carrying on” are all actions that attempt to avoid the responsibility of being wrong and/or looking bad. People who persist in this are resigned from life and just waiting to die. This is the easy way out most people take but it comes at the cost of happiness.

To be happy at a basic level at least, you must be two things: grateful and fulfilled. Being grateful is easy; take a moment to stop and look at everything in your life, say thank you with complete sincerity. This is why poor people are happy, they are grateful for what little they have. Being fulfilled actually takes effort; contribute to something greater than yourself, something selfless that increases equality with the people around you.