Culture is not natural, it is a choice

How often don't we get into debates about definitions of culture and the need to preserve culture; or that an action or statement insults someone's culture.  To me, culture reflects a set of beliefs ... but these beliefs are variable and changing, they not natural and fixed as absolute truth, they are choices that we make.  As children we are socialized into our cultures including behaviours, language and religion but along our life’s journey we have to keep making a choice about whether to maintain those socialized beliefs or follow a different set of beliefs, beliefs that have meaning for us and the world in which we live.  So many of our inherited beliefs don't serve us today - many of our parents beliefs desperately need to be discarded, beliefs around sexism, racism, xenophobia, religious intolerance, political dogma, etc.  Rather than perpetuate outdated modes of thinking and behaviour, we need to make informed choices about what serves us today.  This is why we are seeing sweeping changes to political regimes, great tolerance, relaxation of restrictions on same-sex marriage, abolition of racist regimes like Apartheid in South Africa and so on.  So much of what we call culture and hold onto so dearly at the expense of all else is actually arbitrary functions of the place, time and context in which we are born and raised, just as nationality is.  We should not define ourselves based on arbitrary factors or allow these arbitrary factors to stand between two people.  Our history divides us ... religious history, national history, mythical history ... these all divide us, but what unites us is our common vision of better lives we hope for.  As adults we need to throw off the cloak inherited from our parents and think for ourselves, decide for ourselves what we choose to believe and how we choose to live; unburdened by loyalties and obligations of a historical culture, we are able to see man as man, and find unity in our pursuits of harmony and prosperity.  Lets refuse to be drawn into the battles of our parents and grandparents, lets define our own society, based on how we experience each other, not inherited myths.