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Perceptioncheck
Joined: 13 Oct 2008
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 Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 10:27 pm Post subject: |
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Yes, the things people have been saying on this thread ARE generalizations. It's true. You could even go as far as calling them cliches.
But you realize that generalizations and cliches don't just drop out of the sky, right? They must come from somewhere.
And that somewhere is probably closer to reality than you'd like to think.  |
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Thewhiteyalbum
Joined: 13 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 10:48 pm Post subject: |
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L.A is just a mass of suburbs and the most souless uncultured nouveau riche place in history. Thats right, you cannot buy 'high culture'. How do I know? I lived there.
A city of a million people can have far more culture than some souless metropolis. Seoul or Melbourne? I know where I would rather be. Portland or Seattle are far cooler than Houston. Population has very little to do with the vibe of a place. Often a samller city is cooler anyway cos it's easier to get around and it has more of a 'heart', more of a 'scene'. As for Australia been 'uncultured' due to it being populated by criminals, should I judge the U.S for being populated by fucking quakers or whoever went over on the mayflower? At least Australia's first immigrants had a bit of spark, a bit of fight in them. |
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swigs
Joined: 20 Apr 2008
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| Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 11:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Thewhiteyalbum wrote: |
L.A is just a mass of suburbs and the most souless uncultured nouveau riche place in history. Thats right, you cannot buy 'high culture'. How do I know? I lived there.
A city of a million people can have far more culture than some souless metropolis. Seoul or Melbourne? I know where I would rather be. Portland or Seattle are far cooler than Houston. Population has very little to do with the vibe of a place. Often a samller city is cooler anyway cos it's easier to get around and it has more of a 'heart', more of a 'scene'. As for Australia been 'uncultured' due to it being populated by criminals, should I judge the U.S for being populated by fucking quakers or whoever went over on the mayflower? At least Australia's first immigrants had a bit of spark, a bit of fight in them. |
Almost everything you said is either false or an opinion.
Plus, LA, did not buy high culture, it reinvented culture as we know it.
How many films have you watched? Then pounder how many of them came from this city.
Many people prefer not to live in a big city, and thats fine.
---
And bringing up another point as an American. For an American who watches/reads the news on a frequent basis; and pays attention to international news, its hard to find out about other countries. For a country to get on international news in America there either has to be some type of horrific event or they need to have done something extremely amazing.
For America to get on international news in what ever your country might be; all that has to happen is for the President to sneeze or for some famous person to buy a new dog.
So, it is easy to see why some American's might be the way they are. And judging by a lot of the ignorance on this thread, many of you aussies would make the worst of Americans. |
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Tater
Joined: 13 Oct 2008
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 11:39 pm Post subject: |
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| mortundo wrote: |
Ah the septic tanks, they bite everytime.
On a serious note it's nice to see the change within Korea re those learning English now wanting the real mcoy instead of the awful bastardisation in pronunciation and spelling that they've had to suffer for so long from the boorish misfits from the peoples republic of america. |
You mean the place where they teach us that "everytime" is two words, "mcoy" is actually spelled "McCoy," there is a punctuation mark called a "comma," possessives require an apostrophe, and proper nouns begin with a capital letter? |
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gazz
Joined: 13 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 11:42 pm Post subject: |
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[quote]
'And bringing up another point as an American. For an American who watches/reads the news on a frequent basis; and pays attention to international news, its hard to find out about other countries. For a country to get on international news in America there either has to be some type of horrific event or they need to have done something extremely amazing.'
Is this 'international' news on American channels? I have watched all of the big US channels and in my oppinion all of them are s*it.
If you want to know a bit more about what is happening in the world you could always read world news on the net????
By far the best (fair/balanced/topical/worldwide issues) based news programme i have ever seen is Channel 4 news that is on in the UK.
[/code][/quote] |
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Thewhiteyalbum
Joined: 13 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 11:58 pm Post subject: |
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Creating a disposible superficial popular culture is not the same as partaking in 'high culture'.
Most films made in Hollywood are just the same - disposable, style over substance, meaningless. They are created to make profit, nothing more. Just because it's popular doesn't mean it's good.
unfortunately something America has exported is this desire for quantity over quality.
