alright when Chris Hedges uses the word culture he is referring to that which allows us to question and examine ourselves in a society he says that in paragraph 3 examples of course included art, songs, books poems always reveal what he calls an authentic and humane culture also found in paragraph 3 these forms of self-expression are silenced in favor of the communal myth that nationalistic parties established in wartime group delusion that that drives participation into the machinery of war the true purpose of culture honest and authentic culture is to freely voice once criticisms and observations about one's world in period in history this type of freedom hinders the production of the myth that the nation must embrace in order to act as one and participate in the war efforts