I want to hear your opinion on culture.
Do you think that culture can change anything in this world?
I will be participating this week in a cultural forum in Avignon / France and will meet people there that put a lot of hope in what they believe in – the same way I do – but sometimes we feel that despite our best efforts the world doesn’t change.
Yesterday I saw a movie about WWI (“All Quiet in the Western Front”) and had the realization that a lot of things haven’t changed. Nonetheless we cannot lose hope – so this is why I’m turning to you: How do you think we could use culture in a more effective and powerful way?
I believe internet helps – given that it is a platform for people that are open to share ideas. So please, leave here your opinion so that I may share it with the people of this forum.
Culture can break down barriers, it is something that needs to be nurtured, blended and cultivated instead of being put on the backburner.
It is a gift to be embraced.
It is a web of information, of learning and history for our own benefit - an added colourful value into our world -
It is going back to the Source we all belong for the improvement of the Planet.
We can shape it together.
Alors, qu’allons-nous faire Paulo?
Continuer a jouer au ping-pong?
ou
Utiliser ce moment et passer a l’action?
La balle est entre vos mains.
Merci.
Well, then, what are we going to do Paulo?
Continue to play ping-pong?
or
Seize this moment and act?
The ball is in your hands
Thanks
Love
Marie-Christine
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In essence I see culture as individuals expressing their own unique view of the world, in more modern times this includes those things we buy into and relate to. Yet this can also mean, for me, an ethos, made of a many splintered wonder, with it's essence still connected to the very early times of man, to provide a celebration of the luck of life, the wisdom to do no harm and the need to connect to those who's culture does not atone to my own but find a connection, a 'truth' that we can both find as a bond.
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We have too much rules in culture, but if we only gather all the necessary cultural practices into one, then yes, culture can change everything.
When a person is cultivated, it’s not important to take everything he learns. Sometimes, he has to put the others away and let some diverse practice in.
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Maybe the arts can change culture again.Maybe Music can remove the ills of our often violent culture.Maybe the media can reflect also the positives more especially in depicting our young not as thugs but people trying to grasp their own sense of self.Perhaps we need more youth within the media too.
I think that books will survive and new authors will be the people who change again the face of what we read.
I think manners start to alter the way we greet each other a smile a hello..it is a start.
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Buenos días señor Coelho, soy Pamela Angeles, de República Dominicana.
Culture can actually change anything in this world; almost two years ago I had the opportunity to share with people from ten different cultures. During that period, I got to live day by day with those cultures, and that time I behold ways on how people can resolve difficulties, ways they share knowledge, love, and even hatred. For example, in my case coming from a country which is an island, we tend to think quite different from people who live in a continent, sharing most part of their territory with other countries. In the case of people from islands, we tend to see things in terms of dimensions, little, smaller, or the way you may want to call, we see things kind of reduce, but that does not mean that we tend to think narrower; instead, we always think on those big places, big, cities, and big dreams like living on those countries. In another hand, people who are open to new cultures, like in my case, do not feel that exclusivity of being part of only one place, in this case a country, people open to new cultures, feel part of the world. Another example , in my country the culture is when people have reunions they get late to the hour the appointment was schedule, but since I share with a culture where being on time is the rule, now in my country I am use to get early to reunions, and for that I look like a very responsible person, and that gives a different respect from them, however because I receive that respect, does not give me the reason to think I am better than the rest of the people in my country; in brief what I mean is that people open to cultures, do not segregate other cultures, we accept them and respect them, just as they are., and in that way we will be able to change the world, by accepting the good things and looking ways to improve the bad things,
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Educacao Paulo educacao é a base de tudo, ter interesse em conhecer cultura outras culturas nos faz entender e aceitar o desconhecido, porem a educacao é o aspecto mais relevante para melhorar o mundo.
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Querido Paulo: Es muy bella la imagen tuya pidiendo, suplicando, las manos en señal de plegaria…En fin que tus ojos revelan en gran medida la evidencia que tambien tu y solo personas como tu , en algun momento sintieron.
La respuesta seria : El sentido común.
Que es el menos comun de todos los sentiodos.
La cultura en todo caso es el conocimiento y este es limitado, en cuanto para llegar a el se nesecitan horas de estudio y comprensión.
