What is Culture? Part Two: Components and Commonalities

If tensions, conflicts and irresolvable dilemmas are the spice of every culture, a human being who belongs to any particular culture must hold contradictory beliefs and be riven by incompatible values. It’s such an essential feature of any culture that it even has a name: cognitive dissonance.

Each of these societies has its own program for everyday living, a code for what is considered normal. We know this intuitively when we visit other countries. We ask about the food, the dress, the music, the customs, and all the other codes that make up people’s everyday life—the characteristics that make up their culture.

What broad group or demographic does this story describe? What is the underlying human need or behavior that this idea is an example of? What makes this story interesting as an example? How is this same phenomenon affecting multiple unrelated industries? What qualities or elements make me interested in this story?