Re: I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

petertrei@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
> On May 7, 5:18 pm, wdst...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (William December Starr) wrote:
>> In article <btfs141vp51b0fav3borgt8mab13arf...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
>> mike weber <fairport...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> said:
>>
>> > On Sun, 04 May 2008 13:03:27 -0700, David Friedman
>> > <d...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>
>> >> Of course it's true that most Americans don't know a lot about
>> >> the culture of other countries--but then most people in the world
>> >> don't know a lot about the culture of countries other than their
>> >> own.
>>
>> > Which pretty defines "insularity", even if you don't have an
>> > island handy.
>>
>> Hm.  Should intention be part of the definition?  I've always
>> thought of insularity as including some degree of _desire_ to be
>> "insulated" from Those Other People Over There.  Does it count if it
>> just happens by default?
> 
> Third, they may not even be aware that they *are* different in certain
> ways.

I'd say most Americans' exposure to other culture is limited to movies,
television and what immigrants/visitors bring with them, and all of
these are going to be distorted or incomplete in different ways. What
are the odds that someone has seen a foreign mailing address or phone
number for a random country? Police uniform? Newspaper? If they ever
stopped to think about it they'd probably realize that these things and a
million more pieces of daily life are likely different, but without
checking they'd certainly have no idea how and would be unlikely to see
the relevance to their daily lives.
I was able to take my father to Germany last year. At 84 it was his
first trip to Europe and only his third time out of the US (the others
being to Mexico and, 60 years ago, to a military base in Greenland).
He's not unusal, in my experience.

> Last week I got back from a long trip to Disneyworld (not my preferred
> vacation, but the rest of the family loved it). At Epcot, we visited
> most
> of the country pavilions.
> 
> I noted that my opinion of the quality of the different country sites
> varied inversely with how well I knew the real thing. Countries I knew
> pretty well (France, Britain) seemed utterly cliched 'Disney
> Versions',

I'd note that the same can be said for the American section of the
"World Showcase". While they do try and educate, they never allow the
process to get in the way of the primary goal of entertainment (well,
using entertainment to rake in as much money as possible). The German
section is unlikely to ever host Death Camps of WW II, the French
section probably won't talk about the use of the guillotine during the
Reign of Terror and serious discussion of Tibet is notably absent from
the China section. The UK has beer, the French have wine, Mexico has
(particularly horrid) margaritas, souvenirs are everywhere (many of
them made in China). It's colorful and a lot of fun, but even my six year
old realized that it wasn't real, and I'd be surprised if a significant
fraction of adults (even Americans) thought they were seeing a slice of
life in a foreign country.

	Robert
-- 
Robert K. Shull                           Email: rkshull at rosettacon dot
com