🚀 go-pugleaf

   ... psychotherapy and neuroscience dropped from followups; 
       add one back if that is where you are coming from ... 


Jim Carr wrote:
|
| You are assuming a homogeneity in American culture that simply does
| not exist.

Pepijn Schmitz <pschmitz@no.spam.stormtech.com> writes:
>
>_I'm_ not doing that, Red is. 

 Red made a simple remark about our alleged culture, your criticism 
 of it generalized from specific regional events based on assumptions 
 of homogeneity.  Red's idea of what constitutes "American culture" 
 might be a reference to our political system rather than any of the 
 subcultures that system makes possible. 

>I get the feeling that some of the people replying
>to my posts didn't read the post that started everything, in which he said that
>American culture is the most advanced in the world. 

 Oh, I did, and I know what else Red writes so I took it for what it 
 was worth.  He has not been around 'here' long enough to discern his 
 politics, but if I were to overgeneralize, I might guess that a big 
 rig mechanic would find our culture far more advanced than that of 
 Amsterdam or Paris.  In any case, the whole process of aculturation 
 is such that most people like their own culture better than most 
 other cultures.  Rather pointless, to discuss merits of one or another. 

| What you see on TV is a particular subset of that culture,
| depicted in a way that sells well.  The variety (and, in most cases,
| tolerance of same) in the U.S. is often a surprise to visitors.  The
| fact that TV takes the exceptional and makes it the story-du-jour is
| more indicative of the fact that some of the things you mention are
| the exception rather than the rule in the U.S.

>Of course they are, I'm not suggesting for a moment that they aren't. But it
>still happens more here than it does in Europe. 

 And other things happen more often in Europe than here.  Which you find 
 more objectionable (the random nut case shooting, high rates of vehicular 
 manslaughter, rampant pornography and prostitution, repression of free 
 speech, racism) depends on your own views and the culture you grew up in. 

>And I'm not basing my estimate of
>American culture on TV, by the way; I've lived here (= bay area) for almost 
>a year now and I've travelled across America quite a bit.

 That explains it!  Now, if you had moved from Holland to Holland or 
 Zeeland (Michigan) your views might be different.  Living in the Bay 
 Area (I assume you mean SF, CA) you will not find stories like 

    http://www.tdo.com/news/breaking/docs/15FFAPORN-CMP-NWS.htm
    http://www.tdo.com/news/breaking/docs/15SPIT-CMP-NWS.htm

 leading the local section of today's news in North Florida.  Read the 
 first one and try to imagine how our local State's Attorney would view 
 the culture of the city of Amsterdam.   =8-0   It boggles the mind.  

 I am *sure* he would much prefer executing the occasional child murderer 
 to having porn shops around.  Yet you go to the other side of the same 
 country and you find a very different set of views on what constitutes 
 the "public safety". 
 
-- 
 James A. Carr   <jac@scri.fsu.edu>     | Commercial e-mail is _NOT_ 
    http://www.scri.fsu.edu/~jac/       | desired to this or any address 
 Supercomputer Computations Res. Inst.  | that resolves to my account 
 Florida State, Tallahassee FL 32306    | for any reason at any time.