West Coast Connection Forum
Lifestyle => Train of Thought => Topic started by: Doggystylin on February 01, 2008, 11:10:00 AM
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If you take a look at American morals and standards and the culture as a whole it is much more conservative than Europeans today. How is this possible considering the U.S. was formed because of oppression in Europe. I just find it very ironic.
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Haven't you seen Eurotrip?
"You know America was founded by prudes. Prudes who left Europe because they hated all the kinky, steamy European sex that was going on. And now I, Cooper Harris, will return to the land of my perverted forefathers and claim my birthright. " :laugh:
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Europeans are very conservative, they are just more effeminate than Americans therefore they alwyas gotta be on the offensive so their collective manhood doesn't completely get ran over.
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It depends what you mean, if you are insinuating that american politicians are conservative it would make as much sense as asking why did stalin care so deeply for humanity, or why do christians hate god. If you are asking in the general sense why do americans care for the constitution, it's because the constitution is the bed rock of the society, it's what imposes restrictions upon the state in order for them to not interfere in the lives of the people. Unfortunately the level of propogands has been such, that this notion of protecting the constitution has become associated with those who have something to hide, after all why wouldn't you want to a completely benevolent government to impose top down regulation and control, they know best. Of course, with the latter part of that statement I am being sarcastic.
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maybe because America as we now it has been around for not to long. maybe 200-250 years. europe has been civilized since forever. America hardly has a culture. the little they have. they want to keep.
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"conservative" and "liberal" societies come and go, it ebbs and wanes. You're alluding to Europe being more liberal than America, when you find that 200 years ago, Europe was more conservative than those that founded America... but if you look back to say the 1500's, shit like pedophilia was an accepted practice in Europe at the time.
I'm not slamming Europe at all. I'm just saying that things get crazy, then tightly wound up, then crazy again all the time. This is nothing new. America is much more conservative now than it was in the 60's with all the hippies and free love, etc. And the 50's were much more conservative than we have it now... but if you look into info about the 30's, there was a TON of crazy shit going on in the urban cities of America. Now if you look at statistics, things like teen preganancy is dropping, drug use is dropping, crime in many cities is dropping, there's a lot of things turning back towards more traditional times again. a lot of it is family values hip-hopping over themselves... i.e. one generation is too strict, the next rebels and is too liberal, their children work hard to make a strong family for their children, who rebel, etc. It goes back and forth back and forth.
This is how things are... long after we're all gone, others will be talking about the same thing.
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Yo, you know that Europe ain't one nation?
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Yo, you know that Europe ain't one nation?
Yes. I am aware of that.
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"conservative" and "liberal" societies come and go, it ebbs and wanes. You're alluding to Europe being more liberal than America, when you find that 200 years ago, Europe was more conservative than those that founded America... but if you look back to say the 1500's, shit like pedophilia was an accepted practice in Europe at the time.
I'm not slamming Europe at all. I'm just saying that things get crazy, then tightly wound up, then crazy again all the time. This is nothing new. America is much more conservative now than it was in the 60's with all the hippies and free love, etc. And the 50's were much more conservative than we have it now... but if you look into info about the 30's, there was a TON of crazy shit going on in the urban cities of America. Now if you look at statistics, things like teen preganancy is dropping, drug use is dropping, crime in many cities is dropping, there's a lot of things turning back towards more traditional times again. a lot of it is family values hip-hopping over themselves... i.e. one generation is too strict, the next rebels and is too liberal, their children work hard to make a strong family for their children, who rebel, etc. It goes back and forth back and forth.
This is how things are... long after we're all gone, others will be talking about the same thing.
That actually makes some kind of sense to me. So what you're saying is that we're just going through different periods.
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Yo, you know that Europe ain't one nation?
Yes, I do know that. Of course, you might as well be because we don't usually give you a second thought. To the average American, no other country even exists until we start thinking about where we're going to go on vacation.
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^...or war
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Yo, you know that Europe ain't one nation?
Yes, I do know that. Of course, you might as well be because we don't usually give you a second thought. To the average American, no other country even exists until we start thinking about where we're going to go on vacation.
dont listen to this cocksucker he is not nor does he speak for any "average" American.
