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American Culture today is three things: Obesity, Ignorance, and "The world is me" attitude.
Obesity because statistics show approximately 1/3 of American people are overweight or obese. This is no doubt owed to the prevalent car culture and abundant access to cheap, unhealthy food. You might want to look at a nutrition chart the next time you order two McDoubles fatso. It has 920 mg of Sodium and 65 mg of cholesterol per burger.
Ignorance because let's face it; most Americans are stupid and brainwashed from day one to accept the establishment of government and of social class stratification. Go to school for 14 years (pre-school through high school), go to college another 4 (go ahead, get into debt its ok ), work most of the rest of your life, take a retirement for 5 to 10 years, then croak. Education is hit in miss in this country. But overall, they teach you just enough to be a functional worker. A single minded drone. If you have no idea what the capital of Iran is and who the president is, your the kind of person this message pertains to. Heres a link: Iran - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, time to get educated.
Generation "ME"- Made official when Time magazine made the person(s) of the year: You. Youth nowadays waste there time online posting on blogs (yea I know that's what I'm doing right now), playing WOW, tweeting, posting on their facebook wall, texting, and just generally acting indifferent to the world around them. Go to a park today. How many people do you see there? How many people would you have seen 15 years ago? My point exactly. This also ties into point number one: Obesity.
I think you pretty much summed it up. Id throw in entitlement philosophy which is closely related to 'The World is ME' . In fact, i think entitlement might be the umbrella for everything else (?) Ive made the distinct observation that there are fewer and fewer american kids working in fast food restaurants verses their international counterparts , which i beleive speaks volumes ; and I wonder how many unemployed adults out there wont work because $10 per hour is beneath them (?) . Maybe we should add laziness and apathy to your list...at least with a great many people.
what do the wars in the middle east have to do with culture going down the drain? look at Europe, they have culture still, germany went through mutliple depressions devastated in 2 world wars, and was divided for 45 years, yet it still retains culture and familiy value, the wars have nothing to do with it, and to let you know just a few years ago they were scared to show pride in their country as they would be labled neo nazis, but the world cup has helped ease this.
Can you demonstrate how the world cup has helped ease this?
An interesting point to note is that this thread is identical to the conversations I have with my friends - but about the UK. Perhaps we truly are the 51st State........
Can you demonstrate how the world cup has helped ease this?
i remember when i went when i was young, in the 90's you didn't see German flags on buildings, people just didn't show pride or nationalism, and if you mentioned it, it would bring trouble.
every building had a flag hanging out its window, i went to a public viewing and man it was intense, never seen anything like it, not even in the states. here are some pics i took after the Argentina game, and this is a Farley small city only about 60k
There really is not one. Its prevailing characteristic, however, is an extreme form of individualism. We are ceasing to be one country and becoming a nation of factions.
Here's a good quote about our current state, it compares George Orwell's 1984 with Huxley's Brave New World:
What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us.
An interesting point to note is that this thread is identical to the conversations I have with my friends - but about the UK. Perhaps we truly are the 51st State........
As an American living in Europe that is very much how the UK strikes me.
This summer I had dinner with an English businessman and his elderly father-in-law, and with no prompting from me they both volunteered that same thought.
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), work most of the rest of your life, take a retirement for 5 to 10 years, then croak. Education is hit in miss in this country. But overall, they teach you just enough to be a functional worker. A single minded drone. If you have no idea what the capital of Iran is and who the president is, your the kind of person this message pertains to. Heres a link: 
