Europe vs America

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OK, I'm not aware of any American who is jealous of Europe. I don't know anyone who got a boob-job on their 18th birthday. In fact, I don't know anyone personally who had a boob-job done at all.

I do somewhat agree that it is inappropriate for an American to say, "I'm Irish, Italian, German, whatever" when they've never set foot in said country. The thinking there is that the culture and traditions they practice around the holidays are typically what their ancestors did. Still, having a heritage from a country does not make you from that country.

I guess as an example I could say that it is fair for my grandmother to call herself Italian. She was born there, speaks the language fluently, and has gone back to visit Italy on occassions. While I would describe myself as having an Italian heritage, I do not refer to myself as being Italian. I don't speak Italian, and have never set foot in Italy. Plus, my mother isn't Italian at all, so I'm not even genetically Italian.

There is on major event in the U.S. that is truly an American holiday, and that is coming up in about a month - Thanksgiving. I understand that Canadians also celebrate Thanksgiving (although on a seperate day as do Americans) but that still makes it an "American" holiday if we are considering the continent, and not just the country.

 

The problem is that the rest of the world will happily learn US culture, watch US movies etc, but the US does not seem to feel inclined to do the same. Take US cinema for example, they will not play Japanese movies, unless some arrogant director remakes it (Ring, Dark Water, The Grudge etc).

 

Stereotypes. We all do it to some extent. I've only been able to do a little traveling outside the USA but having had the privilege of living in New York City I've meet people from many cultures. We all want the same things. How we view others depends on our exposure and experiences.

Please remember that at some point and time the people in the USA (and the rest of the Americas ) came from somewhere else. TV and movies are primarily for entertainment and to make money for someone.

 

Oh, is that the problem? Perhaps you should check the link below (which is in pdf format) which gives lists of both imported and remade Japanese films in America.

Japanese Film Industry

Do you know these directors in real life, or are you simply making the "arrogant" assumption because they bought the rights to remake a Japanese film (which is more of a compliment than anything)? Have you ever heard of Godzilla, or perhaps the Pokemon phenomenon which swept the US in the past few years? You'll not commonly find an American video store without an anime section.

 

I know I was surprised by how racially homogenous (at least parts of) Belgium, France, and Holland are while I was wandering around those three nations.

 

Yeah, boob jobs do sound like a hefty exaggeration, but is the picture drawn by movies and soap operas totally unbased? From all the stuff I've read, statistics, people's memories, opinions, debate voices, personal observations, it seems to me that the average young person over there has a lot more stories to tell than the average person here. Then again, I haven't heard so much from other European countries as from the US, so I can't really tell. Heck, it's probably getting even around the world, although there is that view of the US as a land of liberation not only economic or social but also moral. On the other hand, how many countries do you have that mention God on currency units and publicly in political life? It's quite complicated. From my visit to an American Catholic forum, it did look like controlling certain urges was more of a problem and challenge than in the relevant community around here, not to mention certain things which were accepted (e.g. going out with several boys and girls, treating each of them like a romantic partner, kissing and holding hands and all such), I found repulsive (and inconsistent with Catholic theology, but we aren't talking about theology here, plus it's quite possible that part of the seed of it came from Europe, anyway).

We were... well, at least a faction of us was your ally back in that war.

 

(don't take this personally, Cuchulainn, you're not the only person to express this sentiment, merely the most recent)

I find it very interesting that Americans are being blamed for the dynamics of supply and demand. If people in other countries didn't WANT American cultural output, it wouldn't take hold there. Believe it on not, American corporations don't stay up late at night plotting ways to take over other cultures. And looking at it in reverse, should Americans feel obligated to take the cultural output of other countries simply to balance things out?

While it might be nice if things worked that way, they don't.

 

To set the record straight, there is ONE girl in the entire country who is going to get implants for her 18th birthday. It was actually something of a big news story that her parent (her father even) would allow it, and I have no doubt that the majority of Americans who heard about it (myself included) are shaking their heads in dismay.

 

Actually, it's almost the reverse of what you describe Chev, at least with boob-jobs. The far more popular surgury for women in the U.S. is the anti-boob-job, AKA breast reduction surgury. Women who are particularly well endowed sometimes get back pain from their breasts, and get them reduced. I know of no one who has got a boob-job to make their breasts larger, but I know two that have gone smaller.

So overall, I'd say yes, the image you get from TV, movies and soap operas is largely unbased. I think that's also true of the non-committed relationships as well. I've never been in one, and neither have any of my friends. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, that swingers don't exist, or anything like that, I just think that the media-portrayed image greatly exaggerates the issue.

By the way, chev, you next post will bring your total to quad-8s. Cool.

 

I used to have a tax client who was a stripper. There is an actual court case that shows that breast implants are a business deduction for strippers and porn stars and not cosmetic surgery.

She may not have been the brightest bulb in the world, but she knew every aspect of tax law that affected her

 

Perceptionn is the problem I think.

