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Dangerboy
Dangerboy is away right now.
Orion
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HERE SELECT * FROM ForumPosts WHERE ID IN (SELECT ID FROM TagIndex WHERE Tag = 'culture')
Land of the Free
2008-02-04
Wow, it's been a while since I posted, but I had an interesting discussion in the car on the way from lunch today. While we were sitting at Red Robin's, almost ready to leave, a friend comments on how his father is opposed to Obama (you may have heard of him) because of some policy about giving illegal immigrants driver's licenses, and he was opposed to this as well. Now, forgive me if I'm am incorrectly recounting the policy, I am far from political cannon, but I find it interesting that this has become an issue of such magnitude that it is now swaying votes.
So, for the record, here's my view. As long as stuff sucks in other countries and is good here, people will want in (although we’ve been trying our damnedest to level the playing field recently). Further, if that need is bad enough, they're going to find a way into the country. I make no judgments on that point; it simply is what it is. I am willing to agree that if you are in this country "illegally" then you should be granted no special privileges, but let us not forget that the only reason that 90% of the country is here "legally" is because we killed the old people who were here and then made it "legal." I, personally, don’t put a driver’s license in the privilege category though. You don't actually need one to drive a car, and, further, having one does not grant you any special abilities, prizes, or opportunities for cake. Hell, simply having a business card and leaving it in a fishbowl at your local sandwich shop will buy you more. On the flip side, granting people opportunities to the path to become legal are a win, plus, if we can track the illegals in our country to some degree, that's a double win.
The most interesting question that came up in our conversation is the one I want to pose to you. Issues of legality aside, do we, as a culture, want to bar people from entering the country? That seems to be the bigger issue, on some level. Are we maybe just tired of being a "melting pot"? Do we some how feel like our heritage our culture is being threatened? Are we intimidated by the fact that more and more you see things in this country represented bilingually? I personally would find it a little hypocritical of us, a country of immigrants, to have a "no more immigration" policy, but maybe that’s just me. As always, remember to leave your comments, concerns, flames, deepest desires, and letters to Santa below.
Stuff White People Like
2008-03-25
For those of us in the know, the newish site Stuff White People Like is old news. It is simply brilliant. Aside from being embarrassingly accurate, the choice of tone is masterful. It reads like a guide to interacting with white people, cautioning against certain behaviors, topics and themes. It constantly mentions how to get in white people's good graces. And as one such white person, I have to say that they have us/me pegged.
But, why, you may ask, am I posting about this? Has the formerly illustrious Candy Coating - once higher than Icarus and twice as proud - been reduced to a mere catalogue of other awesome websites? Are we but petty anthologers, condemned to shifting through the ashes of other's brilliance in hope of holding aloft some residual bit of fast fading glory? Oh no, sir/madam, no. I bring this to your attention because I believe Stuff White People Like (hereafter referred to as SWPL for brevity) has a surprisingly deep undertone that must needs be brought to the fore.
Simply put, SWPL is revolutionary because it treats white culture as a culture rather than the culture. White or western culture has held an implicitly default superiority in anthropology, sociology, and general western thought until the last couple decades. And even in recent times, it still appears to be a struggle for the western mind to judge things truly objectively. In fact, it has been argued that even the act of making judgments involves own-culture bias, fostering such theories as cultural relativism.
SWPL circumvents all of this. Though humorous and a little silly, it nevertheless manages to present the most satisfyingly unbiased account of white culture I've ever encountered. This is most present during listed items like "Non-profit organizations," a post that made me realize that I had never considered that Non-profit organizations are largely a western, white-culture phenomenon. Value judgments aside, I found even my own fanatically progressive thought guilty of ethnocentrism. Namely, I realized that I had been assuming that non-profits were a natural, default good. Probably they are a good: but SWPL points out that they are not natural nor default; they are a sociological phenomenon present almost exclusively in white culture.
See? Convinced? Forgive the language, but I feel compelled to quote the oft-referenced Bad Boys II and assure you that shit just got real for white folks everywhere. One can only hope that SWPL and contemporary sites will provoke an even deeper renaissance of analytical thought and engender truly global perspectives.
Or it can just make you laugh a lot. It's good at that too.
Culture Be Shocking
2008-08-14
Recently, I have moved to New Zealand. Yes, New Zealand. You know - that place where they filmed Lord of the Rings? Next to Australia? To see modern, real life New Zealanders (or kiwis as they are sometimes called) in action, simply tune in to the Olympics and find the most obscure sport being covered. There is a high, mathematically guaranteed probability that Kiwis will be present.
It is a lovely place, full of rolling hills and stunning vistas. It is also decidedly western, boasting a convoluted origin resulting from multiple cultural influences. Of course, this diversity of influence would be more impressive were they not all some shade of European. But diversity is diversity, and who is to say that five shades of white don't have just a valid a claim on diversity as five other, unrelated colors? (no doubt you would say that, wouldn't you? Jerk.)
So, belligerent opening paragraphs aside, one would assume that, coming as I am from a largely white culture (USA) to a even more largely white culture (NZ), I would fit in like custard with homogenized cream, right? Well, yes. True. One makes a good point. But the devil is in the details, and I have found myself shocked at how shocking this culture is to my American sensibilities.
It's subtle, i'll admit. No one walks exclusively on one leg instead of two (unless, you know, they have only one leg) or screams every other sentence or anything so extreme. But the first time I said "thank you!" to someone and got a taciturn, half-muttered "it's okay" in response, I was more than a little miffed. It's okay? I...know? Thanks for the update?
The reason is that culture is only superficially attached to race or even language. Culture is a social construction, as seen through the eyes of its members and as manifested through behaviour. So, while both a Kiwi and I speak the same language, wear almost the same clothes, and share largely the same idealology, one of us has a culture of extreme humility (i.e. someone says thank you and you say "it's okay" because, good lord, are they trying to embarrass you or something?) and the other comes from a culture where individuality and achievement are praised (i.e. someone says thank you and you say "I KNOW, RIGHT?? I SO HELPED YOU OUT THERE!!" or simply "you're welcome.")
These observations tie in to larger, deeper, and generally fatter cultural truths, like the relativism of culture, the inapplicability of judgement from one culture to the next, and the degree to which we rely on cultural systems for our feeling of stability. Remove even one such convention, even one as tiny as the appropriate response to "thank you," and a feeling of shock and dismay will follow. Humans are culture, you see, but equally humans create culture.
Which begs the questions: what culture should we be creating?
Thank you for your time.
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