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LOL Yeah, the average American is enlightened about the world. Please. I am the epitome of the average American. I NEVER think about other countries, until I decide to go on vacation or what dude said about War. You think we really give a shit what's going on in Afganistan? LOL Yeah, I lay awake at night thinking about Afganistan.
There is so much to do in America and everybody is so involved in their lives they have no concern over the rest of the world. That's a fucking fact.
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LOL Yeah, the average American is enlightened about the world. Please. I am the epitome of the average American. I NEVER think about other countries, until I decide to go on vacation or what dude said about War. You think we really give a shit what's going on in Afganistan? LOL Yeah, I lay awake at night thinking about Afganistan.
There is so much to do in America and everybody is so involved in their lives they have no concern over the rest of the world. That's a fucking fact.
So that's your pride for America? A pride of ignorance and short sightedness? :loco:
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LOL Yeah, the average American is enlightened about the world. Please. I am the epitome of the average American. I NEVER think about other countries, until I decide to go on vacation or what dude said about War. You think we really give a shit what's going on in Afganistan? LOL Yeah, I lay awake at night thinking about Afganistan.
There is so much to do in America and everybody is so involved in their lives they have no concern over the rest of the world. That's a fucking fact.
Like Eleven said, this does sound like you're proud of it in some sense. I'm not intending to go anti-american in any way here, but being oblivious of the outside world is not one of the most admirable qualities one could attribute to (many, not all of course) american people, and it is also related to the fact that while the US is the most inventive, powerful and in some ways technologically and scientifically advanced country in the world, the average level of education is deplorably low by first-world standards. Of course, living in such a huge country is different from living in Europe where you might have two different borders half a day's walk off from your house, but i don't quite see the point in saying that this "unawareness" is due to the fact there is "so much to do" in america and "people are so involved in their lives"...as opposed to europeans whose lives consist of reading newspaper articles on Afghanistan and Darfur because there's just nothing to do in their countries? I don't lie awake brooding over political issues in Zimbabwe either, but I read the papers and watch some CNN (yes, american TV ironically)
As for the original question, the point that europe is not one country is a vital one. The average man's opinion on sexual issues is not the same in Serbia as it is in Norway, Holland's liberal drug laws are not applicable in the UK, etc. The reason why the US tends to be more conservative in many ways than most of europe is, simply put, that it is a country much more strongly based on puritan values and a country much more strongly influenced by the opinions and beliefs of (strongly) religious people.
It's a difficult topic though, I'd like to elaborate on this, but right now I got a bus to catch :P
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I'm not 'proud' of it, I just don't give a shit. I thought I made that clear; you're talking to me about the subject of whether or not Americans are aware of the outside world; I, like Most Americans, dont' give a shit about the rest of the world. So I don't give a shit about whether it's right or wrong to care about the rest of the world.
Listen; I have a sphere that I live in. For anybody to think any different is ludicrious. You haven't done shit all to help ANY of the world, the only influence you have is in those immediately around you. If you think knowlede of the world is usefull for ANYTHING you're wrong. Period. If people are getting fucked in Bangladesh, what importance is that to me? None. How can I help? I can't. I could send money to a cause, I suppose, but believe me I have plenty of opportunities for Charity right here at home.
So in my opinion, Knowledge of the world is useless. It's like knowledge of the universe. Who cares? You can't do anything with that knowledge.
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As for the "so involved in their lives" comment, I'm not saying people in Europe are so bored they read newspapers. My infalliable argument is based on the whole concept of America, a melting pot that's multi-cultural. Plus, our sheer size provides Americans plenty of opportunities for travel, etc.
So the point is; American's don't care about what's going on in England... but they do care about what's going on in California and New York. I know most of Europe is diverse as well, but America truly is 50 different states with all different shit going on at the same time. Why do you think American's travel less out of country than other countries? It's because your country is smaller.
