Why Blame Culture?

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about blaming the culture. I felt that it was incomplete without some more questioning as to why people do that. This post will outline some thoughts on why people blame culture. I conclude this post with what an individual can do without falling into the trap of blaming culture.

In the wild, most animals stick to their own type. It is mutually beneficial for their long term survival to trust their type. Trusting a different species can most times mean end of life or severe physical harm. It is the reason you see birds flocking together, fish swimming in a school, lions hunting in a group and hyenas hunting with their gang etc. It is very easy to find this mistrust of other types in humans as well, after all humans are descendants of vertebrate animals. However we humans have become so vast in numbers that we have sub-groups who differ in the way we look physically. This difference is loosely called race sometimes, it is also referred by the term ethnicity. Whatever name we call it; there is an inherent mistrust among these different looking people. May be we are genetically disposed to mistrust.

My previous post had two anecdotes where people were blaming culture. My European colleague did not say that Japanese hide truth, he just said 'It must be Japanese Culture to stay silent in crisis'. The colleague of my friend did not say that Indians lie, he just asked 'Is it common in Indian culture to lie.' But they can be linked indirectly. When a person belonging to a different race does something negative, our genetic mistrust is switched on and we seek answers. We need to associate that negative trait to something and somehow satisfy our animalistic mistrust. According to me, satisfying this animalistic mistrust is the key.

I would like to know what my colleague would have to say about the current corporate disaster from a company bearing the name of his home country - BP. Toyota had always been apologetic about the safety of its vehicle. But BP had constantly lied about its involvement, it never owned the problem, had been blatantly trying to find a victim, lied about how much oil was flowing into the ocean (Recent estimates put the outflow of oil at 11k/day while BP stated it is close to 6k/day). I could generalize this behavior from BP to a statement - it is in British Culture to lie. While colonial history can be cited as a validation of that statement, I cannot agree to the generalization of this statement to represent the habits of common English people, and I am sure my colleague would agree with me.

Thanks to some great social and political movements, we live in a time where it is a must to be sensitive and politically correct at work. That has not stopped some people making unacceptable comments, but by and large today's work environment is very conducive for people from different races and countries to work harmoniously. So this expectation of diverse workforce does not allow the negative association with race, a nation, religion or a region. However, culture is a term that is associated with all the above and not with a single person. When a person blames the culture, the person is safely blaming the race, religion or region of the person who looks physically different than him/her.

What can we do? Though this is a very sensitive issue, there will always be people who will hold on to the theory that other people hold value systems different than themselves. They attribute culture to these values. It is important to take a stance and refute these claims whenever they are mentioned. But do so subtly and without being argumentative. While defending your values, do not fall into the same trap yourself. It is very easy to get carried away in conversations when it involves a third person that is different than all the people in the conversation. The same guy who gets offended when his 'culture' is blamed will not think twice when it comes to a different persons 'culture'. It is the nature of the conversation and our inherent mistrust that causes us to do it. It is important to subdue that subconscious criticism. Be very careful of what you say in such conversations. Don't get carried away. It is important to listen rather than say something irrationally to be a part of the conversation. Most times our urge to get heard makes us say something, that in retrospection, we do not even agree with. It does not mean that you have to stay silent, but just think and know what you are saying. The world will be a better place for others and yourself when you do that. It is also time for me to put these principles in action myself.