The Trap of Cultural IllusionIn this age, the easiest and most dangerous comfort is the illusion that "culture" can encompass everything. Whenever war, disaster, or division occurs, someone proclaims that "music transcends borders" or "literature connects people," but the pleasantness of these words often obscures the reality of violence and inequality. Rather, nation-states and markets skillfully co-opt such beautiful slogans, incorporating "culture" into their logistics. There, each person's "likes" and "favorites" are successively exploited as material for tourism policy, image strategy, and moral education.The cultural experiences we think we innocently enjoy are actually embedded within various power dynamics. When we watch a movie and are moved, when we listen to music and our hearts are stirred, that experience should be purely personal, yet before we know it, it's used to reinforce the national image that "that country's culture is wonderful." Our emotions are made to function as components of a larger narrative without our knowledge.This structure is by no means new. Looking back at history, culture has always been used as a tool of power. Artworks have been mobilized for national prestige, traditional performing arts have been reinvented as symbols of national unity, and popular culture has been exported as diplomatic cards. We exist on the extension of this long history.What's needed then is not to believe in "culture," but techniques for "distancing ourselves from culture." Loving a work and supporting the country or community to which that work supposedly belongs should be entirely different dimensions of action. Nevertheless, society often equates the two, demanding "If you like that, which side are you on?" This very question is the first trap that transforms culture into a political tool.Small Desertions and BoundariesWhat's required is a way of conducting oneself where one continues to engage deeply with a particular culture or language, yet never behaves—or is made to behave—as its representative. This conduct appears not as heroic resistance, but as small "desertions." For example, quietly pulling back your chair and stepping away from the "common sense values" shared at a work drinking party. Averting your eyes from the flood of breaking news and standing still in front of your bookshelf. Instead of immediately reacting to the anger and mockery filling your timeline, saying nothing in the moment and simply jotting down your discomfort in a notebook.Such actions may appear from the outside as the laziness of "doing nothing," but they are actually the minimum boundary lines for protecting the sovereignty of the spirit. These boundaries don't signify disconnection. Rather, they are preparation for protecting oneself from easy conformity and integration, and for building truly meaningful relationships. Just because we watch the same movie or listen to the same music as someone doesn't mean we share the same values. Sharing culture and sharing ideology are completely different things.In redrawing these boundaries, reading and dialogue remain important tools. What reading provides is not just knowledge or emotion. It's also a "place of dwelling" where we can hold our own powerlessness—being in the midst of violence happening somewhere in the world yet unable to directly intervene. The inability to completely condemn something, the inability to fully defend something, and the image of oneself standing between them—all of this can be left on the page as is.Dialogue has a similar function. Talking with someone doesn't necessarily mean reaching agreement. Rather, it's an act of confirming our differences and testing whether we can remain in the same space while holding those differences. Taking time to not fear silence, not rush to conclusions, and simply receive the other person's words as they are. Such practices of dialogue open the possibility of using culture not as a weapon but as a bridge.The Courage to Accept SuspensionWhat exists there are not words to prove "correctness," but words for the suspension of "not yet decided." Modern society demands that we immediately express our position on every event. Social media constantly forces us into a binary choice of "like" or "dislike," and silence is sometimes interpreted as "indifference" or "complicity." However, not being able to immediately answer complex problems, suspending judgment, is never an escape. Rather, it's proof that we're seriously accepting the complexity of the problem.The ethics needed for the new era probably begins with the courage to accept this "suspension." We accept as a stance, not as shame, the inability to fully take any country's side, the inability to fully agree with any justice, the inability to completely belong to any community. On that basis, while clearly saying "no" to words that support violence, we strive not to imagine the person who uttered those words as simply an enemy.This stance differs from relativism or indifference. It's not treating everything as equivalent, but trying to understand the context and limitations that each position holds. While clearly rejecting violence, we look at the background of why that violence arose. Maintaining this balance is not easy, but this very difficulty is the beginning of true thought.The attitude of suspension is different from indecisiveness. It's refusing easy binary oppositions and continuing to seek a third way. Not black or white, but looking at the countless gray zones between them. Not enemy or ally, but trying to see the other as a complex human being. Such efforts are sometimes lonely and unstable, but they are intellectual integrity that must not be abandoned.Distancing from CultureThe proposal derived from here is simple. Before raising your voice toward grand narratives, focus on the world within a radius of several meters around you. Take time to confirm what can be shared and what cannot be shared with the specific others there. Without that work, no matter how correct a slogan sounds, it carries the danger of once again mobilizing someone in the name of "culture."It's also important to reexamine our relationship with ourselves. Do we truly understand what we like, what moves us, what makes us uncomfortable? In many cases, our tastes and values may simply be accepting what society has given us. Behind the emotion "I like this," might there be hidden the unconscious pressure "I should like this"? Such self-examination is painful work, but it cannot be avoided.It's important to accumulate small choices in daily life. Not trying to send a message that reaches everyone, but carefully delivering words to the one person in front of you. Not trying to solve all problems, but sincerely continuing actions within your range. It may lack flashiness, but such steady practice cultivates the possibility of using culture not as a tool of violence but as a medium for coexistence."Distancing from culture" is not turning away from the world. It's retreating from the temptation to understand and save the world all at once, and carefully accepting only what's within reach. Speaking about global problems is easy, but genuinely facing the one person in front of you is far more difficult. Even if we can't change the entire world, we can ensure that our words and actions at least don't hurt the person before us.Where and how to draw that line of modest retreat. I believe only those who don't forget that question itself can pick up "culture" again, not as an object of faith, but as an imperfect tool for dialogue. Culture both connects and divides us. Acknowledging this ambiguity, and yet still continuing to seek points of contact with others—this is the small but certain practice required of us living in this age.ReferencesEdward Said, Orientalism (Heibonsha Library) - On the relationship between culture and nationalism, the political nature of cultureBenedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (Shoseki Kobo Hayama) - On nation-states and cultural mobilizationJudith Butler, Precarious Life (Ibunsha) - On violence and community, suspension and ethicsMaruyama Masao, Japanese Thought (Iwanami Shinsho) - On problems of thought and culture in JapanUchida Tatsuru, Japan as Periphery (Shincho Shinsho) - On cultural identity and distance