No one knows enough about North-America and Europe at the same time to be able to make a meaningful comparison between them. Well, mabye not no one, but only very, very few.

Yet, there a trillions of assumptions and prejudices about. And I think it's because both, Europe and North-America, serve as a huge white canvas for eachothers people. A white canvas where people paint their fears and hopes, that serve as examples, bad and good, for ideas and concepts.

And these ideas and concepts are most of the time not at all or only remotely based on reality. That's the reason why they ring so absurd and contradict themselves.

For example:

All girls seem to want to run around half-naked. Why? It probably has to do something with the Americans... They've got Hollywood and porn!

All girls seem to want to run around half-naked. Why? It probably has to do something with the Europeans... They've got Mediterranean costs and Scandinavian TV.

And, depending on how you think about half-naked girls, you either like the continent held accountable or not. Of course, we all know that it's global warming that makes clothes rare.

Or moral decay/advancement: Look they banned/allowed homosexual intercourse, they are morally depraved/sociologically advanced enough to let it happen! Typcial Europeans/Americans.

For some, it's good to have religious symbols and acts like prayers at school. For others, it's good to have religously neutral schools. Some like countries that do that, some dislike countries that do this.

There are million of reflections and judgements that pile up to hills. And it goes both-ways. The obvious problem is that one can't think of countries as monolithic entities that happen to completly coincide with events of any sort, political, economical, sociological, religious..., war and peace...,

So, if modern surgery is advanced enough to allow breast-implants... blame mass-media for advertisment... blame other country for mass-media...

Neutrality hurts sentence-structure.

[ October 21, 2005, 20:44: Message edited by: Iago ]

 

[ October 22, 2005, 03:11: Message edited by: Jack Funk ]

 

Ok, if I read that right... What WE did to the IRA (a terrorist organization)? Righto...

Why your families funeral arrangements have any relevance to this thread, I'm not sure, but if the IRA were present and armed with guns, I think that's more than enough reason to question ties... .

I'm sure I don't need to remind you how many terrorist acts the IRA were responsible for... But, I suppose this is fuel for another thread.

 

[ October 22, 2005, 03:10: Message edited by: Jack Funk ]

 

An dairire ata tu?

Lets both try and keep this discussion on topic, and try not to romanticize child murderers, there is nothing cool about that.

Slán abhaile

 

Snook, i would hug you, if only you didn't have Redsox written all over your aura.

 

Hmm... And I must admit I thought boob job was something along the line of blowjob or hand job. Guess I'm not familiar enough with the vocabulary. Of course, any implant stereotype must be largely unfounded. As for the uncommitted relationships... who knows, maybe it's just the "hardcore" Catholics over there, then, although Mathetais said Protestants have been doing the same and he's a Calvinist pastor, so he should now. Any priest I've talked to in Poland has said that there's no way to reconcile that sort of stuff with Catholic theology. I asked two Catholic deacons from the States -- one agreed it was wrong, the other said it was perfectly acceptable and back in his homeland (Germany) it was normal too (Hey, Germans on the boards: is it normal in your country to go out with several boys or girls and treat each of them like a romantic interest, kissing and stuff until you choose just one? I believe not...). A Christian education director from some parish also thought it was normal, she had done that when she was younger and she thought it was slutty only when one guy didn't know about another but not when everyone knew of everyone. Well, I guess you know why I don't post on those boards anymore. I don't want to delve into people's relations with their friends but teaching kids that focusing on one person is wrong, so they should date multiple people is so ****ing wrong...

I know about beaches but, honestly, I haven't seen many topless women and I've been to most European countries. What's with the Scandinavian TV, though?

 

Is that supposed to be an insult? Because we are kind proud of not being Europeans.
Karl XII learned a good lesson in Russia. Period. By the way, our score in Wars against Sweden is 5x0!

 

Europeans don't piss me off. It's the people who are running my country who piss me off. Today I saw some TV coverage from New Orleans/Katrina--like ancient Greek in our Has-It-Happened-Yet World--a soldier kicking in the door of somebody's home, automatic weapon at the ready, yelling for the homeowner to come out, ready to blow him or her away if they didn't come out. Other residents kneeling handcuffed in the street, guns pointed at them, because they had refused to leave their homes. This was not a looting affair; this was how the forced evacuation was carried out. Truly shocking stuff; Nazi-KGB stuff. They were later released, since they had done nothing illegal, but it shows how far our reality has fallen from our professions...

The soldiers, and their officers, should be court-martialed for abusing citizens; the cops should be sacked. Of course this will not be done. No doubt many of our resident neo-cons will hasten to point out that it was a disaster; how can you tell who your friends are? If you should ever be unlucky enough to be caught up in such an event, it will make a fine argument when the gun is at the nape of your neck.

[ October 22, 2005, 06:24: Message edited by: Cernak ]