The complexity of some terms lies in the huge number of interpretations, each of which is to some extent true, but does not reflect the overall picture. This is what happens to culture - this word is used to such an extent that there is an illusion of an absolutely transparent understanding. How to determine the level of culture so that you can recognize it as sufficient or, on the contrary, recognize the need for careful work to improve it? If we leave academic definitions to culturologists, then any person can name some general concepts related specifically to this sphere of life.
The origin and interpretation of the term
If we study the linguistic structure of the word "culture", then we can safely say that we are talking about a system for removing all unnecessary things, about prohibitions and restrictions. The Latin word culter, which underlies the concept itself, is translated as a “knife” or any other tool that cuts off excess. It turns out that the level of culture of something is free from the superfluous, unnecessary, and even dangerous, some ideal or approximation to the ideal phenomenon.
Cultivation - bringing from a wild state to ennobled, convenient, pleasant and beautiful. Cultivation (a related term from agriculture) is the purposeful cultivation of something useful in the required quality and quantity. Consequently, the levels of cultural development are a person’s desire to improve and ennoble his life by creating rules and eliminating unnecessary ones. It is worth recognizing that culture in the broad sense of the word makes life safer, more convenient and more enjoyable. In a home application, for example, it is much more comfortable to coexist with people who mutually abide by the rules of communication, are attentive to the interlocutor, do not allow themselves wild tricks, untidiness and so on.
How to determine your level of culture in the everyday sense?
If you consider that the phrase "cultural man" in itself has a positive emotional connotation, then you really want to meet high standards in order to receive related social bonuses. How to determine whether you are decent enough in this sense to be proud of yourself and consider it worthy to communicate with other, no less cultured people? Here we fall into a standard trap, because an objectively high level of culture includes a huge number of factors, which subjective assessment can be very difficult. Nevertheless, everyone considers himself entitled to declare his personal evaluative opinion as a reference.
How in the everyday sense to determine the level of human culture? There is a need for a full set of cutlery, a fork and a knife, you can’t lick your fingers, sniff, sneeze without covering your mouth with your hand. Better not to sneeze at all. Therefore, young people concerned about their own reputation have quite reasonable questions regarding etiquette. Is it possible, for example, to blow your nose in a handkerchief, while being in society? The question is not idle and rather complicated, because you can’t sniff your nose, you can’t wipe it with your hand, you can’t stop a runny nose by a wave of a magic wand. And making physiological sounds in a handkerchief also seems indecent.
Different levels of culture in society often come into contact with etiquette, the ability to behave according to the rules established in this particular meeting of people. This phenomenon is also based on the phenomenon of subcultures. It turns out that the same actions can be declared uncultured, permissible (excusable) or approved, depending on the age, professional, leisure or philosophical orientation of the group members.
The main types of culture
This concept is usually divided into two main categories - material and spiritual. At the same time, it is hardly possible to strictly separate them, because interpenetration exists in them. For example, material culture includes all kinds of material objects that make up a person’s life, from housing, transport and clothing, to all kinds of professional and craft industries. But it is difficult to limit oneself to the presence of a material unit, so spiritual culture inevitably seeps into all of these areas of life.
If we are talking about a house, then we strive to make it beautiful and attractive with the help of all kinds of techniques that awaken positive emotions. To some extent, the design of the premises can be considered part of the spiritual culture, since in this case the artist-designer creates a certain image and perception of space using material objects of a utilitarian purpose. A great example is high fashion, which seems to many people strange, incomprehensible and completely impractical. However, high fashion does not really set itself the goal of giving the world a new look of skirt or suit. These are artistic images and emotional spiritual cultural phenomena embodied with the help of clothing, just as a painter wields paints or pencils.
The level of culture in the spiritual sense is a complex combination of intangible works, which, of course, are created using material aids. Music is completely devoid of material incarnation, it cannot be felt, weighed and measured, but in order to write, execute and let others listen, you must use the tools that are appropriate for the technique.
Social
In society, a well-educated person is most often called the one who observes the requirements of etiquette. Indeed, what qualities characterize the level of general culture in society? If we take modernity as an example, then this is spirituality, tolerance and lack of bias, responsiveness and empathy towards other people, honesty, responsibility and other positive universal human qualities that caring parents try to instill in their children literally from the first years of life. Remember: you can’t throw sand, take away the scoop and the bucket is ugly, beat the girls and fight - it's all terrible.
A brief encyclopedia of social culture can be called Mayakovsky’s poem, “What is good and what is bad”. Simple rhyming lines perfectly explain what should be considered acceptable, and what qualities are unambiguously censured by educated people and cannot be considered an imitation.
How to increase the social level of culture, if it is most often formed at the expense of the bulk of the population? It turns out that the opinion of society as a whole becomes a determining factor, and if the majority decides that a certain phenomenon does not meet the requirements of spirituality, then it must be eradicated. Society can take a grudge against anything because the most aggressive skillful manipulators act as aggressive persecutors, followed by the masses who do not take the trouble to think independently. Objectivity and impartiality in this case, unfortunately, do not work, because they contradict the primitive desire to protect “their” from “outsiders”.