La cultura es una cosa para mi incipida , pueril , y asi y todo creo que esta palabra justifica tantas gerras y tanta injusticias, que yo no creo en algo que la historia me muestra como hechos consumados en donde solo unos cuantos se beneficieron del gran pastel de la vida.
Hablaria en todo caso de la EDUCACIÓN, de la forma como los contenidos son puestos y explicados .
Cada vez que se nos ofrece algo esta dirigido por finos hilos que tienen el proposito de manipular nuestros sentidos en la dirección que interesa .
la cultura o eso que llaman cultura es otra tara, que la humanidad arrastrará otros siglos y por la cual millones de personas perderan la vida en otras guerras derivadas de este concepto absurdo .
EL CONOCIMIENTO es el camino y de ello hay poco y es muy pesado de entender y de cargar.
la vida sin aditivos es lo que nos dara las respuestas.
Un saludo y todo mi respeto.
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After going through many of the above posts i have come to one conclusion, people mistake culture for religion.
Culture not only relates to the spiritual domain but covers a wide range of practices which evolves when different and diverse ideas shake hands and lead to synthesis of common convictions that guide thought, speech and hence actions.
I being an Indian witnessed the sorrowful tales of Mumbai blasts. What i saw on the television was the display of the culture prevalent among Indian soldiers and police force.I am proud of it. I also witnessed the shameful political culture. The world too,i think,watched it in their drawing rooms.
I think that the fear of some people that cultures may be lost are simply not seeing that as the ideologies change so does the culture.
Sometimes it has more of one religion sometimes more of some other religion. This percentage of religion in particular culture forms the basis of apprehensions of few.These apprehensions don’t let that mighty transformations commence that sweeps across the nations and lead to revolutions.
In recent times internet has sped up the transformations through worldwide connectivity of ideas.
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I assume that Culture has its best intentions like us on this blog
But as you all can see even having the same intentions, doesn’t guarantee the same results, due to their different directions, coming from different actions
The price we all want at the end is a spiritual one (Love)
But some roads that take us there are made of rocks some will walk through petals of flowers, some through beautiful valleys, some through deserts and some of us may end up without realizing it on quick sand, at the end we will meet at the same place in time, as long as our hearts are the same.
“There is Love because I saw it cry” (There is no love without pain)
Everything is Possible
Antonio F Kaik
Tampa Florida USA
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Dear Mr. Coelho
I am an English teacher. I was born in Vancouver, Canada of Spanish parents. I am now living in Spain and teach English here. I will not detail here the trials and tribulations I have gone through due to the culture shock I experienced when we moved to Spain but I will say that “culture” has been a part of my life forever. So much so, that I will be defending my Phd disstertation on December the 3rd, it is called “Culture as a skill in the foreign language classroom”. My hypothesis is that culture HAS TO BE TAUGHT as an integral part of the curriculum, without it, language learning is incomplete. Therefore, I am a firm believer that culture CAN, DOES, ALWAYS WILL, change things, from silly things like Bogart being a sample of an “attractive smoker” to not being allowed to smoke anywhere nowadays; to very “big” things like our concept of terrorism after the attack on the Twin Towers. Good luck in France!
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Culture is changing everyday, in every city & country constantly. Our problem is that we don’t see or appreciate these daily changes, wanting to notice only the change we seek.
The addiction to war, poverty and pain are features of human existence that will exist forever. We can only, and I believe we have, limit it’s affect.
The ruthlessness of war profiteers in the past is gradually being brought to account. Yes, there are still heinious crimes being perpetuated daily around the world and in our own neighborhoods. But the process of change has no time-table, and certainly cannot be predicted.
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And quickly, but probably just as important, if any of the bloggers here have ever visited NYC, you may have been overwhelmed by how this real world exchange of cultures sworms around you with every mega-urban breath. Some run away screaming. Some stay for years despite the chaos — the horrible and beautiful smells in the air, the frightening and soothing sights and sounds of people coming together, the constant change and stubborn conformity. The material wealth and obsessive capitalist machines right along side of the freaks of the world that move here from cultural settings that do not allow them to be who they are. The city is an experiment of cultural change that has endured many trials. It still works. Amazing.
