Cultural Identities
What does everyone think about the importance of having a connection to your cultural identity? I hear about this issue a lot with second generation Asian Americans and Jewish Americans. Seeing this forum has a lot of Asians and Jews, I want to get your opinion on this. It seems like the later generations are secular without a distinct identity and do not really identify with their cultural heritage and embrace multiculturalism.
I don't think there are logical reasons for "having a connection to your cultural identity". Humans have an emotional need to belong to a group. For some being part of WSO will be sufficient, others will go further. That's it.
What I meant by multiculturalism is really the modern globalist culture, which is really mostly modern American culture, the ones you find in big cities like New York. When you think about say Asian Americans, most second generation have abandoned the traditional Chinese values of their forefathers and completely integrated. This is most prominent in millennials, a culture with no culture except consumerism.
That was a rather inflammatory remark, to say the millennial have no culture except consumerism. I can think of MANY ways millennial are better than previous American generations, and current foreign cultures: Pro gay rights, pro-interracial relationships, anti-racism, pro-volunteering, internationalist/anti-war, best relationships with parents, less nationalistic, least violent, environmentally focused, etc. It's a bit ridiculous to pretend that stuff isn't important, and imply because we don't wear traditional ethnic apparel, and do ritualistic actions, it's somehow not a culture.
And you think the millennial generation thought of all those wonderful things on their own. That the advertising industry, Democrat party appeals to (previously) fringe-demographics, values passed on from our parents, teachers, guardians, and figures of authority all had nothing to do with any of it? Yours could be the most naive comment on this site to date. The millennial generation has yet to show its colors, making both of you wrong. Consumerism is a modern Western cultural phenomena, and the only reason people born post-1989 are so liberal is that they aren't yet old enough (on average) to give a fuck about the consequences of their actions. Give it another 10 years before we put stamps on it and claim we know our identity.
I think having a connection to your cultural identity is fine, however strict adherence to cultural norms often impedes modern-day social adaptability. The newer generations probably find traditional practices and beliefs to be restrictive and/or incompatible with their own social and professional goals, thus the shift to a more generic "multicultural" set of norms. For instance I have encountered many individuals from 2-3 generations ago who outright oppose the idea of education saying it is useless and intellectual-type work is equally useless and is of lesser value than hard physical labor. Obviously not a perspective which is compatible with the modern-day economy and job-market. Keep in mind that these are just my personal observations, so your mileage may vary.
I'm Ukrainian and I didn't think I had much emotional connection to my native country since I left at a young age, but recent events have elicited strong pro-Ukrainian feels in me. Don't know why I'm feeling these feels, but them's the feels I'm feeling.
What's more annoying is when other people try to tell me what cultural I should be. My mothers jewish, and my fathers protestants, and overall I'm from about 10 different countries ethnically. I was raised with christian holidays (although, secularly, my parents aren't religious either...mostly just opening presents on Christmas type of stuff).
Anyways, despite that, whenever people find out my mother is Jewish, 99% of the time that makes the person go "Well that means you're Jewish!" They very rarely can wrap their heads around the fact that I don't apply the rules of a religion I don't believe in to myself. I'm half jewish ethnically, but so many people try to tell me I'm "full jewish" because of my mother.
Personally, I don't identify as Jewish at all..I disagree with most parts of both the culture and religion (I'm not religious). I also don't believe in multiculturalism anymore, I'm very strongly in the assimilation boat. Cultural relativism is going to go down as one of the biggest mistakes of this time period.
Jews are a really tiny minority on the world scale and are really big on wanting to preserve their culture and expand their ranks. Hence government-sponsored programs like Birthright. So you're always gonna get that from Jews when you mention your Jewish mother. I don't imagine you talk about your mom enough for it to be a nuisance.
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