Why this class? / What is Culture? By Nico Krehmeyer

Our changing culture fascinates me. If we can define culture as "What we learn and what we make," we live in very special time in the history world. Everything around us is changing at a rate that this world has likely never seen. This can be seen first and foremost due to the exponential increase in population the world has seen in the last 70 years. It seems that most people spend little time contemplating the affects of living in a world that has nearly twice as many people as it did just a hundred years ago. What does that say about our culture? How long will this rate of change last? What are the main factors that contribute to this change? My answer is, I am not sure. What scientists have recently been predicting is that the global population will level off at somewhere around 10 billion people, as we see the industrialization of much of Asia. Will we see a stabilization of society and culture if we see the population stabilize once again. We are already seeing the profound affects of an industrializing China, and an industrializing India in particular, here in the US. Our national culture is changing. I took this class to hopefully examine culture on a global scale, and break it down through symbols, ideals, heroes, and traditions, all the way down to my own values. How does culture affect me? Why am I me? Nothing just is. Everything is here right now only because of every moment that has occurred before now. I hope we jump into the big questions like these right away.