Peace and Love
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Again, I’ve logged on to this web-site and felt the need to express very complicted concepts to a group of people all over the world. This in itself is a certain proof that “culture can change anything”. If this forum is not an incredible form of cultural exchnge, I don’t know what is. But what we write here (and hopefully what we are all reading) is a micro-dot in the larger scheme. The “thing” that culture needs to change is not on the super-highway — this is just another ingenious tool. Right now there is another forum taking place at the National Review that would completely counter and possibly nullify all of our open minded allusions to a better, more culturely open world.
Assuming that Paulo Cuelho is asking us if culture can change things for the better, healthier sake of humanity — which we should assume he IS when we consider the incredible writings he has had published over the years, I would have to look back on history and say yes, it can. And it has.
This is where the question becomes convoluted and murky though. Because when one uses the word “culture” in a sentance as a noun, one is automatically sandwiching hundreds, if not thousands of seperate belief systems into a single entity. Is culture a noun? Can we even look to culture as a catalyst for change?
The most important example in history — for me anyway — was when the ctusaders slashed through Spain into the Holy Land centuries ago. It is a well documented fact that the fiercest Christian warriors were absolutely influenced by the Muslim way of life once they gained control of the heart of the Land they had conquered. Well, if the Muslim way of life is considered a “culture” that was obviously counter to the Christian ways held strong by the invading armies of Europe, than there is no doubt that culture can change not only anything, but for sure, EVERYTHING.
Where that leaves us now is still uncertain to the humble that are looking for change. But to the arrogant (and now I’ll take another shot at the conservative-knowers-of-all-things-good-for-humanity at the National Review) and unchangeable, culture is a meaningless word most of the time. SoI can only suspect that there are so many people out there — all over the world, in every CULTURE — who will not except change, let alone allow “their culture” be the catalyst of that change.
Forums such as this one are so important, so wonderous and amazing to behold. But I feel it equally important for the voices that I hear in this blog to be continually injected into society outside of the cyber world. Especially to those voices of younger bloggers. Its so impressive to read the words of a sixteen-year old in Finland — an incredible, young voice that the real world needs to hear.
The only way that culture can change anything is if we become the nouns that represent the concept behind the word. I think someone mentioned in an earlier blog that ‘Culture dooes not exist — its just a concept”. I’d have to completely dis-agree with the first part, and completely agree with the second part of that statement.
We are culture. And we change everything, everyday. The question really is, will we choose to change things for the better, or will are cultures just keep changing?
Peace and Love
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Estimado Señor Paulo
Soy de Perú, tengo 17 años y quisiera dar mi opinión sobre este tema.
Me parece y pienso que no soy el único en haber sentido alguna vez en su vida( en mi caso 17 años)que cada persona tiene su propia cultura. Algunos dirán que eso no puede ser cierto por que en la mayoría de las personas esta grabada como cultura: “La forma de vivir, pensar y expresarse de un pueblo. Pero casi nadie toca la parte de:”Yo tengo mi Propia cultura”, aquella frase no significa que pertenesco a una cultura; sino que cada uno tiene una propia cultura, si; por mas extraño que suene es asi, ya que como cada persona tiene una personalidad distinta en el mundo es asi como cada persona tiene una cultura diferente. Ya sea su forma de pensar, ver las cosas o realizarlas; he de ahi de donde nacen las grandes culturas, de la unión de lo común que tiene cada una de ellas y el aporte que brinda sus diferencias: Por eso antes de valorar otras culturas o culturas de tu pueblo, hay que pensar primero sobre nuestra cultura personal, aquella que nos hace distintas a las demás. Bueno regresando al tema en debate, creo que para cambiar al mundo hay que buscar ese punto común que tiene cada persona en su cultura( personal)y explotarlo al maximo; y aquellas que son diferentes evaluarlas y ver en que apoyan al cambio . Espero que haya contribuido con algo y si es algo confuso lo que escribi; pues bueno es por que pertenece a mi cultura Personal, el no saber expresarme muy bien y que otras personas lo entiendan.Espero que les haya servido.
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and my friend said she only wants the good parcels from now on….
otherwise it ‘ll be the “last tango in Paris”…(her words, not mine).pretty lethal stuff…
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I’m late responding, but I believe cultural change is actually constant, and most of the time it is imperceptively incremental, rather than counscious, obvious, or dramatic. As a result, we human beings are frequently challenged to observe the changes taking place all around us. Time is the gift that bestows perpective.
