Cultural Myopia

In preparing to come to Iraq, I and my fellow soldiers underwent extensive "culteral awareness" training. While this may have raised 'awareness' I don't think that many people are capable of seeing through the lense of another culture. It is sort of like the question "Do I percieve the same color that you percieve when I say blue, or if I could see through you eyes, would the world look different than it does through mine." Culture is the framework through which we judge everything. The only people that I have seen who are even moderately successful at understanding other cultures are also eccentric. That is to say the only people who can somewhat understand other cultures are the people who never really accepted the rules of their own culture.