Albert Einstein once said: “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
And sadly, he knew already that humanity sometimes doesn’t know what they are doing.
You can link the human stupidity with a lot of things.
For this class, I want to link the stupidity with racism and discrimination.
You have a lot of cultures in this world.
Nowadays, those cultures get mixed up.
When you are walking around in a large city, you’ll see a lot of different cultures. Sadly, those cultures don’t always get along with each other.
I’m sure that we can learn a lot from other cultures. And those other cultures can learn a lot from ours.
And sadly, he knew already that humanity sometimes doesn’t know what they are doing.
You can link the human stupidity with a lot of things.
For this class, I want to link the stupidity with racism and discrimination.
You have a lot of cultures in this world.
Nowadays, those cultures get mixed up.
When you are walking around in a large city, you’ll see a lot of different cultures. Sadly, those cultures don’t always get along with each other.
I’m sure that we can learn a lot from other cultures. And those other cultures can learn a lot from ours.
Well, to link this with the quote of A. Einstein, I want to say that we (people in general) are not ready to listen to others and to be open for others. That’s dumb. I’m sure that there is so much wisdom in each culture. I think it’s important that everybody knows those wisdoms. Maybe then there will be space to open up to others and to respect each other.
I know, this is something that will never happen.
Do you want to know why? Well because we live in a society that is based on results and achievements. Why would we take some time to get to know each other? The saying: “time is money” is true in this society. We just don’t believe that it is important to get to know other cultures.
Do you want to know why? Well because we live in a society that is based on results and achievements. Why would we take some time to get to know each other? The saying: “time is money” is true in this society. We just don’t believe that it is important to get to know other cultures.
But off course, there is an other way around. Most of the other cultures are very closed.
That’s not a good mix. A society that is based on results and achievements versus a culture that is very closed. I don’t think that’s a good mix.
For me, that’s the base of racism for a lot of persons.
They see those other cultures as invaders and want to protect what is theirs.
But what belongs to that property? Not their land, not their cars, but their way of living.
And they want to protect that as hard as they possibly can. I can understand this, because that’s very important. But I’m so convinced that we may not forget that there are other ways of living. And it is not that it is different, that it is wrong.
I’m convinced that cultural appropriation is a good thing. Off course, we can’t take over every element of another culture. But some elements are good to take over.
What I think is very good for our society is the linguistic imperialism. Spread out the language is a good thing. This can only make our knowledge better.
That is one of the greatest lessons we need to learn. We have a great life, we live a life with not many worries, we can really have a different life. We need to learn from other cultures. We need to learn from their successes and their failures. We need to open up to them and they need to open up to us. This would make things so much easier. And perhaps, we can live better with each other. Not just next to each other, but WITH each other. If we can achieve that, that will be a beautiful thing. But still, I don’t think that the society of now is ready for that.