Just because your media is so poor that it has to pander only to its own people to keep them interested isn't anything to be proud of either. Stop trying to justify your ignorance. We are individuals, and as such are capable of making our own choices about whether we want to remain ignorant or not.
FYI: I am NOT Australian. |
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jajdude
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 12:00 am Post subject: |
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We all had to be born somewhere. Why do we make a fuss about it?
"Where are you from?"
"My mother."
"Me too. Seems like we have something in common." |
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swigs
Joined: 20 Apr 2008
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| Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 12:41 am Post subject: |
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| Thewhiteyalbum wrote: |
Creating a disposible superficial popular culture is not the same as partaking in 'high culture'.
Most films made in Hollywood are just the same - disposable, style over substance, meaningless. They are created to make profit, nothing more. Just because it's popular doesn't mean it's good.
unfortunately something America has exported is this desire for quantity over quality.
Just because your media is so poor that it has to pander only to its own people to keep them interested isn't anything to be proud of either. Stop trying to justify your ignorance. We are individuals, and as such are capable of making our own choices about whether we want to remain ignorant or not.
FYI: I am NOT Australian. |
America has always been about the middle class and the working man. So 'high culture' is not something that most people in America would appreciate; because its not common. But at the same time, people like Andy Warhol were/are able to bring attention to this fact, while still creating 'fine art'. But really, what do you consider 'high culture'? Something like that is usually judged by the best education usually?
Oh and by the way, I personally do read my news from the internet (including news published in other parts of the world). It's amazing how much news comes from just one original article or source on the AP wire.
But if your talking about high culture, lets talk about education, usually a measuring stick of your so called 'high culture'. Do some research about the best universities in the world.
Do you think Dali is high culture? Because he lived in Flordia and worked with Disney and Hitchcock; whom also left his country for America.
I like the world, and think people are the same. But it is easy for an American to become set in their ways when there is little incentive to learn another language, and the world comes to America.
Are light bulbs not part of high culture either? You probably would not like Dan Flavin or Edison either then...
Edit:
And acting like your above American culture is silly. Do you have a PC do you use electricity, do you watch movies, do you listen to rock music, do you use the internet, do you use GUI for your computer,etc. You are American culture, sad but true. |
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Ukon
Joined: 29 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 1:18 am Post subject: |
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| Thewhiteyalbum wrote: |
Creating a disposible superficial popular culture is not the same as partaking in 'high culture'.
Most films made in Hollywood are just the same - disposable, style over substance, meaningless. They are created to make profit, nothing more. Just because it's popular doesn't mean it's good.
unfortunately something America has exported is this desire for quantity over quality.
Just because your media is so poor that it has to pander only to its own people to keep them interested isn't anything to be proud of either. Stop trying to justify your ignorance. We are individuals, and as such are capable of making our own choices about whether we want to remain ignorant or not.
FYI: I am NOT Australian. |
Most films around the world are made for the exact same way except for a crappier budget...If you think otherwise, I suggest you take a film course.
And it's worth nothing the acutal size of american and the relationship to it's neighbor. Pretty much all the nearby countries are nearly all insignificant on a international scale, tiny, and/or piss poor. It's the 800 pound gorilla in the region. |
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swigs
Joined: 20 Apr 2008
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| Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 1:43 am Post subject: |
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| Ukon wrote: |
| Thewhiteyalbum wrote: |
Creating a disposible superficial popular culture is not the same as partaking in 'high culture'.
Most films made in Hollywood are just the same - disposable, style over substance, meaningless. They are created to make profit, nothing more. Just because it's popular doesn't mean it's good.
unfortunately something America has exported is this desire for quantity over quality.
Just because your media is so poor that it has to pander only to its own people to keep them interested isn't anything to be proud of either. Stop trying to justify your ignorance. We are individuals, and as such are capable of making our own choices about whether we want to remain ignorant or not.
FYI: I am NOT Australian. |
Most films around the world are made for the exact same way except for a crappier budget...If you think otherwise, I suggest you take a film course.
