Saturday, December 22, 2007

Cultural Capital

I do see the inevitability of a cure as in pre-natal test. We simply do not have the resources at this time to stop it. It is a shame the internet wasn't around longer before the curebies got so powerful. Our culture or "communitude" (if you will) is in its infancy still. Our survival may rest on one powerful commodity, however - "Cultural Capital". I borrowed this term from Thomas Sowell from his last book in a trilogy -Conquests and Cultures. While I do not agree with him on many things. His notion of "Cultural capital" is invaluable. Cultural capital is the reason why even after 2,000 years there is a state called Israel. The common bonds of history, religion and language held this community together and enabled it to survive. They had tremendous reserves of cultural capital to draw upon. Cultural capital can be translated into other resources. We need to build and create our own vast reserves of cultural capital. It is imperative.

A vibrant community of autistics would preclude many from having a prenatal test. It would encourage autistics to have children with each other. Thereby growing the community. I have seen how Kwanzaa invented in academia has become such important part in the cultural lives of many black people in the US. We need a Kwanzaa for ourselves. A holiday celebrated around the solstices or equinox at the end of the year. It will be small at first. But this along with autistic pride day is key to our survival, the survival of the autistic distinction.

I know I say this a lot but Autistic Pride Day is and can be more than a PR campaign. It can serve as one of building blocks for our vast reserves of cultural capital.

8 comments:

Larry Arnold PhD FRSA said...

Told you before the concept of cultural capital belongs to Pierre Bordieu

http://www.sociology.org.uk/tece1tf.htm

An American said...

Larry

1) he doesnt quite mean in the same way.
2) I had that link
a) before you first mentioned bordieu with no link.
b) in the post above before your comment.

But yes it is important to ensure proper acknowledgements are made.

thanks

Larry Arnold PhD FRSA said...

Well whatever a guy who on the one hand cites Israel as an exemplary state (Modern Israel is not the same as ancient Israel) and then cites Hitler elsewhere as a poster child for Autism, has got to be doing more harm to the cause than John Best Jnr.

Lets be done with the fictions of Aspergia and Edan Wossisname let us be honest and take our place in the real world as Mondcivitans not Israelites.

We are no more Israelites than Desmond Dekker was.

Larry Arnold PhD FRSA said...

Well that is fair enough Joe, you let my post through but think about it.

Today's Israel is not a good example considering the oppression of the Palestinians as a Christian I feel it too what is happening in Bethlehem.

Jerusalem is a Holy City, three religions agree on that.

The modern day Government of Israel perverts any notion of that. Ask the Ultra Orthodox Jews.

We are all the spiritual descendent s of Abraham and to pervert this notion is the ultimate sin, for the seed Abraham is not his DNA but the spirit of YHWH's message

Anonymous said...

The whole concept of Aspergia is repugnant to me because it divides people. However, the overall concept of what Joe is speaking of I like, not withstanding the religious analogy, for which I don't relate to because I'm agnostic and think religion is the root of evil.

An American said...

@ Larry:
The reference to Israel was but one example. Look at Montenegro a nation that disappeared and only recently came back. Also look at Poland that nation came and went more than once. What held these 2 nations together the cultural capital that the people shared.

@CS:
Religion is just one component of cultural capital.
As for people being "divided": People will never be and its a good thing a homogeneous bunch - genetically, culturally, linguistically etc.
Every species must have a certain amount of genetic diversity. Since the genetic bottleneck of 80K years, is it really clear humanity is diverse enough genetically? Also political and cultural division is a good thing as well. In the last century we saw 2 rival systems US and the Soviet Union. Now China is trying a different tack than the Soviets. It remains to be seen how successful they will be. This could never happen if people were not divided.
The problem has always been people of various persuasions was insistence of their superiority and others inferiority. So I must disagree people should be divided and in fact thinking people will divided in the realm of ideas no matter their commonality.

Jeanne said...

Religious stuff aside, I think the idea of an autistic pride day is great.

An American said...

Cultural Capital is about a shared experience, shared viewpoints a shared commonalities. Religion is ONE possibility. It is a tangential fact to my point.
Somebody Listen!please?