Sir, - Culture is the sum total of the environmental effects on an individual. To foster flexibility is the best preparation for a dynamic world. We pass on values but also the skill to examine all values as to their correct basis. In that way we can change and grow. Tradition is seen as the starting post and not the finishing post. Success is the distance each generation progresses in human development and community development and the distance it extends the frontiers of knowledge.
Culture is not tribal stamping; stunting with myopic vision and charging us with the task of passing on tribal values unsullied by a dynamic world fast integrated into a global village. The independence and selfishness of tribalism is stupid. If we gain at the expense of others then this leads to our isolation and cultural and material poverty follows. "No man is an Island" or community either. We are all interdependent and gain more by mutual co operation in trading and discovering new knowledge. Peace is pluralism where all forms of thinking is allowed. Peace is an open mind where we listen and evaluate new thinking. The only revolution that counts is from a closed society to an open society; from an uncritical tribal society to a society that invites criticism and welcomes new ideas. To have debate" rather than dogma.
Education and the media should promote flexibility so that we accept change and manage change successfully. Which is better to flourish in a creative global society or to flounder in a constricted Gaelic society? - Yours, etc.,
Barrington Street,
Limerick.