[stylist] Thought Provoker About Love

[John Lee Clark]

About culture:

It's totally up to you, hearing blind people, how you define your community.
But in case you're interested, Marie Philip, the late socilologist, found
that there were more than 177 possible indicators and manifestations of a
culture.  They can be grouped into three categories, and if you meet all
three general criteria to some degree, you do have a kind of culture thing
going on--but there is still a range of how distinct it is, from merely
fraternal, such as the culture of the Army barracks and of a church, to a
subculture, such as the gay community maybe, to a more thorough type of
culture, such as the black community, to a top-to-bottom whole society as in
different countries.

Anyway, the three categories are as follows:

1.  Cognition.  Examples: How you think, your values, your language, how you
function and operate.

2.  Behavior.  Etiquette, customs, traditions, rules of interaction.

3.  Materials.  Tools you use, props, artwork, food and dress.

Do blind people function and operate differently?  Sure, they do.  The
mental landscape is quite distinct, so I'd say that the blind do go a
certain length into the congnitition department.  But there are some things
here shared in common with mainstream culture, such as the capitalist
mentality and the English language.

Do blind people behave differently?  Different social etiquette?  How they
interact?  Definitely.  The talking at higher speeds, the audio cues to
replace visual cues, the "parking yourself" habits.  So, again, the blind
would have a good degree of uniqueness in the behavior department as
compared to mainstream culture.  

Materials?  Canes, audio technology, Braille, tactile labels, different
transportation tools, guide dogs, other so called "aids."  But food and
clothes and props like furniture and house are the same.

So I hope I'm not being too presumptuous to say that, yes, the blind have
something cultural going on here.  The question is: To what degree?  What do
you want to call it is up to you.  How much of it you want to embrace, deny,
showcase, or disguise is up to you.  How much you want to subject yourselves
to the values of the mainstream or how much you want to nuture your
difference is up to you.

John





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