Today, our topic is culture shock.
Recently, I have been thinking about culture shock a lot. I’ve seen a lot of world thus far in my life, have lived in several countries and have had a chance to observe some pretty unique behaviours.
And yet, I’ve never really suffered from the infamous culture shock. Instead, I began to understand that there is a problematic to it that is never truly explored.
What is culture shock? Culture shock is supposed to be the feelings of being displaced in a different cultural environment. It is a feeling that we are supposed to have, and that only in contact with other cultures, never our own. This perception fails to consider several things.
One, that any culture, any society, is far from homogeneous and static. Therefore, having a weird moment in contact with a culture we KNOW (such as a subculture, if we use the term, within our own culture) but through an aspect we have never yet discovered would actually make far more sense than just being expected to be “shocked” by something we already expected to be different.
Two, having a surprised reaction at the fact that things AREN’T as different as we expected is never really addressed in this expectation. That, too, should pass for a culture shock.
Three, some things do not and cannot fall under culture shock, such as an emotional reaction concerning the treatment and rights of fellow humans and animals. To feel nothing about that is a completely wrong expectation. Nor is it acceptable not to feel empathic towards others, regardless of their colour, race, gender, etc., regardless of the expectation that “different” is allowed to harbour unacceptable practices. Abuse and pain are no different in different environments, nor is it right to demote others’ humanity by citing cultural differences as an acceptable reason for acting in an abusive or harmful way.
Four, culture shock as expected shows a perceived irrefutable, uncrossable boundary between societies and cultures… something that is dangerously close to instilling prejudice and Otherness as norms of communication and interaction, which destroys all chances of this communication and interaction being fluid, flexible and built on mutual respect and understanding.
Five, the approach to what is odd is, in this case, taking a deeply personal measure of odd and normal and stretching it forcefully over everyone in a one-size-must-fit-all act of rigidity. Culture shock is, in a way, deeply hierarchical, and not experiencing it can mean, to some, that you do not truly “understand” the differences with the other culture, the reason they should exist…nor do you truly belong to your own culture. In a way, lacking this response may make you a cultural traitor or odd-body in some people’s eyes.
I was brought to thinking about this today when a new deal between EU and Britain was announced. Brexit was built on Otherness. It continues to be built on Otherness. And UK is not alone in its tribalist behaviour at the moment.
Any deal is great. Any deal is better than the negativism we have seen thus far. Any deal that allows for us to return to the point where we were able to discuss matters in a realistic, sane way without the burdens of prejudice and nativism. Finally, any positive behaviour is a tentative step towards the place of mutual understanding and away from the Otherness that has been so cruelly used towards so many in an effort to show the Us end of the bargain.
If this deal aids us in re-establishing that, it is also a brilliant showcase of how much we need each other to prosper. No society that builds itself on separation of Us and Them is successful in the long run; and while we ultimately all become letters and numbers in the long book of human history, we tend to forget that those letters and numbers are (or once were) people, and that decisions like this often cost lives, the right to be treated with and live with dignity and respect, and ultimately our empathic humanity. As Gandalf puts it, “this too will pass”. Definitely. History is made up of rises, falls and rising from ashes. But what is always overlooked is the nameless thousands whose happiness and safety are put at stake for a fickle venture into a selectionist approach to who is human and who is worthy.
I have never experienced culture shock. I have had plenty of moments when I was angry or frustrated or even amused by behaviour of my fellow humans (in all societies and cultures), but I have never experienced a “wrongness” or “rightness” in relations to myself re others. What I find more surprising is the expectation that I should feel so and the shock of others when I do not.
Finally, I am often left bemused by what we find acceptable and unacceptable. Adopting a different culture’s behaviour that is more positive than one’s original culture is often seen as betrayal and a form of corruption. At the same time, the negative behaviours, such as harmful practices (wherever in the world they are practiced, including in the parts of Western culture), are supposed to be taken on as an immutable, inalienable part of cultural identity that should remain untouchable both from within the culture and without.
The truth is (and I keep repeating this like a broken record) that we grow only through recognising mistakes. Standing up to evil, whatever shape it takes. Culture cannot be shocking if it is simply a part of our being, and our being simply a matter of existence in any given environment, plus diversity; at the same time, all harmful practices are harmful, no matter who perpetrates them, even if we are often brought to view our own through rose tinted glasses.