And it's worth nothing the acutal size of american and the relationship to it's neighbor. Pretty much all the nearby countries are nearly all insignificant on a international scale, tiny, and/or piss poor. It's the 800 pound gorilla in the region. |
Yeah, the French and American's developed cinema as we know it today, with the latter being much more influential on contemporary cinema. It was America who really started the whole story driven cinema. French cinema was able to maintain a distinct flavor for awhile, but eventually became Hollywood-a-fied. This is why Godard became famous, because he made fun of all the directors who where trying to be like "Hollywood" in France. But Godard is even more ironic, because all of his favorite directors were American when his career was just starting (he eventually starting making extreme left wing cinema for the 'people', but the 'people' decided they liked his older movies or American better). French critics were very influential in the beginning of the formal study of 'film'. |
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Beej
Joined: 05 Mar 2005
Location: Eungam Loop
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| Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 2:30 am Post subject: |
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No doubt that the US produces culture for mass consumption by the worlds citizens. Much of it is crap. Its business.
It would be a big mistake however to assume that there is no "high culture" created in America. A good book on the subject is De la Culture en Amerique ( written by a frenchman ironically). The author explains " how the US has become the world's mastadon in contemporary dance, painting, literature,aand academia." |
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gazz
Joined: 13 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 3:49 am Post subject: |
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A - 'Hollywood' is great - they produce great movies, most of the world loves to watch them (as do i).
But ie - American film producers do love to do this esp in war films, when they overly exaggerate or (*beep**ing) make up a whole new storyline to a historical event just because of an 'populist' out coming of American 'culture'.
I know some of you understand this but it is a bit disturbing, speaking to SOME Americans how closed your education of the 'history' of the world seems to be! Remember this before SOME (not all) of you start spouting stupid shit that even your mother would be ashamed of!
Even worse when your (i know it depends on your state) does shi* like teach creationism instead of evolution!
No wonder there are a few Neanderthals� on this site! Did you breed with your sister?
You need to be able to laugh at yourself as a country, without the USA,USA,USA (shi*)
Which by the way i sort of respect. It is great to be proud of your country; it is a shame that we in the UK don�t do it enough!
Don�t get me started on that!
But on a final serious note - I can honestly see a great deal of comparisons between US people and Koreans in terms of their 'nationality' and this is maybe why (besides there are some 5 star nob ends in this forum) why there are such 'clashes' in 'culture'!
AND to finish with...
Who's pupils are learning Chinese? I know UK pupil's aren�t (on the whole) - How many US pupils are learning Chinese?
(some) of you go on about a backwards country? - Maybe but they are a forward thinking backwards country! 
I wish the UK was!
Oh well the US is BIG you will be ok! |
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gazz
Joined: 13 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 4:09 am Post subject: |
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PS I know some posters have said that CAPITALS don�t really emphasise a point anymore! (I agree) But it is just for the (minority) that were only taught in CAPITALS?
Why do your pupils struggle to understand you?
Irrelevant of nationality!
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swigs
Joined: 20 Apr 2008
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| Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 4:56 am Post subject: |
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One thing that America could pick up from the rest of the developed world is public transportation.
America for the most part has horrible public transportation except in the North East (NYC, Boston, etc)
I would like to see a shift away from the suburbanite culture and a move towards a good public transit infrastructure. Cities like LA have basically no public transit; which is pretty bad considering how big a city it is. And the south in general has no public transit to be proud of. Suburbs are inefficient when it comes to energy resources and space. Many people will spend 2 hours or more in their car a day commuting. Instead of spending all this money on oil, I would like to see it be spent to a change in basic infrastructure. Where people stop building more suburbs and redevelop the cities more. If Seoul can build a decent subway, many other cities in America could as well.
Post WWII there was this whole shift to people living in the burb's and working in the city. Which is why America's metro areas are sometimes bigger than the city itself. It would be cool to see a reversal of this. |
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DrOctagon
Joined: 11 Jun 2008
Location: Chicago
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| Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 6:02 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| Who's pupils are learning Chinese? I know UK pupil's aren�t (on the whole) - How many US pupils are learning Chinese? |
What's your point? Wow, people in the UK are learning Chinese in school!! Congratulations!
Does America get points because pupils are learning Spanish in school? A language that will actually help them score a good job in the future? |
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