Yes, but the personal is also public to a very large degree. In olden times this was because personal life was more public and public life more intimate. Almost everyone who mattered to someone would be living within an hour's walk.
Today we have a veritable knowledge industry which an ape a psychic ability to get inside the person of another. If you know i am autistic, you can make a hundred more or less pretty good predictions about me; if you know i've been in a twelve-step program, you can make a dozen more. Most of these things are things you don't need to know and maybe should not know.
But if we come from different societies and cultures, there may be things we need to know about each other's society and culture to ensure that we will give proper respect to and not offend each other. One culture's blessing is another's curse, and so on.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2011-11-02 01:28 am (UTC)Today we have a veritable knowledge industry which an ape a psychic ability to get inside the person of another. If you know i am autistic, you can make a hundred more or less pretty good predictions about me; if you know i've been in a twelve-step program, you can make a dozen more. Most of these things are things you don't need to know and maybe should not know.
But if we come from different societies and cultures, there may be things we need to know about each other's society and culture to ensure that we will give proper respect to and not offend each other. One culture's blessing is another's curse, and so on.