Last question;
You slammed the American intellect. Are you really so fucking naieve that you think we don't travel because we're stupid? We travel interstate all the time. Hell I'm constantly in Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. That's the equivalent in land mass as Great Britian. There's a 3000 mile spread from side to side of America. I've eaten food in Cali, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, D.C., Ohio, Alabama, etc. You think Alabama is the same as New Mexico? I've lived in California, North Carolina, and West Virginia. How many countries the size of those states have you lived in? Were they 3000 miles apart like California and North Carolina are?
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Well, I've eaten food in Brazil, Spain, Italy, the USA, New Zealand, Switzerland, the UK, Germany, Holland, France and other places, some of which are not all that tiny and further apart than Cali and North Carolina, but that's obviously not the point. I'm in no way meaning to suggest that Alabama is the same as New Mexico, just like Manaus is not the same as Rio de Janeiro, Barcelona is different from Malaga and the Südtirol doesn't resemble Sicily. I'm not naive enough to believe that all locations are the same just by being in the same country, anywhere. I guess you're aware that cultural diversity within the same country is not a mere American thing, though of course the US is indeed one of the hugest melting pots and more diverse than many others.
I did not "slam the American intellect", maybe I haven't pointed it out clearly enough, but again: I acknowledge that country has done more, invented more things and influenced the world more than any other in the past 100 years and this is of course to great extents due to certain people's impressive intellectual achievments. I'm not dumb enough to "slam" any such thing as a "national intellect" because there are potential mensa club members and 70-IQ-points morons everywhere. The issue is education: Different countries, obviously, have different educational standards; I'm semi-Italian and I accept the fact that the average level of education in Italy sucks compared to that in Norway; not because Italians are born dumber, but because different countries have been successful to different degrees in pursuing different cultural goals and achievements. And from what I know - admittedly I'm no expert - the US have the problem that the number and percentage of people who get tertiary education is impressively high, but the general level on which they get it in state schools and community colleges is low. Of course, on the other hand you have fucking Harvard and Yale; so bottom line is, I'm not trying to say anything about any such idea as that of an "American intellect", I just pointed out that from what I know the average level of education is not admirably high in the US, particularly when it comes to knowledge about the outside world.
I just pointed that out; believe me, I'm not your frog-leg-eating picturebook anti-american european dickhead, but i do think that widespread ignorance towards the rest of the world has a negative effect and is a problem more prevalent in the US than in other parts of the western world. And you're simplifying it very much...the main and most important reason i disagree with you is that we live in a globalized world and hence, actions have ramifications on a global level. The USA being the most powerful country on earth - which is not per se a bad thing, don't get me wrong - US citizens, living in a democracy, are affected by this power whether they like it or not. Most obviously, you elect a president that is the most powerful person in the world; he (or maybe she in a year, we'll know more tomorrow) can, has to and will have an effect on the rest of the world. The products you buy, the views you support, everything that involves you in global economy in any way (and hence, indirectly, in global politics) contributes to the huge effect america has on this planet and its countries.
I'm no activist and i don't consider myself a hero when it comes to analyzing this process and consequently considering how I'm involved in it and what effects I might have, BUT i do think that being aware of what is happening on the planet has an effect on what will happen, if only because of the smallest actions you might take, be that related to political, social, cultural, enviromental, economical or any kind of issues. Also, what goes around does come around to a certain extent. There's a reason the dollar's been weak as shit for the last few years and you can't entirely blame that on the big bad politicians....
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I'm not 'proud' of it, I just don't give a shit. I thought I made that clear; you're talking to me about the subject of whether or not Americans are aware of the outside world; I, like Most Americans, dont' give a shit about the rest of the world. So I don't give a shit about whether it's right or wrong to care about the rest of the world.
Listen; I have a sphere that I live in. For anybody to think any different is ludicrious. You haven't done shit all to help ANY of the world, the only influence you have is in those immediately around you. If you think knowlede of the world is usefull for ANYTHING you're wrong. Period. If people are getting fucked in Bangladesh, what importance is that to me? None. How can I help? I can't. I could send money to a cause, I suppose, but believe me I have plenty of opportunities for Charity right here at home.
So in my opinion, Knowledge of the world is useless. It's like knowledge of the universe. Who cares? You can't do anything with that knowledge.
You are so dumb its unbelievable