In my article about the stadium move, I think a few people were offended by my use of the "fatalist" group. I said:
As ever, the voice most likely to be ignored is that of the fatalist. In this case it's the general fan, who wants his matchday routine to suffer as little disruption as possible.
A problem with Cultural Theory is that the labels are loaded. Mary Douglas felt that "hierarchy" was needlessly negative. Some think that "sectarian" should be used instead of "egalitarian"; and indeed "isolate" instead of "fatalist". I personally feel that "opportunist" is more appropriate than "individualist". It rumbles on.
The most important point is that the labels are intended to assist conceptualisation, and there's no "right" culture. the whole point is that behaviour depends on the social environment.
The classic example of "fatalism" was Banfield's study, but a modern example can be found currently in Romania:
A Romanian company is accused of dumping 47 tonnes of animal carcasses on the outskirts of Bucharest
The carcasses are rotting amid heat of 38C, just metres from a main road. Piles of black plastic bags are stacked around the dump, with bits of chicken and even horse carcasses poking through.
A strong wind is blowing the stench in all directions, but more worrying is the danger to human health.
Only a few hundred metres away, in the village of Gradistea, people show little awareness of the hazard and anyway, they say, there is not much they can do.
If we can strip away the emotion, these are useful, applicable classifications.
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