Ch. 12 Blog 2

I am with the majority of Americans that believe " that humans are, at heart, rational; that they are perfectible; and that human nature is highly susceptible to social and cultural influence." The rationality premise is the reason that we still use trial by jury in our justice system. Our culture still upholds the idea that average citizens can make good and just decisions. The perfectibility premise is mostly true, I believe we are sinners, but i also believe that it takes more than good decisions to have that forgiven. The mutability premise is one that i struggle with because while it makes sense that changing someones physical and psychological circumstances would improve them, there are too many people who grow up in the worst of circumstances but turn out to be great people. There are also people who are given everything and have an ideal environment but they turn out to be very bad people. I do think that universal education is an excellent way to attempt to give everyone a fighting chance at turning out to be a responsible, rational adult capable of making good decisions and being a useful part of society.

Ch 12 Intercultural Communication Blog 1

I do believe that anthropologist Ruth Benedict is correct, we are "creatures of our culture". Anyone with children can see that we raise kids to be creatures of our culture. I was raised in a Christian home, my mom didn't let us out of her sight, and we always had dinner together as a family. We celebrated Christmas with a tree and on Halloween we could trick or treat, but were never allowed in scary costumes. I learned that a man is the head of the household, that boys did outside chores and girls did inside chores. These are all things that my parents believed and so we grew up believing the same things. As an adult, many of the beliefs i grew up with I'm now passing on to my children. I caught myself telling my son that he couldn't be a zombie for Halloween because we don't celebrate anything scary about the holiday. He wanted to know why, and all i could come up with is that it's because that's how i was raised. I suppose in order to break through limits of our culture we have to be willing to challenge some of our belief systems and really decide if it's our belief or just what we have been told to believe. I'm having to do that as a mother, to decide if i want to raise my boys exactly how i was raised. I am a creature of my culture, and most of what i learned will be passed on to both of my kids. My husband and i were raised similarly, so that doesn't cause any conflicts. I can't imagine what it must be like for intercultural marriages to meld together two cultures and decide how to raise the next generation. Their belief systems will be shaped by their families.