No Universality

Who's in control in the world today? Who or what is the dominate force in our lives? I am trying to figure that one out and continuing to conclude the answer is "Nobody". Humans are drifting through their days today as the lack of a uniform code of behavior, standard of belief and cultural transmission is making us all isolated individuals. I think the transportation and communication technologies are the ocean wave we ride today, and that is probably not a good thing. They often steer us away from deeper behavior and toward the shallow.

It used to be that we had expected behaviors wherever we lived. Each nation's culture differed from the others and people identified closely with their own so there was a common cultural expectation. No more. Cultural mixing and contamination has produced an "anything goes" mentality today. For example, a person in China may have more in common with one in England than he or she does with most of the other people in China. It's because we have little to identify with today. There is no commonality apart from our technology and the surface cultural manifestations we see in films, books, material good etc. This is not helpful in forming bonds with humans and for establishing a fixed and stable personal identity.

I think this dissolution of identify began in the 60's and has been fast tracked today with more and more technology that people are embracing as they trade human contact for their cell phones, blue rays, computers and the rest of the addictions with which we now feel a closer bond. I wonder how this affects our sense of the quality of our lives. Many probably think they have a higher quality of life today, given their material possessions, but perhaps they are so blinded by those material things that they fail to realize the offerings of human contact and cultural transfer may be more meaningful and fulfilling to them.

We used to call the state of our current condition "cultural relativism" because only the things we want to be important is what is important to us. The rest, the common inks, are rejected. It is a negative state of being because it casts one outside of the mainstream culture. Today I have trouble even identifying a mainstream culture anywhere in the world apart from the most simple nations. And those are fighting (as in the reactionary islamic reaction to the "infidel world") to become what most of the world has become.

I think the lack of a universal guideline and replacement of it with endless other paths that lead to no common ground is an incorrect approach. Humans are not capable of picking and choosing what is best for themselves without a common standard from which to choose. They need a collective mentality to guide them. Once they have that, they can express their individualism within the context of the common culture. It's no wonder, for example, mindless Reality TV and cell phone addiction are the magnets for so many today. There is so little universality with which to identify, the most idiotic magnets seem the simplest and most attractive to us.