What do we question? The behavior or the factors that form the behavior? The consequence or the underlying assumption?
Do we seek to treat a headache by popping a pill or do we try to understand the reason for the headache?
It’s like when a person is ill and has nausea and we try to give them pills to stop the retching instead of trying to find out and treat the underlying illness.
To completely understand culture, we need to look into the deeper artefacts, the perceptions, beliefs, values, history etc. that led to the norms that are validated and manifest through the behavior we see in people.
Until we understand the deeper things that we cannot see, we cannot effectively change their manifestations which we see.
How can you get a person to question an assumption if you don’t understand the beliefs on which that assumption is founded?
So…can we decide to consciously ask ourselves what values, beliefs and perceptions have shaped our behavior and if those values are true and relevant in our current society.
We seek change but we must be the change we seek first, then it can resonate into our spheres of influence. However, change needs to come from a place of deep understanding of the factors that yield the results we do not like, which we seek to change.
The invisible controls the visible.