The Supreme Leader's View of Culture

The Supreme Leader's View of Culture
18/10/2008

In the Name of the Most Sublime

Culture consists of customs that hold sway over our lives. Culture is our beliefs and things that our personal and social lives are faced with.

I consider culture to be the main foundation of human life. Culture is made up of manners, indigenous tendencies, thoughts, faiths, and ideals of a nation or society. These are the elements of culture in a particular country. These are the factors that make nations valorous and independent. Conversely, they may bring humiliation upon nations.

Culture is the essence of nations' identity. It is culture that can make a nation advanced, honorable, powerful, and technologically superior. It can grant nations international reputation. If the culture of a country degenerates and if the country loses its cultural identity, even the advances injected into it from outside will not be able to give that country a proper status among other nations or protect the nation's interests.

Culture consists of two components. Observable issues, which truly influence the fate of nations, constitute the first component. However, the influence of this component is to be observed in the long term. That is, it is influential in the present and future direction of a nation. For example, dress code - and what it is modeled on - is one of the concrete manifestations of the popular culture of a society. The style of the houses in which people live, architecture, is part of the culture of a society.

Like the first component, the second component of the national culture also exerts influence on the fate of nations. However, the two differ in that the second part exerts noticeable and immediate influence. That is, the second component is not by itself very significant, but its influence over communities and their fate and direction is very noticeable. Ethical issues - namely, the individual and social ethical values of a community - form the main part of the second component.

Another important manifestation of the national culture is to be observed when the people of a country avoid laziness and seeking personal interests and show instead that they are prepared to take action and risks for the sake of their country. In other words, pursuing collective interests of a nation must take precedence over pursuing individual interests.

Therefore, the role of culture is similar to the role of the soul in the body of humans living in society - which is itself a large human body. Conquering nations through imposing and injecting foreign cultures is not a new plan. It existed in the past as well. The only difference is that it is organized and formulated similar to other plans and programs carried out by the Western governments. And this is due to the knowledge they have gained during the last one or two centuries. They know how to carry out this plan and which areas to focus more on.

There is consensus among all nations about the fact that nations will fade away if they allow their national culture to be trampled upon by foreign cultures. A dominant nation is one whose culture is dominant. Cultural dominance can bring about economic, political, security, and military dominance among other things.

Being culturally dominated is even more dangerous than being economically and politically dominated. Why? The reason is that when a nation culturally dominates another nation, the national identity of the nation that is held under domination is lost. If you separate a nation from its history, its culture, its characteristics, and its scientific, religious, political, and cultural luminaries - if you take away the language, alphabet, books, and cultural background of a nation - the nation will become liable to all sorts of domination. Such a nation will no longer be able to survive, unless some prominent figures emerge in that nation.

Cultural invasion happens when a particular group - political or economic - attacks a nation's cultural institutions for the sake of its political purposes. They do so in order to rule over that nation. Such groups would also bring with them new concepts into that country and nation. They do so forcefully and try to replace the culture and national beliefs of the nation with new concepts. This is what cultural invasion is all about. In cultural interchange, the aim is to enrich and develop the national culture of a country. However, in cultural invasion, the ultimate goal is to uproot and eradicate the national culture of a country. In cultural interchange, the nation which receives certain features from the other nation usually looks for ideal, attractive, and interesting features. For instance, they may acquire knowledge from the other nation.

Cultural interchange is a choice. However, cultural invasion happens as a result of the enemy's will. We do cultural interchange in order to develop, to develop our culture. Conversely, when cultural invasion takes place, the result would be the uprooting of the culture. Cultural interchange is a good thing. However, cultural invasion is something awful. Cultural interchange usually happens when a nation is prosperous. Conversely, cultural invasion takes place when a nation is feeble.

The Western culture is made up of ugly and attractive features. No one can claim that the Western culture is all ugly. This is not the case. Similar to the Eastern culture, the Western culture is also a combination of positive and negative aspects. A wise nation and a group of wise people would receive the positive aspects. They would try to enrich their culture that way and would reject the negative aspects of the source culture.

Islamic culture is a valuable culture which is full of lofty values for a society and a group of people. It can bring about prosperity and honor for a society. The Islamic Ummah is a mixture of different nations, ethnicities, and followers of different denominations. The most ancient cultures and the most deeply-rooted ones existed in the area where Muslims currently live. Such a variety which is also accompanied by geographical diversity in an important and strategic part of earth can be a positive point for this great community and add to their efficiency, and the efficiency of their culture, and common history in a vast area.

http://english.khamenei.ir//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=998