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Culture has the power to change things because it can define what is acceptable and/or what is not for a certain group of people. It has the power to change our outlook and opinion about certain things and that change in outlook can lead to actualization of those changes.
However, I think the major difficulty with culture actually changing ‘anything’ at all, lies in the difficulty to change itself. One might think that this is absurd considering all the changes we’ve been seeing in this day and age of globalization. But I think it is precisely that the world is changing so fast, we cannot keep up with this ‘hype’ we have created.
Culture is supposedly what has been developed through times, and in those times that culture supposedly developed, some truths changed, or should I say, are no longer applicable. And when some truths have reached their expiration date, the difficulty now lies with the collective psyche of this group of people (the foundation of culture) shaking off these “expired” truths from their system. However, letting go of things that are no longer applicable or true is not so easy given that it can disturb the “peace” of the mind or simply that we lack an openness of mind to allow any changes at all.
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We can change culture by taking the good from one culture to the other
and leaving the bad behind (same apply to ourselves). That’s why we learn so much from each others.
I lived in France for a while this year and I noticed most people look down instead of up.Initially, I wondered why is this? It did not take me long to wake-up: Dogs ‘pooh. I then remember a good friend of mine who is French telling me that dogs can tell she was French - they were always leaving their parcels on her lawns -.It is all about taking responsability for our own actions. Time to clean up our act and look up perhaps?
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Dear Paulo,
Firstly, thank you for your books and for setting an example of having the courage to live your own life.
Of course it’s not the whole answer, but I thought you might be interested… and for me it’s meaningful to link up one powerful positive influence on my life with another.
For many years now, Christopher Alexander and his colleagues have been working on architecture and town planning and how they affect/influence/enable human life, interaction, community, culture. I think it may have started with the observation that old buildings and towns tend to have more life in them than buildings and towns built in the last hundred years or so. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way. Alexander and his colleagues are pioneering ways of designing and building that involve the people who will use a space… It’s participatory, democratic, individual, vernacular, cheap, durable, beautiful, inspiring… I can’t do it justice, especially not in a few lines here.
There is a series of five fascinating and beautiful books written in the 70’s and 80’s: The timeless way of building, A pattern language, The Oregon experiment, The production of houses, The Linz cafe. There is also a much more recent series of four books called The nature of order. There is a web site at http://www.patternlanguage.com/.
Best wishes,
Ian
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thanks for the incoming link :)
As I said before in my previous comment ones own society can affect ones own understanding to the word culture. He or she might think that his or her culture with its beliefs, ideas and customs is the best culture in the whole world and that might not let him or her accept the other cultures. But once that individual starts to rise above the crowd and starts to reject the social rules he then would not just understand what culture means, he would understand and believe in Universal culture. He would see that all cultures are unique and all culture’s ideas and customs are needed to be shared with each other just like him the unique individual who needs to accept other individuals and shares his thoughts with them.
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Good evening,Mr Coelho. I am Alla, from Russia, excuse me for my English…
I think, that culture - is everything around us. And if culture can change one of us, for example, me, so culture can change the world. But it is dangerous, because the culture is different. It can be good, and make me better, it can be bad, and make my soul and my mind worst.
I reeding your Eleven minutes now… This book change my soul and my mind. How? I do not know yet… I have to make very important choise now. My life is like two roads… And Eleven minutes give me answers to my questions. I do not know now, which of two roads I will prefer. I just make desishion now. But your book - is the culture, and I am shure, that it is change me. And I am afraid, that it is no matter for me, what kind of choise I can make. Most important for me, that I find my freedom in that choise. And thank you for your book, because Eleven minutes has give me my freedom. And it is really no matter now, bad or good freedom. That what I think about culture, world and our lifes…
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I have thought about this all week ,and feel the best way to encourage more cultural awareness to help give hope and change in the world is threw in my opinion things like - days out -fairs ,concerts and so forth -we have a thing in Newcastle once a year called cultural stomp -its made up of music ,art ,demonstrations ,food and just about anything that is cultural -but I think on a world scale that -things like huge concerts world wide for the young ones who love music would get more awareness happening -they had that big concert for last year on the 7 th july ,why not have lots of well know artists and celebs do a cultural concert of - music -dance -if everyone from around the world got to show a piece of their culture then thats a starting point -to see possibilities instead of prejudice-they could all promote peace and understanding ,I think movie writers and tv show writers also could help bring movies out about cultures -focusing on non judgment ,understand first .How to cure the cultural changes and keep them growing for a better world is to work on the young generation in schools too make it a subject world wide to be studied ,plus as I said earlier young people too -who are into music ,alot of older people are to stuck in there ways and not willing to change their beliefs or take on new thinking so -dont need to sound negative but its fact ..so thats my 2 bobs worth ..
