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Qube Since: Jan, 2001
Aug 25th 2016 at 3:22:12 AM •••

As it relates to Real Life examples, would it be possible to spin this trope in a good light? I'm thinking of such things as homeless folks having access to portable electronics such as cell phones. Sure the irrational "how destitute can they be if they have cell phones" logic is there, but nobody's homeless by choice, and having access to such easily mass-produced marvels gives them an opening to improve their situation.

I'm aware of how lightly one has to tread when mentioning things like this, so I'd like a second opinion before I proceed.

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szielins Since: Mar, 2013
Aug 25th 2016 at 4:10:38 PM •••

Good light or bad light is irrelevant in this case. Homeless people in the developed world are still part of the developed world, and thus are of the same culture as the rest of the developed world. Hence, they're not a separate culture with access to surprisingly complex technology in the first place. (Or at least no more so than, say, academic historians, or the owners of orange tree orchards, or centrifuge repair technicians.)

serialkillerwhale Since: Feb, 2012
Feb 23rd 2014 at 4:34:40 PM •••

Would Korea, China and Japan count?

My arguement here is that Those three countries (And alot of smaller ones in the east-asian area) have a serious "Elders are wiser and infalliable" group mentality, one that can be outright fatal when they're a Captain and Co-pilot, since the Co Pilot is also there to double check and question the captain so that one's mistake is correct by the other.

In the much more stratified and rank-based eastern culture, to question or challenge one's superiors is well, frowned upon.

NOTE: This isn't the Culture in tech in general but East Asian Culture's being unsuited for Aviation, where the Co-pilot has to be willing to take over if the Captain makes an error and atleast seriously prod the captain when he has doubts. This coming from a Chinese-Canadian Immigrant.

Edited by 216.123.181.119 Hide / Show Replies
SeptimusHeap MOD (Edited uphill both ways)
Feb 23rd 2014 at 10:46:48 PM •••

I think that any RL examples of this trope would be questionable, as it's hard to find a "Low Culture" qualifier for these.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
serialkillerwhale Since: Feb, 2012
Feb 24th 2014 at 7:30:08 AM •••

My point here being that the "Culture" is still has a ways to go before catching up to modern social requirements for things like Flight.

East Asian society is still highly hierarchical meaning that you must obey and defer to your elders and superiors. This is a functionally incompatible with Modern Aviation, where double-checking and second guessing eachother, is key to avoiding pilot errors.

And this isn't my view, Korean Air themselves admitted it was a problem.

The "Low" Hierarchical Culture that is compatible the "High" Aviation Tech.

@it's hard to find a "Low Culture" qualifier for these. And I'd say Warrior Eowyn puts it fairly succinctly. I won't bother to quote since well.....It's right down there :P The Hierarchical nature of East Asian Culture makes it unable to deal wit the Ramifications of the Cockpit.

Edited by 216.123.181.119
serialkillerwhale Since: Feb, 2012
Mar 8th 2014 at 9:32:51 PM •••

Going to add this by Sunday if no one objects, I think I've given enough time to consider it a good option.

Kif Since: Oct, 2012
Dec 23rd 2013 at 1:29:49 PM •••

Where's that image from?

And then everybody died. The end.
WarriorEowyn Since: Oct, 2010
Jun 19th 2013 at 5:21:35 PM •••

I'd suggest at least a mention of the Rule Of Cautious Editing Judgement, and at most an outright No Real Life Examples Please, for this trope. There's just way too many Unfortunate Implications around judging certain historic cultures or regions as "low culture", especially when almost ALL those examples were treating Europe as the archetype of "high culture". (From my perspective, Spanish with guns destroying the highly advanced art and culture of the Inca empire to melt everything down for gold and silver - thus destroying their own economy through inflation - seems a lot closer to the mark...hence this being a controversial topic where real life examples may not be appropriate.)

The point of this trope is not just that a culture has access to a technology it couldn't have invented, but that it's not culturally ready to deal with the ramifications of that technology. It's hard to make those judgements accurately about civilizations on our own world, and probably not a good idea to try to do so.

Edited by 216.99.32.43
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