History: cultural neutrality

Source of version: 1 (current)

"Lojban is not a culturally neutral enterprise (how many tribesmen do you know that would give two hoots about Lojban's concerns?) It is culture-specific to those cultures preoccupied with literacy, logic, and language-play." --la nitcion., on the mailing list Nick here. I am fully aware, in saying this, that this is flamebait. I also fully believe that, in practice, this is true. Lojban sustains the culture of those who speak it. There is enough cultural commonality among those who speak it, and inherent in the language (for the last thing pred logic is is culturally neutral, as pc correctly pointed out), that Lojban as currently used is not culturally neutral. What the ideal of Lojban purports to be is a different story... ''I would go further and say that despite Frege being German, the modern logical tradition is decidedly angloamerican, as is the background of most lojbanists, and hence lojban itself is similarly angloamerican. All the same, not everything that is angloamerican is lojbanic, and lojban cultural neutrality is not a vacuous notion; for example, it motivates the widely-held view that there should be no cultural gismu (or at least no cultural gismu with rafsi). -- But then, the notion that different cultures have equal rights, ceteris paribus, is an angloamerican notion... --((And))'' "But then, the notion that different cultures have equal rights, ceteris paribus, is an angloamerican notion..." Please excuse this - linguistically - OT, but juridicial justified interjection of mine: This was what I believed for about half a century - but now no longer! Stating this other than as a mere historical fact these days, seems hypocrisy to me. I'm claiming "Nuremberg" _equally_ for _all_ who need it. There are a couple men bringing deep shame upon their nations! - Now, please precede with your "subtle" discussion... -- ((.aulun.|.aulun.)) (However, the fact that Lojban grammar allows you to write in pretty much whatever word order you wish e.g. VSO or OVS or whatever with the appropriate ''sumti tcita'', as well as other adjustments like flexible number-base and even alphabet-shift, mean that {more than a lot of ''runbau'', as well as nearly all natural languages} there is at least the possibility of customizing one's personal Lojbanic style to some existing notion of cultural propriety. But I think the word "flexibility" is better than "neutrality" to describe this aspect of Lojban's design.) ---- ((Event contours--culturally neutral?))