Part II - Why Is Culture Important?

Having talked briefly about what a Culture is, now it's time to distill the concept down into three Principle Components; Spiritual Practice, Economy, & Art. The three things could just as well be called the three energy sources for a culture.

The Spiritual Practice(s) of a culture determine the moralistic mindset of the people. This would include which values they hold in high regard and how those values are expressed in the physical world, how the ancestral memory was kept, and how a person could achieve the ultimate spiritual destiny of that particular belief system.

The Economy of a culture determines how the people interact with the land to generate their physical requirements and desires. The way in which raw materials are extracted, processed, and used by the people for necessity and recreation.

The Art of a Culture is inseparable from the previous two topics, being bound by the physical tools available to the artists and colored by their understanding of the inner and outer worlds. It serves to preserve and constantly modernize cultural traditions and events in the outer world while it brings up emotion and memory on the inner levels.

These three Principle Components I describe as Spiritual Practice, Economy, & Art act as the energy source for the collective culture. When these three streams of energy are in relative balance and of virtuous quality the culture will thrive and expand. If these three sources of energy are unbalanced or of negative quality, the culture would decay and become corrupt.

Knowing how these three Principle Components or energy sources effect the collective body of a population, one can begin to identify and correct areas of their own life which don't align with the values they wish to live. To play off the example from Part I, one could break out of the established current and start forming their channel of energy which better expressed the way they sought to live and the values they revered. One may also find an already existing channel that fulfils their purpose and join the energy already flowing through it.