Do you, sir/ma’am, claim to operate by logic? If you do not, you are wrong. Logic is something you cannot escape. It is the driving force behind the large majority of your actions, and its presence in the human system has probably already saved your life thousands of times. Instinct may be why you keep breathing, but logic—learned reasoning—is why you don’t just casually toss yourself out of in front of speeding vehicles, or stick your hands on hot burners, or drive straight past the sign that says “BRIDGE OUT AHEAD.” Logic is what draws the lines that are nearly impossible to color outside of; it sets up the way in which we humans interact with the world around us, and each other. Logic is what keeps human society from slipping into an anarchic mess. Right?
Well, yes. But there are cases in which logic has little power. Ever since humans started living in larger groups, there has been an opposing element, one that has constantly overridden the consistency that logic has tried to instill in the human experience. This element is culture. Culture was conceived to bring order to societies already ordered, in their own way, by logic, and has been breeding disorder ever since. And, yes, you could argue that culture unites people, but if you think about the problems in the world today, it is also a huge part of what divides them. Culture is, at best, a conglomeration of ridiculous—and often unspoken—rules pretending to be logical. Here is an example of this in western culture (the one I am most fit to comment on): it is status quo for western women to shave their legs, but not their arms. Who decided that? Honestly, it could have been anybody. It could have been you or me or the president or the Duke of Whales. The point is, it was just somebody, just a normal human being with a little bit of influence who said “shave,” and we all shaved. What if they had also had a thing against eyebrows? You know we would be shaving those too.
I’m not telling anybody to change the way they are doing anything—ever. Whether you shave, don’t shave, use antiperspirant, wax between your toes—that’s not what matters. I am only asking people to think, because if you don’t at least think about the absurdity of some of these practices, you forfeit, and culture wins.
–By Quinn Kerscher