Blessings Tania
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Dear Mr. Coelho,
despite all positive and motivated approaches to change the world, I am more than sure that things will never change!
Simply because culture will never change the nature of people.
There will always be good and bad people. And if we take a deep look into our own hearts we will all find a lot of rather bad traits and habits that even the best culture could never really wipe out.
Culture - including control - can suppress bad behaviour to a certain level. But it will always pop up again if people feel either unobserved or if they are under pressure.
Just look at the way people drive in their cars.
And I have to admit that whenever I watch myself driving I also see that I can change my point of view so quickly, that it again and again really surprises me how subjective and driven by emotion we are! If a faster car pushes me from the fast lane (in Germany this is a really fast one!) then this makes me angry - but only seconds later I can start pushing a slower car in front of me without any bad conscious at all!
So is there anything that can change the world???
Yes, definitely!
Pure love and friendship!
And who gives us real love: JESUS!!!
Why? Because he makes us turn away from own selfish thoughts and needs. And gives our life real meaning and hope.
In fact I had read an article in a german magazine from you, Mr.Coelho, and the topic was “happyness”.
This article was so sad because it showed not clue on how to get happy at all! Instead the message was that finally no one would find real happiness. Really sad!
And, from my POV, not the full truth. Because LOVE can make us feel real happiness in our minds and hearts!
And while love men and women, or the love ones feels for his children, can fade away, real love from God will never fail!!!!
So finally you were right in asking for the meaning of life in this article of yours. Finding the one and only real meaning of life - Gods love and the path Jesus has prepared for us to reach God - is what one needs to find for his personal life to feel happy.
And this LOVE can change the world!
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Dear Mr Coelho, I have been reading your books for years. Just finished Brida. I don’t know how to answer your question about culture because I am not sure I know what culture is.
You are right that the world is the same as it’s always been, but it’s also not. You are in it now — and you are an unlikely survivor of your past. Your website is in it now. We who are affected by your work because it supports what we already know and believe, are also in it now.
Today I thought that the real work we do is not in what we think we are planning to do, our conscious projects. Perhaps it is what happens in the moments in between our plans. Perhaps culture is not something we need to use for anything. Maybe there is nothing to DO. Maybe we just need to keep doing what we are doing while maintaining faith and a focus on our personal vision and mission. We simply must continue following our own path, try to stay aware and be kind to others, and that’s how we make our contribution and change culture. In being kind to others for example we are changing a culture that can often be not so kind. Maybe when we talk to people differently we are enriching a culture of poor and limited language. Your books have changed culture already. Very warm regards, Avigail (Canberra Australlia)
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Estimado Paulo Coelho,
Primero disculpas por no escribir mi opinio en inglés, mi lengua materna es el español y creo que me expresaría mejor en ella. También no se si este comentario sirva de algo pués el evento ya pasó, pero acabo de encontrarlo en a red.
Primero quiero decirle gracias, porque al leer sus libros volví a soñar, aunque por ahora necesito equilibrar el sueño y la realidad :)
Bueno, con respecto a la pregunta acerca de la cultura, yo pienso que con la compleja y amplia definición de lo que es cultura ya todo se complica. En fin para mi las costumbres que aprendemos de nuestro entorno son muy importantes, pués aveces marcan el respeto hacia los demás, como en el caso del respeto hacia una persona mayor, la forma de dirigirte a esa persona, y mucho más, que ayudaría a que algunas personas vean con respeto a sus abuelos y no como un estorbo. Al igual que podemos aprender de otras culturas el respeto por los animales, que tal vez pueda enseñarnos a cuidar mejor el mundo en el que vivimos, y no vernos tan superiores solo por ser hombres, son muchos los ejemplos que se pueden usar. Solo que para que empleemos y tengamos conciencia de los buenos aspectos que nos aporta la “cultura”, es necesario tener contacto con personas de otras culturas..
Gracias por si lee mi opinion..
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