[UA] Greetings

[Timothy Ferguson]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ua-admin at lists.uchicago.edu [mailto:ua-admin at lists.uchicago.edu]On
> Behalf Of Cassady Toles
> Sent: Thursday, 17 May 2001 11:18 AM
> To: ua at lists.uchicago.edu
> Subject: Re: [UA] Greetings
>
>
> On Wed, 16 May 2001 18:38:30 -0400 (EDT), ua at lists.uchicago.edu wrote:
>
>   > While the Sleeping Tiger seems like quite a
>   > serious danger in America (land of the Puritans and the religious
> right),
>   > I'm not sure that the tiger is quite as big and nasty in Australia.
>
>   Y'know, at risk of being a reactionary, obnoxious jerk
> American, 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.

No, because your media presence here is all but omnipresent.  It's easier to
see New York on our televisions than Melbourne.  The cultural dominance of
America in the West is in no way paralelled by the counterflow - where you
even get edited highlights of the Olympic opening ceremony because, as your
TV guys explained "Americans simply wouldn't understand it".  Your media
cradles you in a shell of ignorance which they explain to us outsiders when
it pisses us off, but which few insiders seem to rail at.

American culture is self-referential to a degree not found in virtually any
other society in the West.  Being the super-power means you get to ignore
your neighbours.


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