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My point is that there is some ingredient that is missing from US.
Facts to support it can be found in where you find the best chocolate, the best food, the quality of life index, Olympic skills, heaithcare, human happiness level, access to recreational activity per capita, etc...these are the facts and you can find plenty of online links on a google search to support what I'm saying
All higher in Western Europe. I want to point it out so we can make America better so that is my point.
I want America to make
healthier tasty foods,
better public transportation,
more creative construction projects
have an atom-smasher like the Swiss have,
create from scratch the high/speed trains the Chinese have that the Germans engineered,
have better universal healthcare system,
have more tolerance to modern art and paint buildings different colors like the Danes and Norwegians do,
have more town commons for the Greek style theatre and free speech corners for all, more genres to be enjoyed thsn plain ole top 40,
Have GM and ford do what the Germans do with their mega indoor automobile factories
Have the folksy places like you have on the Danube River
Have more choices of political party like the Dutch have
And last but not least.....a USA more like Europe where spirituality and evangelism are not interchangeable words ...25% of US science teachers believe dinosaurs roamed the world alongside human species
America can do better and if we can't do this then I feel the US is not truly where I want it to be . It's not like America is enriched to the point we steer our nation...instead it's like a monarchy that colludes with corporations that dumb us down to see the same things over and over again and then people just point to what they see and this is how the real voting democratic system works and I don't like it
Personal theory is the lack of US meeting the criteria listed above is due to limited inspiration in our suburban lifestyle that I beg to differ with the other European poster, are prevalent in European towns and not in most US suburbs because of too much corporate beaurocratic power that has made it impossible for individual free speech to stand a chance
Your wish list is impressive. Once you are emperor you can enforce it. Otherwise you can do your ant sized share to make changes. What will you start with? Keep asking for more tolerance while expressing intolerance?
That is your opinion! Fine!
Now go and do some homework. Learn a bit about the US. Learn a lot about people. Gain some compassion and tolerance of others, their way of live and their views. Short - life does not stop at your plate rim.
Good luck at attempting to tell these people to gain some tolerance lol
We're Americans so we are all automatically uncultured vanilla suburbanites and everyone else is better than us, just agree with them and maybe they'll get bored and will find better things to do than obsessing over American culture and comparing us to everything.
we need to start obsessing over another country here on C-D, like India or something.
You're mostly correct. This was observed as far back as the 1970s in an editorial in the New York Times, no less.
"Because the air conditioner, the airplane and television have smoothed out harsh differences in climate, nearly abolished distance and homogenized popular taste, Americans are become much less regionally diverse.”
That, and the fact that this is by far the most corporation-dominated society on the planet means that the sameness you've observed all over the US was inevitable.
I agree with this statement 100%, about the "homogenized popular taste," and "thesameness" of the US comparably to Europe, America being more bland in this respect, but..
Interestingly enough, when I am thinking say about the US in the 50ies and 60ies ( even the 70ies,) it definitely had some different vibe, more spirit to it, more spank, ( even when you watch older American movies,) and I imagine things were less the same across the regions as well.
So I wonder what happened, is it really corporations that changed it all so much or there is more at play?
I agree with this statement 100%, about the "homogenized popular taste," and "thesameness" of the US comparably to Europe, America being more bland in this respect, but..
Interestingly enough, when I am thinking say about the US in the 50ies and 60ies ( even the 70ies,) it definitely had some different vibe, more spirit to it, more spank, ( even when you watch older American movies,) and I imagine things were less the same across the regions as well.
So I wonder what happened, is it really corporations that changed it all so much or there is more at play?
The 50s is when car culture, and suburbs were created...so, yeah, that's about when some things became very homogenized, for those whose families have that same kind of background.
