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.
"Truly sucks" is an understatement. How the average American can turn on the radio these days without barfing after the first two minutes goes completely over my head. It's never been this bad.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996, preceded by 20 years of narrowcasting, destroyed American radio.
I can remember how diverse radio was when I was a young kid, when you'd turn on AM radio and you could hear the Doors followed by Frank Sinatra followed by James Brown followed by the Beatles followed by whoever etc. . We have far more media choices nowadays and far better technology but terrestrial radio is far more narrow and just plays the same crap (other than some public stations).
Likewise we have movie theatres with 30 screens but they only play 5 films. We don't have the diversity we had in the old days. Jean-Luc Godard predicted back in the '80s that in the 21st century there would be only 10 movies released a year which would all cost $200 million each as well as a bunch of amateurs making home videos for their friends. Talk about prescient predictions....
On one hand America is derided for not having a deep ingrained permanent culture. The American experience is based on a multiplicity of ideas and a strict individualism as opposed to tribal or national affiliations. This isn't a bad thing. When a culture is based so much on self invention and reinvention then you can't have a permanent culture.
America does indeed have a deep ingrained permanent culture or at least an identified source that is more respected and exalted and that is Western European culture. Anyone who comes from a non Western European culture has to acclimate significantly. Here are some of the facets of the American foundation that come directly from Western Europe:
1. Science is revered as the best way to "know" or "prove" something.
2. individualism - this did not start in the U.S.
3. certain property rights - i.e. the idea of individuals owning land rather than a group and/or government
4. consumerism
5. elitism - exalting things that only a "few" can understand such as James Joyce's Ulysses or Finnegan's Wake as criteria to be the "best"
6. the religious hierarchy
7. thinking in a strictly linear fashion
8. time is crucial
9. a relentless and infinite pursuit of "progress"
Western European culture is the one republicans speak of when they talk of assimilating the rest of us. I am not saying this is good or bad but it should certainly be acknowledged.
Last edited by DahomeyAhosi; 01-05-2012 at 05:14 AM..
Like they say...when you don't know, ya don't know. Well...you don't know.
I was married in Vejle, Denmark, and i know the country pretty well. If you can't find anything to do there, you're a pathetic soul. I mean...mundane lifestyle?
LOL @ they don't have enough money to enjoy themselves. Right...5 and 6 week vacations per year buddy!! And most take them internationally. Again, don't know what you're talking about.
The average American has the following lifestyle: go to work, come home...Monday through Friday. If you're lucky enough to get weekends off, go to the same pathetic mall that you can find in any cookie cutter suburb anywhere in the country. Dinner at Chili's or some other lame chain, and go home to watch Survivor, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, or some other pathetic reality show. If they have even a modicum of "culture," they'll go and see a movie at some garden variety 75 screen multiplex somewhere and watch Die Hard 50.
So really, i wouldn't brag too much about the lifestyle here. Going to Bed, Bath and Beyond every Saturday isn't really a cultural event....if you know what i mean. (and you don't)
Don't romanticize European life TOO much! The best thing they've got going for them is usually mandated WEEKS of vacation, and universal healthcare. In terms of the vacation, I'm afraid THAT will never happen in the United States, as there's always someone willing to work while Americans don't want to work. A lot of times these "someone elses" come from other countries! Already Americans are considered "lazy" for not wanting to work for $2/hour picking vegetables.
Everywhere around the world, the "average" person lives a mundane, home-centric lifestyle. Americans are maybe more homecentric than others... favoring a weekend doing yard work over a day trip to another state.... but to think the average European family spends its weekends visiting the symphony and sipping fine wine and cheeses under the shadow of some historically significant monument, whilst debating Greek philosophy is simply not true.
Europeans are lucky that they live somewhere where you can travel through multiple countries in very little time, via a very nice, dense transit system found nowhere in the US outside of the NE. If I lived in Europe, I probably would have visited every country on the continent by now. As it is now, it's a four hour drive to get out of the state, or to the Caribbean... which is... nice beaches.... which I sorta have 5 minutes from my house. For a lot less money!
Don't romanticize European life TOO much! The best thing they've got going for them is usually mandated WEEKS of vacation, and universal healthcare. In terms of the vacation, I'm afraid THAT will never happen in the United States, as there's always someone willing to work while Americans don't want to work. A lot of times these "someone elses" come from other countries! Already Americans are considered "lazy" for not wanting to work for $2/hour picking vegetables.
Everywhere around the world, the "average" person lives a mundane, home-centric lifestyle. Americans are maybe more homecentric than others... favoring a weekend doing yard work over a day trip to another state.... but to think the average European family spends its weekends visiting the symphony and sipping fine wine and cheeses under the shadow of some historically significant monument, whilst debating Greek philosophy is simply not true.
Europeans are lucky that they live somewhere where you can travel through multiple countries in very little time, via a very nice, dense transit system found nowhere in the US outside of the NE. If I lived in Europe, I probably would have visited every country on the continent by now. As it is now, it's a four hour drive to get out of the state, or to the Caribbean... which is... nice beaches.... which I sorta have 5 minutes from my house. For a lot less money!
All fair points, and let me add, i'm not romanticizing European life too much (at least i don't mean to), but on average, they're far more cosmopolitan and cultured than what i find here by a long shot.
That said, of course they have largely mundane lives too. There is only so much one can do for the most part, but to me, their lives are far richer than ours on average....that's for sure. Of course, you're right...being privy to a dozen international borders within a days drive certainly lends itself to enhancing ones life a good bit. That was most certainly my experience.
But for Americans to talk trash about European life is absurd. The average American is completely clueless about what living really is if it doesn't involve conspicuous consumption at some oversized mall or finding some other way to run up their credit card bills.
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.