For the first time in our history the weird and the stupid and the coarse are becoming our cultural norm, even our cultural ideal.-- Carl Bernstein
In America only the successful writer is important, in France all writers are important, in England no writer is important, and in Australia you have to explain what a writer is. --Geoffrey Cottrell
The most difficult task facing us today is to persuade the person who is enjoying Christian culture and Christian standards that these do not survive of themselves... Godfrey Cowan
If you see in any given situation only what everybody else can see, you can be said to be so much a representative of your culture that you are a victim of it. --S.I. Hayakawa
We breathe culture like we do air, often not even aware of it. We do not question the air we breathe, so culture is often imbibed without reflection. However, there are times we are only too aware of the culture that surrounds us. Indeed, Christians today, evangelicals in particular, are known more as soldiers in the culture wars fighting with legislation and occasional violence than as soldiers of Christ fighting with spiritual weapons.
The general pattern is clear. People generally are unreflective, not rigorous in their contemplation of the forces that work on their minds and hearts. Christians are little different.We breathe the culture until it slaps us in the face and then we give it a quick kick in the groin. Neither response flows from reflection. Critical reflection, however, is fruitful. -- Tremper Longman III, READING THE BIBLE POSTMODERNLY
Being born in the middle of the 20th century, Boomer's education and outlook have been strongly influenced by the towering presence of two revolutionary figures : Freud and Einstein. Despite many Boomers not having formally studied or even been aware of the work of either of these men, The Freudian and Einsteinian views of the world have been deeply embedded into the culture which has shaped their generation. Freud and Einstein, from their utterly different perspectives, have influenced Western popular culture by generating two powerful beliefs: the belief that all the answers to our psychological (and even spiritual) questions are within us: and the belief that everything (not just time and space, but knowledge and morality as well) is relative.
Hugh Mackay (1938-) Generations: Baby Boomers, their parents and their children. Ch.3. (1997)
The only bright feature of cultural relativism's triumph is that it has become establishment orthodoxy and will thus one day be derided, resisted and overthrown. -- Jonathan Meades, The Times Magazine, 22 April 2000
For a Westerner to trash Western culture is like criticizing our nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere on the grounds that it sometimes gets windy, and besides, Jupiter's is much prettier. You may not realize its advantages until you're trying to breathe liquid methane.--NEAL TOWN STEPHENSON
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