While reading this lecture I found the scales of value very interesting. It is amazing how different parts of the world put different values on what they see as important and worth while. People typically believe, especially in the U.S., that all peoples should hold the same values and beliefs they themselves do. This mindset within the human race often times fuel the violence and wars we see in our world today and in past centuries because we all come to the table with different scales of value. Our country is probably seen as the worst in this area because we often times impose our scale of values on other countries, forcing them to adhere to what we want them to or else they suffer the consequences of our wrath.
As I finished the lecture I was able to see the importance of literature and the role it plays to understanding the cultures of the day, but it also teaches us about cultures and peoples throughout history, allowing us an insight into how they thought and interacted with others. This can be a great learning tool for our futures which can allow us to look at past failures and learn from them. The only problem is, humankind usually does not learn from past failures they read about. They end up thinking they can do better and go about the destructive paths just as previous generations have done before them, thinking this time will be different and they will succeed.
I liked what you said about literature being a great learning tool for future cultures by learning from the historical literature. I also mentioned something similar in my blog, that literature in a sense gives a way for those past historical figures to teach us about their experiences because they can't tell us themselves. But you are correct that humankind these days does not learn very well from past errors. They are a little to ignorant :/
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you had said about our country imposing our values on other countries. I feel that our country does this quite often. I can see how this does fuel violence. I too like what you had said about literature allowing us to look at past failures and learn from them.
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