You adapted your post after I had already commented on it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EricS39
these are the facts and you can find plenty of online links on a google search to support what I'm saying
That is the weakest argument people can ever use. Stating something they claim is a fact and when questioned about it, tell others to google it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EricS39
I want America to make
healthier tasty foods,
better public transportation,
more creative construction projects
have an atom-smasher like the Swiss have,
create from scratch the high/speed trains the Chinese have that the Germans engineered,
have better universal healthcare system,
have more tolerance to modern art and paint buildings different colors like the Danes and Norwegians do,
have more town commons for the Greek style theatre and free speech corners for all, more genres to be enjoyed thsn plain ole top 40,
Have GM and ford do what the Germans do with their mega indoor automobile factories
Have the folksy places like you have on the Danube River
Have more choices of political party like the Dutch have
And last but not least.....a USA more like Europe where spirituality and evangelism are not interchangeable words ...25% of US science teachers believe dinosaurs roamed the world alongside human species
What is most evident about this list is that you take incidental anecdotal issues which sometimes are prevalent in only a few countries, or even areas of that country and then want them to be implemented in all of the US.
For example, have you ever used public transporation to small towns in Holland that are fairly isolated?
The Swiss don't have an atom smasher, it is located in France (Grenoble) and part of an European project.
The high speeds trains that the Germans engineerd? The French were the first in Europe with a high speed train and designed the thing themselves. The Germans despite their engineering prowess were not first, and their maglev train is an utter failure.
Greek style theatre, what is this the year 500 BC? Nobody in Europe has that anymore. Free speech corners can be found in London, in Hyde park if I am correct, but not in the rest of Europe. And most European countries have radio stations which mostly play top 40 hits. We also have musi stations for different music, but so has the US.
A lot of what you want comes down to creating a new sort of Disneyland where people can see some things that are present in some places in Europe. One of the things about the architecture that you are ignoring is that there was a historical reason they were built the way they were. Lots of nice old quaint Dutch towns were built near water, with centres that are based on a church and the city circling outward from that church, and also built so it could be defended easily in battle.
The 50s is when car culture, and suburbs were created...so, yeah, that's about when some things became very homogenized, for those whose families have that same kind of background.
Are you sure that the "car culture" was created only in the 50ies?
"Suburban culture" - that is a yes, that I can understand, and yet... Even in the 60ies America still makes an impression of inspiring place (even with those suburbs already "in action,") but as I've said, it seems like after the 70ies something is gone, something is missing.
Good luck at attempting to tell these people to gain some tolerance lol
We're Americans so we are all automatically uncultured vanilla suburbanites and everyone else is better than us, just agree with them and maybe they'll get bored and will find better things to do than obsessing over American culture and comparing us to everything.
we need to start obsessing over another country here on C-D, like India or something.
Worse - I left the European Nirwana to be absolutely happy in fast food/car culture/no culture/WalMart USA and in The South to boot. Forgot the assault rifle and mc mansion.
No worry about OP telling me what he is doing to rectify the situation besides using Google. :>)
Are you sure that the "car culture" was created only in the 50ies?
"Suburban culture" - that is a yes, that I can understand, and yet... Even in the 60ies America still makes an impression of inspiring place (even with those suburbs already "in action,") but as I've said, it seems like after the 70ies something is gone, something is missing.
Yeah, 1950s drive-in theaters, fast-food restaurants, etc. That all occurred in the 1950s.
Cars were created earlier, but 'car culture' came along with the suburbs, when it became absolutely essential to get from A to B for many people, and it could only be done with a car.
I'm not personally saying something 'went wrong' in the 1950s, I'm just saying that's when car culture and suburbs made these 'all-the-same suburbs' that have more similarities than differences across the nation.
I should also add that with the suburbs, came zoning, and then 'franchices' which created the corporate chains that later killed off many mom-n-pop stores.
The real America is watching TV, listening to Top 40, going to Target and McDonald's and subway and barely ever leaving the backyard. And believing that the earth was created in 7 days and that this same creator had a son who wants us to love our enemy so much that we send troops all around the world with guns and tanks
Fully agree . And don't forget about the horrible sprawl and suburbs in the US. Europe rules.
I agree with this statement 100%, about the "homogenized popular taste," and "thesameness" of the US comparably to Europe, America being more bland in this respect, but..
Interestingly enough, when I am thinking say about the US in the 50ies and 60ies ( even the 70ies,) it definitely had some different vibe, more spirit to it, more spank, ( even when you watch older American movies,) and I imagine things were less the same across the regions as well.
So I wonder what happened, is it really corporations that changed it all so much or there is more at play?
Have you been there or is this a Googleism?
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