141–150 of 178 posts
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Indeed, but Britain is probably the other extreme. I believe there is only one country that could've produced magnificent material such as Monty Python or Fawlty Towers ;).
You know, unlike English some languages have a sarcastic tense.
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> British just came, looted and left. It would be good if people stopped attributing every god-damned thing about India to the "British Influence". My bad. I just wondered, considering that British humour is a lot dryer than American humour. I apologize if my comment was misconstrued in anyway.
Sorry for being a little harsh there. At the height of British occupation , there were not more than 1700(!) British people at the same time on the Indian subcontinent. Which itself is a fantastic testament to the British Raj's bureaucratic machinery. The English education was an instrument in creating that machinery.
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Yes, thank you, I know who the Wehrmacht were. I paid attention in history class. More so I'm just surprised when I run across any veteran of WWII. FYI, no you don't run across WWII vets "all the time." Most of them are in their eighties or nineties at this point, and there aren't too many people of that age, let alone specifically WWII vets. Mainly I was just surprised by a very random piece of information. You cert…
Here, it is not at all uncommon to hear that somebodies grandfather is or was a vet. There were something like 15 million of them just from the US as I recall. For someone a decade or two older than myself (he says it was her father, not grandfather, so you can get a good guess at their ages...), encountering veterans would be only that much more common. "You certainly don't hear about the German veterans of WWII in…
And yes, I am well aware that the father mentioned lived in Germany. Not only did I pay attention in history class, I can also read.
Is there some reason you're being condescending?
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Here, it is not at all uncommon to hear that somebodies grandfather is or was a vet. There were something like 15 million of them just from the US as I recall. For someone a decade or two older than myself (he says it was her father, not grandfather, so you can get a good guess at their ages...), encountering veterans would be only that much more common. "You certainly don't hear about the German veterans of WWII in…
Hearing that someone's grandfather was a vet is quite common, yes. And the number is 16 million. That said, most of them are dead now. So these days, for someone like myself - barely thirty - it is, in fact, quite uncommon to run across a living WWII veteran. I never have, and neither has anyone I know. I assume things are different for people in older generations. In other news, the sky is blue. And yes, I am well a…
"Is there some reason you're being condescending?"
Are you fucking serious?
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Hearing that someone's grandfather was a vet is quite common, yes. And the number is 16 million. That said, most of them are dead now. So these days, for someone like myself - barely thirty - it is, in fact, quite uncommon to run across a living WWII veteran. I never have, and neither has anyone I know. I assume things are different for people in older generations. In other news, the sky is blue. And yes, I am well a…
"Not only did I pay attention in history class, I can also read." "Is there some reason you're being condescending?" Are you fucking serious?
So, yes. Yes I am being serious.
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IST: "Indian Standard Time" When a family member invites us over for 7:30, they mean 8:00. If you actually arrive at 7:30, they're still getting ready themselves.
Even Indians in US adhere to the IST...Most indian parties start atleast an hour after the scheduled time!
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Sorry for being a little harsh there. At the height of British occupation , there were not more than 1700(!) British people at the same time on the Indian subcontinent. Which itself is a fantastic testament to the British Raj's bureaucratic machinery. The English education was an instrument in creating that machinery.
That's a surprisingly low number - the Wikipedia page on the Raj gives a count of 125,945 Britains in India in 1861 of which 84,083 were in the Army. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Raj
Each corner of the country is vastly different than the others.
A shorter version would be: Americans are generally individualist Protestant technologist capitalists. Like any other culture these defining traits bring inherent strengths, and unavoidable weaknesses. On a different note, Does anyone know the author of this essay? I've seen it around at least as far back as the early 1990's, and it's good to see it still in use.
Just curious about what weaknesses you have in mind?
Of course, a combination of traits brings strengths that are more than the sum of their parts, and concomitant weaknesses. For example, the US is a great market for consumer goods (and thus entrepreneurs), as individuals seek their own immediate gratification and the promise of salvation/transformation through buying something new - all while supposedly contributing to the greater economic welfare (there being few if any other widespread, concrete, social goals). But it is far from a given that this way of life is at all viable, even in the course of one human lifetime, never mind a few centuries. As some scholars put it, every society confronts (and creates) large collective problems; the US has consistently chosen individualist capitalist technologist solutions, and it remains to be seen whether that approach has a long-term future.
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Actually, by British standards America appears an irony and sarcasm free zone. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but it is very noticeable.
I've noticed people from the Indian subcontinent tend to be a lot more sarcastic than Americans. I wonder if it is a relic of the British colonization.