I’m wondering if it’s time to get rid of the word “culture” and replace it with something more interesting and true to reality, like “meme” or “miasma.” I use the word myself a lot because it’s so handy. But I am tiring of its elasticity and its ubiquity. Two weeks ago, I said something like, “no functional culture would countenance such a thing” and a lot of people became extremely angry. Then I read a book full of the terms... Read more