Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It doesn't bother me that Africans or Middle Easterners are hoodwinked into believing some very far out things. Americans are among the wealthiest people in the world and are born with the most opportunity in the world. That certain aspects of this country's culture continue to exist in spite of this is troubling.
America is also an interesting example in that the same people who reject idealism and abstract thought in favour of practicality also reject empiricism in favour of superstition whenever it suits them.
Heck, I'm talking about Western Europe, the so-called bastion of enlightenment. Sit in a bar or at the dinner table with nice, supposedly educated middle class English, Germans, French, or Italians, and you'll be surprised at the nonsense you hear.
Giesela: On the other hand, the US is unique in that middle-aged people who choose to return to school or learn something knew face no mockery or opprobrium (sorry for the "big word", folks, but I think it fits here). I lived in the Soviet Union -- and as I remember, in the Russian culture (which is quite close to the Ukrainian culture in that respect), learning is something that small children and teenagers do. Once you are past the age of, say, 25, it becomes embarrassing to admit that you are studying something. I even have known a couple of Russian women in the US who refused to go to ESL classes because they considered it beneath them to become students again at the ripe old age of, like, 28. That aspect of the Russian culture is highly anti-intellectual, and it's not matched to by anything comparable in the American culture, where learning is encouraged and respected. I also encountered rabid anti-intellectualism while in school in Russia. So don't idealize, G. Given that the Soviet Union pretty much exterminated its intellectual class with the consent of the majority of its population, I think that part of the world ill qualifies to serve as an example of intellectualism to anyone, least of all the Americans.
I guess it depends on the Russian crowd you hang out with. People at the Kurchatov Institute all seemed to think it was really cool that I was learning Russian, so few American scientists would make the effort, and they seemed to think it was *really cool* that I had read "Moskva-Pitushki", would use Sharikov's toast from "Dog's Heart" by Bulgakov, got into the culture as well as just learning the language. I don't think it was just because it was easy and convenient when I would get sidebar comments in untranslated Russian, clearly these guys respected me more because I had paid my intellectual dues.
These guys also delight in intellegence, separate from erudition, although they are most pleased when they see both at once. It amazes me the things these guys know and are thinking about. Walking through DC with a few of them, we passed a parked Yamaha R1 motorcycle, we made comments to each other (all-male crowd) that such motorcycles are "better than sex", taking full advantage of the collosal expressive power of the Russian language...and one guy notes to me how integral the very soft, grippy tires of the bike are to it's performance envelope - this guy probably does not even have a car, he's lived in Moscow since the 60's - but his intellectual curiosity went out to a bike that he'd probably never own or even ride, and would have a hard time keeping up with where he lives - go figure.
I have a study from one of these scientists on the entire life cycle of the nuclear industry - starting in the 1940's and looking forward to the evenual exhaustion of known uranium reserves - looking some 3000 years or more into the future. Of course it's not guaranteed accurate in the details, but at least in Russia people think about topics like this - sometimes I think I am the only native-born American who will think more than 3 months into the future...
If you watch the Russian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire", the questions are serious, they ask about real history, real science, while the American version asks about the names of charachters in various inane sitcoms, mostly...
So in my experience the Russian culture is much more intellectual than the American one, particularly when one considers "popular culture".
Oh yeah, the cuisine is excellent too. Although vareniki and pelmini are on the plain side of Russian cuisine. Probably the most popular cuisine would be Georgian, though.
Probably my favorite restaurant world-wide would be Hizhina in Moscow. Georgian food.
Unless you're going to appear on Jeopardy!, knowing a bunch of inapplicable trivia isn't very "useful".
It's only useful to someone's ego.
I wish I could press a delete button for all the useless trivia cluttering up my memory bank which is there mostly to enhance my ego.
Just keep the vital information which doesn't serve my ego as well.
But the ego is forever hungry and thirsty. Guess I'll never become a full-fledged Bhuddist, which calls for dropping the ego. Becoming thought-less.
What are the purpose of so many of our thoughts? To entertain the mind, no less.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Guard your memory bank
