The Perfect Human

Communal memory and experience are often dictated by those with the power, intelligence, or popularity to establish cultural norms, values, and ideologies. These same people make imperative decisions for the community regarding action and opinion. Ironically, the opposite occurs as well. Such is the case with politicians. Those in the GOP are expected adhere to a certain absurd ideology, because the public expects a certain rhetoric. Conversely, popular politicians and varying prominent figures in society can also determine what is normal and what ideologies and values are important to the culture that surrounds them. Both the use and creation of memory are unethical and yet necessary, to an extent. To use memory is to make assumptions regarding the past, most of which have been swayed by emotion, preference, or the power of others. To create memory is to imbue others with a false sense of self or community. Both are unavoidable and natural within daily life and society. Meville Herskovits recognizes the relationship between these cultural characteristics and a conformed memory of history and experience that sways a collective perception of materiality. According to Herskovits, African culture, as examined through the Western sieve, is morally bankrupt and ideologically backward. However, those same Africans being judged through by the Western mentality, in turn judge Western culture with the same harsh criticisms. Herskovits asserts that all cultural values are gathered and assimilated through “the group into which [we are] born.” Ultimately, absolute values become “intangibles.” The same holds true in the arguments expressed by Elizabeth Loftus. Translated to a more intimate level, Loftus proves that memory is a subjective construct of the world around us. As the environment changes, so to does our perception of the events. This relates to a quote from Seinfeld that has been featured lately within the media, “It's not a lie, if you believe it's true.” Taken out of it's comedic context, the quote honestly conveys what Loftus has been asserting throughout her career. Through various experiments and in-depth research, Loftus has shown that people can be made to remember events that did not occur. This demonstrates the overall nature of memory, especially within the confines of a community. Via the influence of others and a cultural environment, memory can manipulate and be manipulated. This action can neither be ethical nor unethical in and of itself, but rather becomes unethical depending on the circumstances and means by which memory is being manipulated. Often this accumulation of shared memory or understandings, gives meaning and definition to specific societies and geographic entities. The separation and development of shared cultural memory and experience has led to both conflict and unity. Despite the many horrors and complexities of it's existence and operation, cultural memory is synonymous to the human experience.