Part 5—Does Culture Matter?

Abstract: Culture matters and may be the best predictor of success. Yet it is a third rail to discuss social cultures. This attitude hinders effective solutions to America’s problems.

All people are the same. It is only their habits that are so different – Confucius

If we put stock in Antonio Gramsci’s concept of Cultural Hegemony (see parts 3 and 4), then culture matters. Gramsci may have been a Marxist, but that does not mean the concept he developed is wrong. Think of Cultural Hegemony as a tool. People can use tool for different purposes, some useful and some destructive. Without recognizing the term, the US used the concept effectively to create the Melting Pot and the American dream to help spread its vision and dream across a continent.

Culture matters. The American mainstream culture created the most prosperous and successful country in history. The culture nurtured and grew talent. It let the talent flourish and create technology, jobs, and wealth. Created a reasonably happy society that valued liberty and freedom. Even the poorest in America live far better than perhaps 90% of the rest of the world.

But at the same time, racism infected America. The ending of slavery started the era of racism. The American institutions denied the culture of the Melting Pot and the American Dream to her Black citizens. Cultural Hegemony did not easily break through the barriers of racism. Spurned in efforts to engage in the Melting Pot and the American Dream, they seem to have taken a different course: to create their own culture embedded within the mainstream culture. Now, as discussed in parts 3 and 4, they are using the tools of Cultural Hegemony to assert their culture to capture American institutions and use them to become the dominant culture.

Their primary tool is Critical Race Theory (CRT), which asserts that America embedded racism into everything and therefore everything must change. But do we need to throw the baby out with the bath water, or can we keep an effective system and change it to ensure all citizens partake of its benefits and its responsibilities? Given their history, I suspect many Black Americans think the system is fundamentally flawed and America must tear down and build it anew. I can understand this attitude, but I disagree.

The Constitution and the principles in the Declaration of Independence are open to all. Yes, the founders failed to eliminate slavery. But they also did a lot of things right, which led to a highly successful country. However, the adherents of CRT do not see it this way. Therefore, America is locked in a culture war not to drive up movie ratings, but to determine who has control of political power and drives the vision and shape of the future. Therefore, we need to assess and evaluate these cultures.

Unfortunately, while there are many articles about assessing organizational culture and tools galore, the literature is light on social cultures. Given the movements towards cultural relativity and acceptance of all cultures, there is a reluctance to assess and compare cultures.

I found Geert Hofstede, who wrote a lot about comparative culture. The Hofstede Insights provides an assessment framework and applied data for many countries. The assessment framework is in the bottom box of the figure. It measures Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty avoidance, Long-term orientation, and Indulgence.

While the country data for these metrics are interesting, I had two problems. First, so what? Perhaps more research into Hofstede will provide that so what, but the initial research did not really help to assess the success of a culture. Second, it did not provide a look at the cultures in a multi-cultural country.

Therefore, I developed a draft cultural assessment framework that looks at cultural attributes, influences, and outcomes. I have summarized them in the table below.

Table 1 Cultural Assessment Framework

Item	Summary Explanation
Cultural Attributes
Identity	What are the key symbols, heroes, myths, and stories? What image does it have of itself and what image does it display to others?
Beliefs	What are the core beliefs? Which are documented and factual and which are based on myths and stories?
Norms	What are the official and unofficial rules and processes? How do they implement beliefs?
Values	What does the culture value? What is important to it? Do they live these values or just express them?
Ethos	What are the guiding ethical and moral precepts? Do they inform norms and do norms enforce them? What is the culture’s character and how does it communicate it internally and externally?
Influences
History	What are the historical events that shaped and birthed the culture? How powerful are they? How much is fact and how are myths and stories?
External Agents/factors	Who are they and what influence do they have? Are they puppet masters pulling the strings behind the curtains? Are they allies or foes? People or institutions or both?
Outcomes
Prosperity	Do the people have a high standard of living? Do they produce wealth and income? What kind of business and industry do they produce and how successful are they?
Nurture and grow talent	Does the culture seek and develop talent? Do they produce patents, scholars, engineers, and scientists? Do they produce literature? How many Nobel and other laureates do they produce?
Happiness	Are the people happy? What are the sources of happiness?
Freedom	Does the culture produce liberty and freedom, or do they seek to hobble others in a quest for equity or equality? Do they produce freedom of opportunity? How do norms control behavior? Do they permit freedom of expression and ideas, or do they impose a specific dogma?

Given the current Cultural Hegemony and the labels Black Lives Matter (BLM) and similar groups employ (see part 4), I suspect they will attack any objective assessment as institutional racism, white supremacy, or white fragility. If the results are negative on Black culture, many will state they are proof of institutionalized racism and work to discredit the assessor. But if we truly want to improve the lives of African Americans and other groups, we need to ask these questions. Nearly 70 years of affirmative action and the Great Society initiatives have failed. Simply repeating them meets Einstein’s definition of insanity. Destroying American society and building it by BLM and Critical Race Theory (CRT) risks destroying the engine of American prosperity and success.

Institutionalizing racism and misogyny by reverse discrimination and reverse misogyny is not the way forward. Under the mantra of BLM and CRT it is now not only legal, but actively encouraged to discriminate against white males. This is endemic in virtually all American institutions and sanctioned by the government. If we are going to succeed in an increasingly complex and competitive global environment, we need all Americans working together to their highest potential.

Part 1: Political Movements—Maskirovka and Words Hide Meanings

Part 2—What is in a Name?

Part 3—Controlling the Narrative and Cultural Hegemony

Part4—Mining for Controlling Labels

Part 5—Does Culture Matter?

Part 6—A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Wrapped inside an Enigma