What is the role of "culture" in socializing individual behavior?

Every baby receives two main “gifts:” a set of genes and immediately after birth the constant pressure to conform to the VABEs of the parents. What are VABEs?

Genes are physical packets of information that we continue to learn about and which have enormous influence on our behavior. Imbalances in the 300 + known chemicals in the human brain can cause debilitating conditions like schizophrenia (1% of the population worldwide) and many other syndromes/mental illnesses.

Right after birth the people who are caring for the defenseless baby are by their very examples and precepts educating the child on what is acceptable and what is not. If you and I had been born in different regions of the globe, clearly our VABEs would be dramatically different. All children are raised in three major VABEs of the parents: I know what’s right for you, I have a responsibility to teach you what’s right for you, and I have a responsibility to punish you if you don’t do what’s right for you. (Thank you Bill Glasser Choice Theory) So defenseless babies are taught what’s okay and what’s not okay. And that varies from region to region, from culture to culture. Culture by the way is a set of shared VABEs.

So is “useful to society” a citizen that simply accepts and passes on that culture—however misguided it may be? There are 23 countries that still tolerate and in so doing teach female circumcision and mutilation. Should a child be required to memorize the Koran, the Bible, the Torah, the Bagavagita, the Tao de Ching? Virtually all of the VABEs that parents impose on their children are regionally based. Again, if you and I had been born in a different global region, our VABEs would be very different.

So “culture” (a set of shared VABEs) is what teaches a child acceptable and unacceptable behavior. These are usually “set” by ages six to ten (depending on the child developmental scholars one reads). Changing those VABEs then becomes a big challenge—and so cultures persist generation after generation.

The acclaimed psychologist Mihalyi Czikszentmihalyi noted in his book The Evolving Self that most people are simply vessels that transmit the VABEs of the last generation onto the the next generation. SO, the most important question in life becomes:

“Will you ever be anything more than a vessel (like a viral shell) transmitting the genes and VABEs of previous generations on to the next?” The answer for the vast majority of people is “no.”

Few, maybe 1–5% of people are willing, able and courageous enough to challenge the VABEs they were taught as defenseless children—much less actually change them. In my seminars worldwide, people estimate that the people they know are 95–99% habituated to their VABEs. Mindlessly repeating them year after year. Kiss, bow, or shake hands? (a book) And the greeting is just the tiny tip of a huge iceberg of VABEs.