We May Never Truly Fathom Other Cultures

Let's look at some of the aspect of life described in the article. Assume I'm just some artisan, good at my job, respected for my ability to work materials into goods. Making the odd innovation here and there. As a result I'm not in the ruling elite, nor the warrior "caste", but I'm doing pretty good for myself compared to most people.

Basically let's just say I'm equivalent to a decent software developer in our society.

I can imagine all sorts of things:

* I'm ashamed that I'm not a member of the fighting classes

* I don't have strong opinions of that fact

* I have a strange (to me in the 21st century USA) relationship with those of the fighting classes

* similar thoughts toward ruling elites, plus:

- Do i worship them or revile them? Do I have differing opinions on different people in that class, or do I view them as an undifferentiated mass?

- Do I expect to have any influence, or none, etc? How do I feel either way? (I can imagine having influence on the noble class but being rather upset because they are supposed to have a direct line to the gods, and why are they asking me?)

Other things I can imagine:

* Do I fear being sacrificed? Am I ashamed if I am afraid of it?

* Do I see the sacrifices as great? Or do I see them as an unfortunately necessary unpleasantry? Or do I see them as a source of shame because the rulers are out of touch? Is there an apocryphal tradition of the Gods actually being gentle and not wanting blood sacrifice, but this is being ignored by the priests?

* If my kid gets recruited to the military, am I proud or scared or both? Do I prefer his capture or his death in battle? What conduct makes me proud or not?

Basically my point here is that imagination and lack of data combined results in a truly honest answer of "I don't know which of the options for any of the questions above is right". This leads to a simple "I don't know", not because I can't fathom it for lack of empathy or imagination, but because I can see many many different ways it could be experienced.

A common problem that's cropped up in a number of modern countries is weddings getting more and more expensive. If weddings are an important means of displaying status, and it might shame the family to seem poor, then there is clearly going to be a drive that direction. Pretty soon, people are bankrupting themselves on weddings that seem excessive to everyone involved.

Cultures that engage in religious sacrifice seem to have the same sort of problem. Sacrifice shows off both status and religious zeal, so there's incentive to try to sacrifice more than others. If sacrificing slaves is allowed, ending up in an extreme state isn't all that surprising.

No we do not, that is illegal because murder is illegal. It is not a child until it is born.

I feel like the "sweet water/bitter water" dichotomy that the Christian tradition left us[1] has been so damaging because it has formed this perspective that we can only be bad and we can only be good, rather than we can be both. I do believe some people might have different tendencies than others and some may be prone to violence or prone to love but to assume your inclinations extend to everyone else is stupid.

[0] https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/prefrontal-nudity/20130...

[1] http://biblehub.com/james/3-11.htm

I've played games as a cop where you're rolling through a rough neighborhood and everyone's immediately got their guard up, they're automatically on-edge. The tension between police and civilians experienced this way is nothing like reading headlines or hearing stories. It's long, empty periods of nothing punctuated by life-threatening situations which can build empathy for what some cops have to endure.

Movies edit down for length. Books are building a narrative, they're cherry-picking by necessity. In a game you can spend dozens of hours immersed in an environment, experiencing both the intensity of the situations and the mundanity of the gaps between.

I'd love to see some games put out by people in these difficult to understand cultures to better experience what they think and feel, the challenges they face, and to see the world through their eyes.

The latest installment of Deus Ex lightly touches on the issues of race relations, there using an analogy where "augmented" humans are suddenly the Acceptable Thing To Hate and are subjected to endless scrutiny, carded constantly for no reason other than being augmented.

The old "walk a mile in my shoes" principle applies here, and in most games you walk way, way more than a mile.