Why U. S. Culture Sucks
Not one for the red, white and blue? Why in your opinion does U.S. Culture suck?
Name: PDeepy
Comments: US culture defines success and happiness purely in material terms! Everything is based on appearance and this probably stems from the prejudices of USA's early days. That's why politics have no substance anymore: the electorate is not looking for it: they are looking for something dressed that way. Style over substance is what we have come to value in others and sadly in ourselves.
The United States is still a young country with the culture changing all the time. It is good that the U.S is a mixing pot of many cultures, but at the same time this country was built on lies, slavery, and racism. The United States was established on stolen land where many have died based on their race and religion. Many cultures have been stepped on and forced out of people in order to make the United States what it is today. Hopefully with time and education things will change culture wise.
QUOTE (JoePublic @ 8-Dec 08, 3:05 PM) |
Name: PDeepy Comments: US culture defines success and happiness purely in material terms! |
Well, I wouldn't know how the U.S compares to other countries as far as those things go. Not everyone in this country puts high importance on popularity or material items. Many people just want to live comfortably, but some want to be rich. I think you will find the same in other countries that are developed.
Let's start at the beginning, America was "found" by Columbus when he was trying to sail to India, that is why Native Americans are called Indians. Columbus and his men murdered, raped, and well just name it and they did it to them. But American history has made him to be a hero, a legend. We have a major holiday, Thanksgiving, that, to the Native Americans, is a slap in the face, a spit in the face, to them. The reason is history books will tell you the nice story of pilgrims and the natives having a nice meal together, giving thanks, but what really happened was that the government would make them their slaves, make them loose their identity by forcing them to learn English, and forget their own language(s), culture(s), and religions. The government made numerous agreements to the Native Americans, but then turned around and said, "Did you really think we would keep our promise?" In the meantime, the reason that the first Englishmen left England was for freedom of religion, and they wanted a government that the people controlled.
Moving along, America had a policy to be isolated from the rest of the world. During the Cold War with Russia, America and Russia spent billions, (trillions?) of dollars being the leader of the world. Russia couldn't keep up and now is almost a third world nation. America is in major debt, although America won't admit it. China owns most of our debt, if they started knocking at our door, looking for their money lawfully, America would be hurting in a major way. World War 2 was going on for several years before America got involved, in fact, the only reason that we got involved was the war got personal, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.
American school system is horrible, America has listed low on SAT's and other achievement stats over, and over. America has a short memory span. If something happened before America was formed, then it's not necessary to learn. For example, there are wars that have happened that most Americans don't know of, yet they are important to most of the Middle East. I"ll give you an example, I didn't know that Hong Kong was part of the British Empire until their "lease" was up, and Hong Kong was given back to China. I don't know how Canada is a part of Britain, yet Alaska was part of Russia.
There are four major languages in the world, English, Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish. There is very few, in comparison, people that knows Chinese in America, then people in China knows English, in fact there are more people in China that knows English then there are people in America. The most people see in Spanish is from Mexicans, and Mexico is a third world country that has a history of jumping the border, taking menial jobs, and taking advantage of health and welfare services, even though some that are taking the services are here illegally.
Americans are at odds with both China and, at times, with Japan. America have been and is at war with Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Korea, United Kingdom, Japan, Mexico, Russia, and either directly or indirectly with several other countries.
To sum up. America is arrogant, America thinks that it can be the worlds police by creating the rules, yet will pick and choose what rules they will use, and ones that they will trample on. The American public is ignorant about history, including important history that would explain why some of the worlds wars are going on. Americans have a whitewashed, untrue memory of American history, and world history. This directly corresponds to American culture, we have enslaved in one form or other, the Native Americans, Africans, Chinese, Japanese, and the Mexicans (I could say retarded people but I won't). It's no wonder why most of the world hates America, the countries that don't hate us outright, just tolerates America, since we have power, having most all of the world's powerful corporations. I would say, one of the reasons is money, yet if China would force America to pay our debt to them, we won't have any money. America is a cultureless country so that is a huge disadvantage to understand countries that have centuries, even millenniums, of history and of culture.
I personally like the American culture, from my experience people from the US are more loud and more positive and therefore very fun to be around.
However there are some points about American culture I do not like.. Mainly Family Guy. I think that has to be the worst comedy show on TV and I can't stand it.
I realise this doesn't reflect your whole nation though as you have The Simpsons and Scrubs which are some of the greatest shows in history.
What does Family Guy have to do with American culture? You're not like thinking that a cartoon represents a culture are you? For me what sucks the most is when everyone wants to be popular and they will step all over you to get to the top. There's like a who is better than who that makes some kinda mental.