Cultural Prisms, Western Individualism, and the Israeli Case

A major objective of this paper is to analyze the distinctive character of Israeli culture, in spite of current trends towards the globalization of culture. Within the wave of reaction to grand comparative schemes such as Dumont's, it seems that de-constructionist views have been too hasty to discard concern with the cultural dynamics of whole societies. I shall claim that assuming a perspectival view on the complex, open, and changing world of meanings we live in should not preclude us from recognizing that different constellations of discourse evolve in various social settings. Once shaped and re-created, these discourses provide semiotic frameworks that are ‘with us' in interpreting experience and reflecting on it, and even as we rebel or attempt to ignore them. Discussion will be focused on the hold of individualism in contemporary Israel, placing it in historical perspective. Analysis indicates that, while moving away from earlier models of representation, this dissociation has been uneven and did not ignore the models of human relatedness and public commitment that had been begemonic for decades. The new types of discourse are shown to stand in dialectical and dialogical confrontation with the older models, indicating that Israelis relate to self-interested action and public-spirited commitments in their own and plural way, which the metaphor of Western individualism will fail to portray.