Cultural Appropriation

Hindu (ॐ) Depiction The traditional
guru–disciple (गुरु-शिष्य) relationship

Cultural Appropriation |
Wednesday – October 21, 2026

There has been and there is still quite a lot of talk about the concept of cultural appropriation, particularly within identity discourse, and while some of these people may have certain valid points, my aim with this post is not really to agree with these people as much as it is about attempting to describe a real behaviour. Now, I should preface this post by stating that I do not care for the behaviour of other people and I do not seek to regulate or control the behavior of other people. These points are merely observations about a very real thing in the world, whether or not you like it, or indeed whether or not I like it. It is certainly the case that a kind of cultural appropriation is quite inevitable in this cosmopolitan so-called melting pot of the west, read "My Views on Multiculturalism". It is also the case that yes, capitalism like it always does, will transform anything into a commercialized and compartmentalized product ready for sale, and this includes turning certain cultural aspects into a bastard version void of any residue of the great tradition.

    The fact that certain groups, particularly indigenous and aboriginal groups, should find this quite offensive and unfortunate is wholly understandable and quite sad, and there exists a tension here of course, where a lot of groups who have been at the receiving end of violence are now being "protected" from the commotion of the modern world, and of course this "protection" has really only served to turn the world of these people upside down even more, because it is quite impossible for these people to live in accordance with their traditions in a world that is nowadays unable to support these traditions, and so they are left with merely the residues of a once great tradition. Now, what are these groups supposed to do with this heritage but commerialize it or indeed wholly integrate themselves into the "civilized world"? I think the plight of the Aboriginal population in Australia is a particularly poignant example of this, but the same thing applies to much of the indian, also known as reds, population of North and South America: a lot of these groups find themselves almost completely unable to uphold any semblance of their former tradition, and so they either live in despair or they embrace the material order by often commerizaing aspects of their own culture. In this last connection it is perhaps appropriate to speak of a kind of sideways appropriation, where different distinct demographics, read "What is the 'Anthropological Distance?'", are left with no other choice but to embrace the ways of Western man, that is they are essentially forced to appropriate their own culture, which is perhaps a greater tragedy than the other way around. Now, there is also the subject of different groups appropriating cultural aspects of other groups, and this is usually what is meant by the term "cultural appropriation", but as I stated in the beginning, for the most part this seems to be an inevitable and even mostly benign aspect of multiculturalism within the liberal paradigm, and after all this was the intention from the start, it would seem at any rate.

    Now, one example of a kind of cultural appropriation is featured in the image above: the appropriate and traditional way of the Yoga has certainly become something quite different today, and it would be no stretch to call modern Yoga a complete abomination, really a monster of the modern world, a mutant. What used to be traditional Yoga has almost nothing to do with the Western inception and conception of Yoga, and most people who engage in the practise of Yoga simply treat this part of their life as another product that they can simply prefer to attach themselves to or disassociate themselves from, depending on their particular circumstances at any given moment, read "Preferences", and in this respect Yoga is now completely secularized and stripped of all associations with real knowledge and revelation. Now, the cultural appropriation of Yoga was also quite unavoidable as the painful conflicts associated with its practice in the context of disparate cultures would become far too great, and in keeping with the currents of the Kali Yuga, it would be quite right to expect Yoga to simply default to a degenerated version grounded in the Western worldview rather than the Middle Eastern and Indian worldview, and besides these people had to make their living at some point still, thus they were more than happy to lose most of their most intrinsic and fundamental cultural features in the negotiation with the Western world, read "Is Diplomacy Worthwhile?". You may call individuals who are more than happy to sell out their culture malefic, but do not forget the current cosmological environment, before you do so. It should perhaps come as no surprise too that the aspect most misunderstood by Westerners is the most explicit and exoteric of the Yoga, because most Westerners prefer to keep a perfectly lexicalic and exoteric conception of each principle in the world, which is why the critical point of confusion did quite inevitably revolve around what Westerners label "sexual abuse", but perhaps more on that another time. Of course, the colonial aspect of the degeneration of Yoga should not be understated here, because violence was never far away from these people. To think that many Westerners at any rate used to fancy themselves more "advanced" than most of their colonial subjects is quite ironic in this context. Of course, a similar practice to Yoga, though never equivalent, did exist in Ancient Greece. I suppose we may talk about the cult of the individual when we should refer to the West, but perhaps it would even be more appropriate to talk about the cult of vanity? It seems to me more striking at any rate and often more accurate as well. There is also the silly and childish aspect this concept of "cultural appropriation", but this is an aspect that I have elected to specifically avoid in this post, as I have no interest in getting all too bogged down in the modern heavy discourse, and besides I would argue that everyone engaged in this discourse are wrong for different reasons, and this is why the entire thing is childish to begin with.

Reginald Drax (M. C. Dutt) – October 21, 2026.