American culture is SOOO weird.
The two philosophies of American culture in anything is
1) Copy someone else's classics and make them better
and
2) Change it the next week when something better comes up.
It's so mind-numbing and that's why your education only goes as far as you
travel outside this country. We ARE so young we haven't developed our own
culture, just in mass producing it. We have yet to have any ruins for
example, where people come to just worship in its beauty. Rome does, Egypt
does, China does, etc. Any country outside the US is culturally stable and
non-changing, and where we would look at that as old fashioned and such,
they take great pride and we take much respect in their traditions and
cultures. Why else do you travel to those places anyways?
Nornny
[View Quote]"macb" <zzzzz> wrote in message news:3be011ba$1 at server1.Activeworlds.com...
> Ooooo ... I couldn't let this one pass...
>
> I like the French. They gave us that nice statue.
>
> I've never been to France, but I picture it as filled with philosophers,
> sitting around the cafes, working out the problems of the world all
through
> the day and most of the night. They gave us such well known phrases as
> "Liberty!, Fraternity!, and one other thing that wasn't as important as
the
> first two so I forgot it!".
>
> We Americans are mostly selfish and self centered I grant you. We didn't
> have cafes like the French, so we had to invent Starbucks. Of course no
> American can afford to sit at a Starbucks for more than an hour or so, but
> that's another issue.
>
> Most Americans think this: "You people over there in Europe and the
Middle
> East work out your own differences and leave us out of it. We'll just
sit
> here at our Starbucks, for and hour, and then go home and pour some hot
> water over Folgers Crystals for the rest of the day.", Oh and: "Can we
buy
> some oil off ya?"
>
> I think America, the French, the English, and even the Germans these days
> would much rather sit around and work all this out on paper over a nice
mug
> of coffee / tea / beer. We could all be "well behaved" as you put it.
>
> The problem is that there are people in this world who are not satisfied
> with talk. They see themselves as victims (see my previous post). They
> think that all the problems in their lives can be traced back to things
that
> happened before most of them were born (thus they can't be to blame, get
> it?). "In 1921 the British did something bad to us. American's speak
> English. Lets attack Americans and our lives will be better again.
QED".
> In 1492 Spain did something bad to us. Columbus sailed for American in
1492.
> Let's attack America. QED" Infantile!!!! But the concept sells over
> there doesn't it? And that's all that matters.
>
> For these people "The End Justifies the Means". More than any other
> statement, that statement summarizes the view of those that end up unable
to
> resist the need to attack America and thus draw it into conflicts for
which
> we would otherwise not interrupt our afternoon lattes. I believe the
> phrase was used in the Communist Manifesto to let its adherents know that
> they need not be bound by laws, treaties, or common morality in their
> pursuit of the rule of the proletariat. The Nazi's certainly believed
> that the end justifies the means, any debate about that? Examine the
> rhetoric of Osama and those like him and you will see that it is the core
of
> their belief too. They cannot live in a world populated by those who
don't
> think exactly like they do, and until such a world is achieved, the end
> justifies the means.
>
> Unless I am mistaken, you will not find that phrase, or even a similar
> concept embedded in our founding documents. America, and modern day
Europe
> are distinguishable from the rest of the world by their belief in
"process"
> for lack of a better term. Justice here is codified, and predictable.
> Judges INTERPRET the law rather than make it on a case by case basis. Law
|
> is made by people that we elect, and when we change our minds, we have to
> wait for the electoral process to change those people who in turn might
> eventually change the law. It is a horribly inefficient system. But one
> that people my age (old) are not going to easily part with. I hope that
> when that system is threatened, those much younger than I will tear
> themselves away from TV long enough to defend it. It remains to be seen
how
> strong our resolve will be.
>
> I can almost guarantee you that if it had been the Eiffel tower that had
> been destroyed, us Americans would be more inclined to sit here and think
> the situation over for a while before taking any action. A long while.
>
> I suspect that in every workplace there is a big guy, lets call him
"Burt",
> who towers over everyone else and weighs twice as much. We all do our
share
> of the work on a day to day bases. But when a huge package shows up at
the
> reception desk and it has to be gotten to the 8th floor, and it won't fit
in
> the elevator, everyone looks around and says "where's Burt?".
>
> It may be that there is some heavy lifting to be done in the world right
> now. And maybe we are not always so well behaved over here in America,
but
> I assure you, most of us in America are not too crazy about being "Burt"
> right now.
>
>
[View Quote]> "foxmccloud" <FoxMcCloud at cyberbrain.com> wrote in message
> news:3bdf5ddb$1 at server1.Activeworlds.com...
> foreign relationships.
can't
> really compare based on that :) still I found it was a
> 3bdf5b3a$1 at server1.Activeworlds.com...
than
> the
super-patriot's.
> ;)
> China,
>
>
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