Physical education
Perhaps the chanting of a healthy, trained body is due to Ancient Greece. One way or another, physical culture is called the desire for harmonious development by the method of active pastime. Lessons from the school curriculum should just be aimed at this - children have the correct posture, moderate physical activity helps to learn new knowledge, and contributes to a more complete rest. It is worth noting that now many people are trying to replace the level of physical education with sporting achievements, but sport itself is considered a separate category. It has too much focus on pure results, competitiveness, records, and if we take into account the commercial component, then we have activity solely for the sake of activity as a closed system.
The well-known slogan “In a healthy body - a healthy mind” can be considered somewhat outdated, especially considering all kinds of physical culture. You can have a not perfectly healthy body, lose legs or arms, but at the same time have an indomitable spirit. There is therapeutic and corrective physical education, which just allows people with disabilities to prove first of all to themselves that they can fully enjoy life. Moreover, the Paralympic Games have become a source of inspiration for many perfectly healthy people. Amazing motivation arises among those who admire the sports achievements of those who are considered to be disabled - they were able to overcome their problems, achieve impressive results. The motivational effect in this case erodes the framework that separates sports and physical culture, and goes into the category of real values that inspire accomplishments and spiritual growth as well.
Professional ethics
In any area of human activity, there is a set of ethical and spiritual qualities that must be observed. People often talk about the levels of professional culture of teachers, since the demands on the representatives of this profession are increasing every year. This is not surprising, because some one and a half centuries ago, children were a value of a different order. The teacher could resort to physical punishment, he recognized the right to moral pressure. By and large, the authority of the teacher was considered indisputable and inaccessible, especially against the background of a low level of education of the population. Now the possibilities are much wider, as are the rights of the child. It is impossible to consider a teacher to be a professional who allows himself to hit a student.
We can say that the levels of legal culture are closely connected with this, that is, the degree of understanding of one’s rights. The professional ethics of one group of people will always border on the everyday level of another, for example, as teachers and students in the example described above, doctors and patients, sellers and buyers.
Culture as a symbiosis of art trends
Perhaps the most extensive and familiar meaning of this term is art: music, painting, sculpture, dance, literature and so on. The variety of beauty creates a halo of inaccessibility, but even in art there are levels of cultural development.
First of all, this, of course, is a mass or popular destination. "Pop star" is a concept just from this area. In the overwhelming majority of cases, popular culture has a commercial direction, needs media support and is, in fact, a profitable enterprise. But the elite level implies the development of fundamental forms of art - academic vocals, ballet, symphonic music. That is, the direction of traditional classical art forms. It is believed that this direction can only be free or very expensive, because it is impossible to “do knee-high” high art, adding in crumbs. This must be done either professionally for a lot of money, or at the behest of the soul and talent, while one does not exclude the other.
Finally, there is also folk art, which also cannot be discounted. It is difficult to popularize, while it relates more to the fundamental part. There is also a certain level of culture, which is an antagonist of generally accepted canons. This is the so-called counterculture, to which, for example, underground belongs.
The counterculture opposes itself to the dominant direction, and in the course of time it can weave into it neatly, thus enriching the general intellectual and spiritual baggage of mankind. All sorts of subcultural movements, denying, rebellious, and even frankly aggressive, can completely disappear or change direction. This happened, for example, with hippies or punks. Everything unstable and temporary was eliminated, and now these subcultures have enriched us, adding new facets of perception.
Destructive movements that preach the destruction of cultural property cannot exist long enough. Firstly, man is by nature a creator, and he cannot only destroy. Secondly, everything created of course - when there is nothing more to destroy, you have to create, even on the wreckage. The desire to “destroy to the ground” was traced in Bolshevik morality, and from the point of view of preserving cultural values, this was, of course, a destructive trend of a temporary nature.
Improving the culture of society
When analyzing some negative phenomena, one can hear an argument such as “a low level of society’s culture” as explanations. And indeed it is. In pursuit of economic development, many areas simply lost funding, and this entailed quite logical consequences. A high level of culture is not reached by default, it is necessary to work on it, promote it, literally teach citizens. In the Soviet Union there was such a thing as a cultural and educational department, which was engaged precisely in promoting all kinds of art to the masses. Now this is not so noticeable, and many creative people sincerely believe that they are not given enough opportunities for development, therefore, society has less and less chance of raising its cultural level.
It is also tragic that people prefer entertaining art, popular, while not paying attention to the fundamental, which requires understanding, reading, revealing the subtext. There is no balance, and therefore the cultural level of the average person begins to form on entertainment content. Nevertheless, with age, many discover the fundamental direction, and sincerely are surprised that it is not as boring as it seemed to the fashionable rhythms of popular songs.
Cultural values
This common expression in most cases combines all kinds of works of art, from architectural monuments and jewelry to songs, dances and literary works. This is the totality of everything that affects the level of general culture, which forms a certain standard of perception. At the same time, any one value cannot be considered an absolute standard, therefore it is a question of perception, of the feelings that it causes. It is believed that culture should cause a spiritual uplift, which in this case can be colored by different feelings and sensations - sadness is the same equal emotion as joy. It is impossible to demand that a work of art evoke only positive emotions, otherwise there will inevitably be a bias, giving away artifice and insincerity.
It is the ability to perceive and feel the promise that determines the level of upbringing and education of a person. The lack of an unambiguous template makes it possible to develop, new cultural values appear that may contradict each other. The desire to be known as an exalted person by the specified parameter may lead to the desire to pretend to be understanding, but it is worth remembering that any work of art is ambiguous, because it affects the emotional part of the personality, and perception is individual, up to misunderstanding and rejection.
