Re: How long has America been without a culture ?

[GLOBALIST]

On Monday, May 20, 2013 6:11:44 AM UTC-5, Gary wrote:
> Joe Bageant passed away two years ago. But before that -- he put his
>
> finger of what is wrong with American culture. That being the
>
> fact that we don't even have a culture anymore. The crap we call
>
> culture is no more than media marketing to the fools who buy it.
>
> ----------------------------
>
> AMERICA: Y UR PEEPS B SO DUM?
>
> by Joe Bageant
>
>
>
> http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2010/12/america-y-ur-peeps-b-so-dum.html
>
>
>
> If you hang out much with thinking people, conversation eventually
>
> turns to the serious political and cultural questions of our times.
>
> Such as: How can the Americans remain so consistently brain-fucked?
>
> Much of the world, including plenty of Americans, asks that question
>
> as they watch U.S. culture go down like a thrashing mastodon giving
>
> itself up to some Pleistocene tar pit.
>
>
>
> Teabags One explanation might be the effect of 40 years of deep fried
>
> industrial chicken pulp, and 44 ounce Big Gulp soft drinks. Another
>
> might be pop culture, which is not culture at all of course, but
>
> marketing.

We are a consumer society. We are plastic and lacking creativity.
Our TV reflects a society that thrives on violence and disregard
for human life. What we call "politically correct" translates
to dull and gutless conversations.
We have to have predigested literature, music and art. Someone
has to promote "their" choices to us.
Now Norman Rockwell's, illustrations and subject matters were close to showing an American culture.
What we are left with is what is call snarky, the kind of
crap that was on the Seinfeld FRIENDS series. (permanent adolescence)
and our present American culture.

[mg]

On May 20, 5:11 am, Gary <n...@none.com> wrote:
> Joe Bageant passed away two years ago.  But before that -- he put his
> finger of what is wrong with American culture.      That being the
> fact that we don't even have a culture anymore.   The crap we call
> culture is no more than media marketing to the fools who buy it.
> ----------------------------
> AMERICA: Y UR PEEPS B SO DUM?
> by Joe Bageant
>
> http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2010/12/america-y-ur-peeps-b-so-dum.html
>
> If you hang out much with thinking people, conversation eventually
> turns to the serious political and cultural questions of our times.
> Such as: How can the Americans remain so consistently brain-fucked?
> Much of the world, including plenty of Americans, asks that question
> as they watch U.S. culture go down like a thrashing mastodon giving
> itself up to some Pleistocene tar pit.
>
> Teabags One explanation might be the effect of 40 years of deep fried
> industrial chicken pulp, and 44 ounce Big Gulp soft drinks. Another
> might be pop culture, which is not culture at all of course, but
> marketing.

Here are a some things to think about when it comes to American
culture:

1. The day we imported the first slave from Africa we planted the seed
for the destruction of our culture.

2. When our ancestors left Europe, one of the reasons they left was to
get rid of the corrupting influence of religion on government. Then,
as soon as they got here, all sorts of whacky, radical, fundamentalist
religions began sprouting up. That was when the baby camel was born
and that was when that camel first began sticking his nose in the
government tent.

3. Capitalism loves cheap labor and it doesn't care all that much
where those immigrants come from, what language they speak, or what
values or culture they have.

4. Corporations, who are, after all, people too, pretty much own the
government now and corporations don't have culture or values. One
example is the military/industrial complex, which prefers war for
profit and doesn't care all that much about actual national defense.
The insurance industry, the medical industry, and the banking industry
are three more examples.

5. The U.S. is a huge country and it was mostly unpopulated when
people from around the world started emigrating and filling up all
that empty space. We managed to fill up this huge country, which is
approximately the size of China, in less than 500 years and we have
never been all that fussy about where all those people came from. So,
in short, I think one could probably say that the U.S. never had a
single culture to begin with and, therefore, the U.S., as they say,
has always been a "melting pot", from day one.

[Alias]

On 5/20/2013 5:26 PM, Em...@nospam.com wrote:

> It seems to me that we used to be a melting pot, but at some point it
> changed to a place where preserving whatever culture one came from
> became more important. I realize this could be my impression simply
> because of where I was raised. We had white people and black people,
> but I never heard anyone refer to themselves as Italian-American,
> Irish-American, African-American or any other hyphenated American. It
> was enough just to be an American. Now we seem to be headed toward
> just being rich Amerians or poor Americans. Not an improvement.
>

Considering that Canadians, Mexicans, El Salvadoreans, Guatemalans,
Haitians, Venezuelans, etc., are also "Americans" ... Note that it is
the United States OF America, not the United States IS America.

The only real culture the USA has created is music and you can thank the
African-Americans for that.

--
Alias

[rumpelstiltskin]

"United States" is such an awkward and unattractive term
that it's not surprising that the much lovelier "America" has
supplanted it in common parlance. That's further encouraged
by the fact that early in the history of the US, congress
decided that citizens of the United States should call
themselves "Americans". I guess that "United Statesians"
would have been too ugly even for the founding fathers, who
apparently didn't include any musicians or mellifluists
among their number or they might have come up with a
name that rolls more easily off the tongue.

