First - Group and individual culture

To show that search for dignity and culture is taken seriously, the first post is presenting views on definition and existence of culture. Culture as a word has c. 6 meanings (see Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary for more) one of which defines culture as "the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group ; the characteristic features of everyday existence (as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time" and so on about common goals etc etc.

But is it possible to characterize certain group of people as having a culture? Or being cultural? How do you define characteristic features or customary beliefs? If you are too narrow or strict you will end up with group of very limited "membership base". If you are too broad and vague you will encompass people who feel as belonging to other cultures and not the one defined by you. Argument goes that we cannot attribute certain group of people with specific culture because as much as we want them to be the same, people are diverse. In any group there will always be someone who does not belong. Who stands out. Someone with different preferences and different views. For example there is always some Arab drinking alcohol (either secretly or openly) and there is always some Russian preferring beer to vodka. As absolutely homogeneous group of people (meaning that its members have same characteristics) does not exist, there does not exist group of people with specific culture.

Culture can be developed only on the individual level through "the act of developing the intellectual and moral faculties especially by education" and experience. Individual culture can be than defined as "enlightenment and excellence of taste acquired by intellectual and aesthetic training". This blog is dedicated to search and description of individual culture in views of the author.

Note: All quotes and citations used are from the Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary - entry "culture".