The tunes of tradition are not just at work in Denmark. When
I lived in Malaysia I saw them there all the time. But there they show a different
side. Culture in Malaysia is a very fluid term. Because this nation is so
young, there is still no overarching national culture and it is rather made up
of several smaller subcultures that have been here longer than any of the
nations in the region, and thus they have a much stronger hold over people’s
mentalities. When that happens, the tunes of tradition become a more obvious
sign of control. Parents then teach their children to stay true to their
original culture whatever that may be, steering away from their national
culture and in the process hindering the progress that a unified Malaysia could
potentially gain.
One of the reasons Danish society works so well is because
everyone (or at least the majority) strives and works hard and more
importantly; pay their taxes. This ensures that all of us have our bases
covered. The basic foundations of a secure existence will be provided by the
state as needed. This is the core of socialism. As long as everyone agrees to
pay half their wage to the government, then you can also remain safe in the
knowledge that the government has your back if the shit hits the fan. God help
them if they don’t! The Law of Jante only perpetuates this mentality by
discouraging anyone from trying to be different, to leave the mainstream. As
long as everyone is content with being mediocre, then everyone is. But mediocre
is certainly better than being poor. And thankfully this is more than enough
for most Danes which is why the system works. Thus the tunes of tradition are
being played very subtly there. Like a smooth house beat, I guess…
In Malaysia, the tunes are more radical, maybe some pumping
bass dubstep. Here, each individual culture making up this potentially great
nation all struggle for supremacy hindering any real development. Regions,
religions, cultures, all have their own goals and desires. So the tunes of
tradition out here are being blown into the ears of children at high volume. Do
not forget who you are or where you came from! Honor your culture and its
traditions! When this happens, like religion, culture really starts to prevent
human development. Culture and religion are naturally very closely linked in a
country as religious as Malaysia, and this concordantly only makes the problem
even bigger. But as a mini-Earth, my time in Malaysia taught me a lot.
Many of the real problems facing our species today can only
really be solved on a global scale, which is why, in the future, we will at
some point have to start thinking as one population. Hopefully, by then we will
have evolved enough to realize that it is possible to maintain and respect
cultures and traditions but still allow these to grow and evolve with each
generation. This will happen anyway, but it can happen a lot faster if people
stop trying so hard to maintain the status quo, and instead keep an open mind
and allow all our wonderful human cultures to mix together and grow in size, to
not exclude anyone.
To assist in the mixing of cultures is partially what I hope
to achieve when choosing to be an expat, and by aspiring to be a cosmopolitan.
Wherever I go, I still celebrate my Danish holidays, at least the ones that
matter to me as a person, and I invite all my local friends to participate,
sharing my culture with them. I love taking the role of ambassador and talking
about Danish life and culture to others to give them examples of how life can
also be. By then simultaneously assuming some of the local holidays and
traditions I am in effect merging the two cultures. When I settle somewhere
permanently I hope to do this on a long term basis, so that over generations,
wherever it may be, a bit of my Danishness remains behind. In turn, if this
starts happening on a larger scale we could one day become a truly global enlightened
culture that embraces the bigger picture and truths without forcing anyone to
follow it unwillingly. If that happens then the tunes of culture and tradition will no longer
hinder human development, but rather advance it. The wonderful mosaic of all
the cultures and peoples of the world will remain in some form, but at the same
time we will all be part of a bigger and all-encompassing global culture, in
effect a Type I civilization in the words of Kardashev. We will have a shared
lingua franca, universal freedom of speech and a global political union. As
Michio Kaku points out, the spread of English, digital globalization in the
form of the Internet, and institutions such as the UN, NATO and EU are all
steps in these directions so there are certainly reasons to be optimistic that
we can one day achieve this. But that would just be the beginning of our
journey. More on this next time!
