Culture has two sides

Human evolution has created them almost from birth to know how to put food in their mouths by hand. But there’s no genetic element that teaches them to use their hands to catch, to create a sense of friendliness and trusting cooperation. Such things force mankind to invent “artificial instincts” in many fields to regulate the behavior of our species according to certain rules and rituals. It’s called culture.

Saying that to imagine, outside the movement of the world, there is also an invisible side hidden deep inside. They have a profound, reciprocal, and transformative effect on each other. See this example.

In the 20th century, the screen often had the actor with a cigarette to express a part of the character’s inner life. More or less, this has created trends in smoking among teenagers. The culture in the film has impacted life in such a way. “Smoke culture” prevailed and became a popular culture, accepted in society.

After 2000, advances in science have found that up to 7,000 chemicals are present in cigarette smoke. Directly or indirectly, it is responsible for millions of human deaths. Facing this threat, legal barriers were erected, and waves of anti-smoking in public places spread across the globe. It has the opposite effect on Hollywood directors, forcing them to consider and minimize scenes with smoke. Life has such an impact on cinema. Smoke culture is outdated and no longer relevant to modern society.

The above story shows that culture has two sides. In one period and context, culture is accepted, but in another time, it becomes negative and needs to be eliminated.

Looking at frames of reference

The Eastern philosophy of Yin and Yang holds that the world is created by the contrast and balance between the two opposites Yin and Yang. Yin represents darkness and silence, while Yang represents light and dynamism.

Reflecting on the philosophy of Yin and Yang into culture, the two sides of this category will be interpreted as follows.

The Yin side in culture represents negative aspects such as war, violence, hurt, hardship, inequality and discrimination. For example, the culture of some African or Middle Eastern countries still holds the custom of banishing, beating, even killing gay people, extinguishing the “uprising sparks” of the LGBT movement(*). . People there still believe this is a basic way to correct the behavior of the community, against the burgeoning LGBT culture. This causes pain, hurt and reduces humanity in those societies.

The Yang in culture represents positive values ​​such as happiness, joy, safety, growth, love, solidarity and individual freedom. The LGBT movement has helped spread empathy, reduce prejudice and create a safe space for gay people in many countries. In addition, advanced countries such as Canada, the Netherlands or Belgium have reformed their laws to protect rights and prevent discrimination against the gay community. These efforts demonstrate the positive nature of gay culture and humanity in advanced countries.

Dialectical philosophy holds that every entity is subject to a process of development, change, and contradiction within it. What if we put the cultural category on this frame of reference?

Culture is seen as a product of historical development and contradictions in society. Each cultural category consists of contrasts and contradictions. It is seen as a system of opposition between different elements.

We will see the opposite characteristics through the following example.

Obviously, there is only one characteristic, but there are exist both positive and negative sides. These aspects are contradictory. This is completely consistent with the law of struggle between opposites to create a leap leading to qualitative change in dialectical philosophy.

In the above example, these contradictions can be resolved by improving and evolving the cultural category over time. From there, the cultural category can contribute to the progress and development of society. On the contrary, it will delay human development.

This suggestion poses a challenge for us: Where are the boundaries?

Phase boundary or the direction of the transition is the crux

Let’s put cultural issues aside and talk about physic. We will look into phases and phase boundaries. How important is this?

It is observed that, at 0⁰C, water exists in both liquid and solid states. This is called the phase boundary. Increasing or decreasing the temperature relative to 0°C will result in only a liquid or solid phase being produced, which will overwhelm the other.

Obviously, it is very important to know the temperature that creates the phase boundary. This “secret” gives man the ability to tame nature and produce desired results.

The experimental principle in physics to discover this “boundary” could have been an interesting cue for analysis in other fields. There, we will analyze the positive and negative sides of an issue like corporate culture below.

In fact, the “phase boundary” in each field will be very fuzzy, not clearly demarcated. It is important to know which direction of movement will be beneficial and which can create risks for the organization or individual.

Some businesses create a negative culture with a lack of respect for their customers or their own employees. For example, some businesses have policies that are too strict and inflexible, do not put customers first and only care about profits, lack social responsibility, do not comply with business ethics and even engage in corruption.

However, with active businesses, they put customers and employees first and respect the community. They are socially responsible and always put business ethics and transparency first. This helps to create a positive culture, which enhances credibility, reliability and builds trust from customers.

Enterprises can completely change their state from negative to positive culture, from dark to bright, from “Yin to Yang”. The boundary of phase transition will depend on the values, attitudes and quality of actions in the business organization.

(*) The LGBT movement is a movement of the LGBT community, including homosexuals, bisexuals and transgender people to promote the legal recognition of LGBT rights in society.