[Alias]

Yeah, and ego had/has something to do with it. Here you're called
"yanquis" or, if being polite, estadounidense. In South America, you're
referred to as "yanquis" and "norteamericanos". In Mexico, there are
many terms, the most disparaging one being "gavacho" which was
originally used by the Spanish to insult the French and still is. Go figure.

--
Alias

The only real problems are avarice, anger and stupidity.

[brian]

On Mon, 20 May 2013 11:26:08 -0400, Em...@nospam.com wrote:


>It seems to me that we used to be a melting pot, but at some point it
>changed to a place where preserving whatever culture one came from
>became more important. I realize this could be my impression simply
>because of where I was raised. We had white people and black people,
>but I never heard anyone refer to themselves as Italian-American,
>Irish-American, African-American or any other hyphenated American. It
>was enough just to be an American. Now we seem to be headed toward
>just being rich Amerians or poor Americans. Not an improvement.

That was the language of the melting pot, to further the illusion that
there is an "us". Us means a large portion of the people are invested
and are therefor complient. Sheep.

All those "other later to be hypenated folks" go along in the illusion
till it becomes apparent that they are not really one of us, that they
are excluded from many of the really good things. Then they embrase
their hyphen ststus and move out of the us catigory into the enemy or
"America's problem" catagory. Division.

Us is an illusion............

[rumpelstiltskin]

On Mon, 20 May 2013 18:38:47 +0200, Alias

>On 5/20/2013 6:32 PM, rumpelstiltskin wrote:

<snip>

>> "United States" is such an awkward and unattractive term
>> that it's not surprising that the much lovelier "America" has
>> supplanted it in common parlance. That's further encouraged
>> by the fact that early in the history of the US, congress
>> decided that citizens of the United States should call
>> themselves "Americans". I guess that "United Statesians"
>> would have been too ugly even for the founding fathers, who
>> apparently didn't include any musicians or mellifluists
>> among their number or they might have come up with a
>> name that rolls more easily off the tongue.
>>
>>
>
>Yeah, and ego had/has something to do with it. Here you're called
>"yanquis" or, if being polite, estadounidense. In South America, you're
>referred to as "yanquis" and "norteamericanos". In Mexico, there are
>many terms, the most disparaging one being "gavacho" which was
>originally used by the Spanish to insult the French and still is. Go figure.

I don't mind "Yankee". I call myself that sometimes, though
I never call myself "American". "Yankee" I regard as being just
New England and New York. Since I can relate somewhat to
the people of that region, and since I was brought up in
Massachusetts, I'm fine with "Yankee", though I spell it
"Yanqui" more often than not. If I called myself "American",
I'd be associated with Dixie and the Midwestern Bible Belt,
and I wouldn't want that!

My best friend who was down here from Alaska last month
said to me that "You're American", though, and much as I
protest that I'm English, I am unfortunately Americanized by
now, since I've lived in the USA ten times longer than I lived
in England. (You can tell that I'm "Americanized" because
I spelt "Americanized" with a "z".)

[Alias]

On 5/20/2013 10:25 PM, Gary wrote:
> IMO, the destruction of American culture can be traced to the
> acceptance of daily TV.

Before TV, folks gathered round the radio. Before that, they read books.
Now they look at kittens on Facebook.

[Werner]

You must not get around much. American culture has been accepted and adopted around the world. English is spoken widely. Most everything in terms of inovation and invention that matters around the world began in America. American music, movies, TV are ubiquitous. Most of the finest universities are here. American business practices are found all over the world. This is also the case with American military science and science in general. The environmental movement now widely ebraced was started by American Rachel Carson. American agricultural practices span the globe.

[Alias]

On 5/21/2013 5:22 AM, Werner wrote:
> English is spoken widely

I think the British had something to do with that.

[Alias]

On 5/21/2013 5:22 AM, Werner wrote:

> Most of the finest universities are here.

And the most expensive leading to having students with the most student
debt in the world. Great culture!

[mg]

On May 20, 9:26 am, Em...@nospam.com wrote:

> It seems to me that we used to be a melting pot, but at some point it
> changed to a place where preserving whatever culture one came from
> became more important.  I realize this could be my impression simply
> because of where I was raised.  We had white people and black people,
> but I never heard anyone refer to themselves as Italian-American,
> Irish-American, African-American or any other hyphenated American.  It
> was enough just to be an American.  Now we seem to be headed toward
> just being rich Amerians or poor Americans.  Not an improvement.

There's a lot of truth in that, I think. With the Republican "Southern
strategy", the idea is to win the racist vote for the Republican party
and they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. The Republicans
want Bubba to think the blacks have destroyed their genteel Southern
heritage and culture which includes a lot of fabulously, wonderful
things like drinking mint juleps and speaking with that beautiful
Southern drawl and believing that man lived along side dinosaurs and
watching the slaves working happily in the fields.

Black leaders, on the other hand, are also perpetually busy filling
black people's minds full of a lot of bullshit about their fabulously,
wonderful, non-existant black culture, which includes marching in
Washington to get more benefits and murdering the English language and
having as many children as you can in order to gain more political
power and fight the white man's diabolical plans to commit genocide
against the black people.