Cultural Dynamics Quotes

Culture is a slingshot moved by the force of its past

We learn nothing from history except the infinite variety of men's behaviour.

The wit of a family is usually best received among strangers.

Hip-hop as a culture itself goes through stages. It grows - it's breathing, living. I've noticed that we usually start off conscious, then we wind up very highly sexual, and then we thug it out. Then things get a little funny again, with comedy and that kind of thing.

From the beginning, this culture - civilization - has been a culture of occupation.

Modern culture is a mighty force. It is either subservient to the gospel or else it is the deadliest enemy of the gospel

Culture is a matrix of infinite possibilities and choices. From within the same culture matrix we can extract arguments and strategies for the degradation and ennoblement of our species, for its enslavement or liberation, for the suppression of its productive potential or its enhancement.

In the 21st century, culture is power.

We are all victims of culture.

There's no such thing as a good or bad culture, it's either a strong or weak culture. And a good culture for somebody else may not be a good culture for you.

Culturally, one of the best arguments we can make is, wait and see.

All cultures through all time have constantly been engaged in a dance with new possibilities for life. Change is the one constant in human history.

I started out in anthropology, so to me how society works, how people put themselves together and make things work, has always been a big interest.

Until I came to IBM, I probably would have told you that culture was just one among several important elements in any organization's makeup and success - along with vision, strategy, marketing, financials, and the like... I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn't just one aspect of the game, it is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.

I think that Scottish people, like Canadians, are often misunderstood and what I like about my Scottish friends and relatives is how quickly it can go from love to anger. It's a great dynamic.

Pop culture is a reflection of social change, not a cause of social change.

Our culture is just a series of checks and balances. The whole idea that we're in a battle between tyranny and freedom - it's a series of pendulum swings.

I think I'm fascinated by the power of religion in our culture. Like a lot of secular, liberal people, I ignored it for a long time. Lately, of course, just from a political perspective, it's impossible to ignore.

I just feel in a lot of ways black people are so much looser and cooler. Just as a culture, it's so much more real.

Every civilization must contend with an unconscious force which can block, betray, or countermand almost any conscious intention of the collectivity.

I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn't just one aspect of the game; it is the game.

Cultural diversity and cultural change are desirable and inevitable. We are cultural animals, someone without a culture is not human. But the cultures we possess vary enormously. Indeed, the variability, over time and space is the great evolutionary advantage of humanity. Instead of changing biologically over millennia, human beings can change culturally over decades

The state of the world, of course, is constantly changing, and so is theory.

It is a testament to our naïveté about culture that we think that we can change it by simply declaring new values. Such declarations usually produce only cynicism.

All objects, all phases of culture are alive. They have voices. They speak of their history and interrelatedness. And they are all talking at once!