[UA] Greetings

[Epoch]

On Wed, 16 May 2001, James O'Rance wrote:

> Epoch <msulliva at wso.williams.edu> said:
> 
>  >>>please do consider the idea that your "reasonable handle on American 
> cultures" might just be about as reasonable as the handle Americans have on 
> Australian culture through /our/ media.<<<
> 
> I am considering the idea. I always consider that I might be wrong, it's 
> part of my beliefs that knowledge is tentative  :)
> 
> My statement was based on the following:
> 
> I watch more American television than Australian television, and this is not 
> uncommon. There's a lot of it, not counting films.

Quantity doesn't really impress me much.  If there were 30 clones of the
Crocodile Hunter on the air in the U.S., and I watched all of them, would
I have a good handle on Australian culture?

> In addition, American political news and current affairs have very high 
> profile in Australian news. We generally have a good idea of what's 
> happening in the US. Even when it's completely irrelevant, like the Clinton 
> impeachment, we get decent news coverage.
> 
> Do many Americans know who the Australian PM is? The Opposition leader? How 
> does our electoral system work?

Do you know who the governor of California is?  Our Senators?  Are you
familiar with our direct democracy legislative systems?  How about New
York?  California has half again the population of Australia, and New York
has roughly the same population.

> What are the racial issues in our society? 

Do you really understand the ones in the U.S.?

> How many Australian TV shows do Americans watch?

Certainly fewer than American TV shows Australians watch.  But lots of bad
information is no more helpful than a little bad information.

> Other forms of media, such as newspapers and magazines such as Time, write 
> about US news and current affairs in some detail. Even though there is an 
> Australian edition of Time. I read a lot about the Columbine shootings, even 
> though the issues in this country are rather different (there's not the same 
> problem with guns in schools).
> 
> Australians are pretty friendly towards the US (we consider Americans to be 
> like rich, rude cousins) but I'd be surprised if some other countries didn't 
> have a similar saturation.

My experience is that non-U.S. residents tend to have a view of the
U.S. that could only be described as a caricature.  I seem to recall,
though I can't now find a link, so my memories may be playing tricks on
me, an Australian on RPG.net wondering if more than 50% of all
U.S. households had firearms.

And there was some guy from a country which has tried to essentially
excise X rated material from its chunk of the internet which called the
U.S. "Land of the Puritans and Religious Right."

> Don't take this is any type of criticism; I'm just responding with examples 
> to your self-admitted reactionary response.  ;)
> 
> On my original point, I suspect that there will be *some* differences in the 
> OU of different countries; Pornomancy would find it difficult to spread in 
> Australia, due to their illegal distribution of pornographic videos, for 
> instance. Do plutomancer spells work on non-US currencies? Or do Brit 
> plutomancers have different spells for the sterling? Is the occult 
> underground in Japan?

I'm sure there would be as well, though I'd argue that the fear of the
different and unknown is as close to a human absolute as anything comes,
and so that fear of the Tiger will be pretty much unchanged in most places
that have embraced scientific worldviews.

Mike

--
"Generally speaking, the Slayer is always all out of bubble gum."
	http://www.edromia.com/games/buffy/index.html


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