Job Discussion Forums

[Roger]

Must be a fairytale country where the natives don't have to take cognizance of what their neighbours and, indeed, the whole world think of them.
We know, of course, this fairytale dreamland is peopled by gun-toting chaps that invented "Rather dead than red!" and similar wisdoms.
And, we know that they had a kind of cultural revolutionary there called McCarthy.
And, we all do know what the Americans think of themselvews and the world, and we do sometimes fear they might invade our countries to "set things right" - according to what they think is right.
And we know they are not happy with us for not always seeing eye to eye with them over things like this.

A weird world!

[denise]

Roger,

As one of the voices of wisdom here, you should realize that your (negative) view of Americans only applies to part of the population. And, if current polls are to be believed, that group is steadily getting smaller. Please do not lump all of us together, and please remember that the actions of the government and the will/personality of the people can be two very different things. I for one do not fit your mold and I'm sure many of us Americans here at Dave's don't--EFLers tend to be an odd lot.

Funny--we are sometimes quick to chastise each other for making overgeneralized comments about the natives where we teach (no, I cannot think of anything specific right now!), yet it's somehow OK to generalize about Americans. But then, we deserve it, right?

d

[biffinbridge]

You made quite a few sweeping comments there Lee.You sound like someone who really believes that the Americans got the enigma machine out of U571 in WW2 and that Normandy was liberated by Tom Hanks.You talk about democracy and spout buzzwords like 'equality' etc and in doing so you make it sound as if these are unique concepts to Uncle Sam.Democracy and free market economics were concepts first theorised,developed and put into practice in Europe long before the USA even existed.Legislation exists within the EU and within the legal framework of every member state to ensure that people of all colours and creeds are equal...so where do you get your assumptions?Illustrating Arnie as a shining example of the American dream must really go down well with the hordes of Mexican Americans working in the sweat shops of the state of which he is the head honcho.You see it's easy to take one example and blow it all out of proportion.American trade and foreign policy is anything but equitable.Uncle Sam may act in a democratic way domestically,(if you believe Bush really won the last election or aren't bothered by Watergate and the Iran/Contra affair) but it acts like a bully outside its own shores.How can the US preach freedom but enslave the Palestinians by supporting an indicted war criminal (Sharon)?How can it preach tolerance while threatening to topple regimes it once backed and no longer agrees with?How can it preach democracy while ignoring the UN?...The list of questions you could ask is endless as is the discussion.There is no doubt that economically America is a great nation populated by a generally affable mixture of peoples who have done much to make our lives better through innovation but don't for one moment extol its place at the pinnacle of world morality and virtue and suggest that it's the only place that practices 'equality' etc...to do so would be foolish and terminologically inexact.Don't complain that the USA is under the spotlight because that is where it has chosen to be in its attempt to create a new world order.It was exactly the same for us Brits when we ruled the world.We were arrogant rectums then too.