Culture, as a force, is ...

( )/a(n): 

• Thought:  Made from Thought - that’s its primary constituent - which, according to its FB-page, is currently in a Chicken n Egg relationship with Action
  

• dynamic library of accumulated consciousness: a recording of observed manifestations of human reality - i.e History.  As with clocks/calendars, it is a measurement of Time.  We measure ourselves against it - it measures us, shapes us.  It can also bend Time
  

• communal mental-image:  that amounts to an interactive mind-computer-game - with rules - generated by people.  But culture is not a real person as such - similar, but different, a virtual version of a real one.  Reality is the interface image between perception/projection
  

• living entity:  same as any other bio-mass - follows the laws of DNA - wants to exist - extend.  To that end - it consumes.  To do that efficiently, it cooperates, organizes - forms functional societies - same way cells do - except it doesn’t die like we do ...
  

• manipulatable commodity:  which has currency - human power.  If there was no culture, there’d be no power.   Culture is the magic ingredient that makes the metaphysical world go round. Cultural influence is a finite commodity.  The more it is centralized, the less influence the individual has - & vice verca - it's an inverse relationship.
  

• two-way street:  if Culture’s Dynamic is functioning healthfully, it influences you - but you can influence its arse back. The Taiwanese indigenous buluo  community is one good example - traditional & modern versions -  where the village has real power.  It was under attack by Big-culture - fought through it in the 1990s - still going strong today.  It’s also at the heart of Aristotle’s polis thinking - the first anti-globalist - he knew the dangers of power centralization having lived in the time of Alexander the Great.   The ideal state, Aristotle said, is one encompassed by the range of the town-crier’s voice.  That way, if you’ve got a good idea, or a helping hand, or a grievance, you can input it meaningfully into your culture . Try doing that in the New Normal - see how you get along.  Indigenous (& non) communities,  self-sustaining ones, are vestiges of Aristotle’s polis.  If the power/internet goes off in a drawn out war, which it will, these communities will come roaring back into style
  

• eternal God:   outlives us all - true life after death