Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Accepting the changing of the Deaf Culture like any other Cultures

After watching the movie last weekend, there were many conversations about it and the Deaf culture itself. I am thinking: How do we deal with opinionated individuals who are not willing to be open-minded about their Deaf culture's traditions, belief systems, and behaviors that will change no matter what?

I love cultures and I admire people who support their cultures. However, sometimes people will take their culture into a powerful disruption of unity, ego and self-image. Today, we all have to face the realistic expectations of what we can cherish actually cherish Deaf culture. We all must pursue cross-cultural knowledge and there will be obstacles in which we can overcome. We all are a social species that we grew into and like to remains connected to those we know (culture), those who have taught us what we are familiar with. In reality, change can affect a person’s sense of identity. Most cultures are basically conservative in that they tend to resist change that all cultures have been inherently predisposed to change, resisting change and that culture loss is an inevitable result of old cultural patterns being replaced by new ones. Older generations are often reticent to replace their comfortable, long familiar cultural patterns that their habitual behavior provides emotional security in a threatening world of change.

The Deaf culture is not immune to change. Change will happen regardless they acknowledge or not.

6 comments:

Karen Mayes said...

Gotcha. All the cultures are not immune to the changes... changes are terrifying for some people who view them as death knell, which is not true.

In order to survive and grow, we have to accept the change and go with the changes.

Unknown said...

Well said. It has a lot to do with economic and power factors in making decisions, being open, honest, and keep seeking for healthy equilibrium between cultures.

drmzz said...

So you base your theories upon a TV movie? That's deep. Cultures exist because of white privilege.

Karen Mayes said...

Kim also wrote a good posting, similiar to yours.

Cultures can't stop the time marching on. We have to march with the time, or we'd be very behind :o)

whimsical brainpan said...

Change is a constant. It can not be avoided.

Abbie said...

We grow old whether we like it or not, our bodies are constantly changing. Change is inevitable.