Festen (Thomas Vinterberg, 1998)
I think it is bright on the other side.
Some cultures are what can be called high-context, while others are termed as low-context. I live in the UK, and this is a low-context culture.
What does that mean, Ben?
I'm glad you asked. So what it means is that the message is key - it doesn't matter how it is said, or who says it, or who you are. To wit: a piece of paper is stuck onto a door in the UK. The piece of paper reads 'This office is closed until 11am.' Upon approaching this door a resident of the UK will be able to feel a visceral tug inside themselves, and if they are not sure whether 11am has passed they will feel compelled to check what time it is before they knock on the door. This is a low-context culture - the message is king.
This is all well and good - you need rules - but what happens when the message is wrong, and the residents of a low-context culture continue to follow the rules, sometimes to the detriment of themselves and their fellow citizens?
Recently I was stuck in a tailback - a line of cars that inched forward occasionally, but mostly sat idling for the duration. The distance we travelled over the course of 60 minutes was approximately 1 kilometer. And when we reached the bottleneck, the point at which traffic could pass through and continue at a normal speed, we discovered that there was nothing obstructing the road - it was simply a series of traffic cones slowly turning three lanes into two, and then two into one, with the empty lanes completely empty.
Sure, the presumption here is that those lanes were being left empty for work that was 'going to' happen. Perhaps in the very near future. But no work was taking place, there was no machinery in the road, and no workmen in reflective jackets. Nothing. Just empty road.
"Why...." I thought "...didn't someone just drive into the cones, push them out of the way, and allow us all to get to our destination sooner?" But the answer is simple. It's because I live in a low-context culture, and to do that would be to go against the very system that we all live in.
In addition to the above I also recently came to the conclusion that many of us have more than we need, and yet are horrendous human beings. We have no sense of society, or family, or unity. We live our lives in isolation, never making any real connection with other people. We don't listen. We simply wait for a moment when no one else is talking so that we can talk. We eat too much. We have too many things. We complain all the time. We make it difficult for everyone in a room to get along. We are selfish.
So where do we go from here? We need rules. We need a coda to live by. Even when that coda works to the detriment of everyone involved. What kind of a system would it be if we readjusted those rules, redrew the lines in the sand? A better one? A worse one? What do you think? .
It's very easy to trundle along following the same set of rules without questioning them and living a life that doesn't involve the word 'live.' We all realise this at some point along the way, and most of us do nothing about it. But why would we, when the bitters taste so good?
Some cultures are what can be called high-context, while others are termed as low-context. I live in the UK, and this is a low-context culture.
What does that mean, Ben?
I'm glad you asked. So what it means is that the message is key - it doesn't matter how it is said, or who says it, or who you are. To wit: a piece of paper is stuck onto a door in the UK. The piece of paper reads 'This office is closed until 11am.' Upon approaching this door a resident of the UK will be able to feel a visceral tug inside themselves, and if they are not sure whether 11am has passed they will feel compelled to check what time it is before they knock on the door. This is a low-context culture - the message is king.
This is all well and good - you need rules - but what happens when the message is wrong, and the residents of a low-context culture continue to follow the rules, sometimes to the detriment of themselves and their fellow citizens?
Recently I was stuck in a tailback - a line of cars that inched forward occasionally, but mostly sat idling for the duration. The distance we travelled over the course of 60 minutes was approximately 1 kilometer. And when we reached the bottleneck, the point at which traffic could pass through and continue at a normal speed, we discovered that there was nothing obstructing the road - it was simply a series of traffic cones slowly turning three lanes into two, and then two into one, with the empty lanes completely empty.
Sure, the presumption here is that those lanes were being left empty for work that was 'going to' happen. Perhaps in the very near future. But no work was taking place, there was no machinery in the road, and no workmen in reflective jackets. Nothing. Just empty road.
"Why...." I thought "...didn't someone just drive into the cones, push them out of the way, and allow us all to get to our destination sooner?" But the answer is simple. It's because I live in a low-context culture, and to do that would be to go against the very system that we all live in.
In addition to the above I also recently came to the conclusion that many of us have more than we need, and yet are horrendous human beings. We have no sense of society, or family, or unity. We live our lives in isolation, never making any real connection with other people. We don't listen. We simply wait for a moment when no one else is talking so that we can talk. We eat too much. We have too many things. We complain all the time. We make it difficult for everyone in a room to get along. We are selfish.
So where do we go from here? We need rules. We need a coda to live by. Even when that coda works to the detriment of everyone involved. What kind of a system would it be if we readjusted those rules, redrew the lines in the sand? A better one? A worse one? What do you think? .
It's very easy to trundle along following the same set of rules without questioning them and living a life that doesn't involve the word 'live.' We all realise this at some point along the way, and most of us do nothing about it. But why would we, when the bitters taste so good?