A great, great book (Making Common Sense of Japan) makes this point: usually, when people say “culture” (or “preferences are different”), they’re using it to say “I haven’t found a structural reason so it goes in my miscellaneous bucket.” https://twitter.com/sknthla/status/1022234997485432832 …
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And yeah that is sometimes a failure of self-reflection but often it is simply access to better, more specific explanations like “The reason why American companies do not enforce a 9:01-is-late norm on knowledge workers is not preference for sloth it is error bars on cars.”
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Systems in particular often get described as culture because they’re complicated and defy single sentence explanations. That’s likely potentially a useful thing to think but if you do culture is effectively everything.
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Example: culture of 9:01-is-late in Japanese companies is embedded in a) a reality where public transportation is extremely reliable and extremely available b) if it breaks down you get an excuse note from the train company because they know you get in trouble if you’re late.
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That is one piece of a much more complicated tapestry and after I get to the part about “Well actually lots of Japanese people aren’t salarymen” folks got “Got it; their culture is inscrutable.” (Totally happens other way, too.)
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As long as I’m on topic of many issues, “How many guns did your family own growing up?” “None. I lived in a city where they are illegal.” “But isn’t your gun-loving culture descended from citizen soldiers and cowboys and don’t you literally fire military weapons for fun?!?”
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“Those are narratives of the American experience and some people do factually engage in that subculture but it is not as hegemonic as you model it as.” “But how did you defend yourself from armed kids at your school?” “Complicated topic!”
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End of conversation
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I’d guess that culture constrains far more than it compels. Culture is the reason many areas in idea space are either off limits, or are difficult to gain access to.
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