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Nacirema

en.wikipedia.org

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Re: Nacirema

#41

Post by NoImmatureAdHom »

lordnacho wrote: post #5

I've often wondered how Americans see the world. I have a lot of family and friends from there, and something about meeting them is striking. The rest of the world gets an enormous amount of information from America. I've never lived in the US, but I know all the states. I couldn't write out all the counties in the UK. I know more US supreme court justices than combined from all other countries. I know the presidents…

Interesting to note that only ~44% of U.S. citizens have a passport[0] and most haven't ever left the country. My American parents got their passports at age 50 or thereabouts. The U.S. is big. The only other countries you can get to by land are Canada and Mexico, and only Mexico is meaningfully different culturally (sorry Canada). Everywhere else that's different is a long, pretty expensive plane flight away. If you're in the center, you're far from basically everything that isn't America. Some villages in Europe may have similar provincial people, but I get the sense they are a lot rarer.

The U.S. is probably better compared to the E.U., or maybe Europe as a whole, in most contexts. It has centralized federal power for some things (like external affairs: diplomacy, war), but its power internally is quite weak sometimes (e.g., domestic enforcement of drug law). It's more like a loose grouping of countries than many people believe.

0:https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/about-us/reports-... divide # of passports in circulation by population (~332M). Probably a slight under-estimate because some people counted in "population" might not be eligible for a passport.

Re: Nacirema

#42

Post by cainxinth »

CPLX wrote: post #32
cainxinth wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I solo backpacked Europe in the mid 2000s and found that telling people you were American was decidedly uncool. I’m sure the dislike of W Bush abroad had something do with it, but it was also partly because of what you are describing. Everyone already knew a lot about America. It wasn’t interesting to then. I remember staying at a hostel in Croatia with a diverse group. At breakfast we went around the room saying our…

It depends. I got in the habit of just saying I’m from New York instead of the US. Seems like everyone wants a friend in NYC to fulfill their goal of going there someday for a trip and having a cool local connection.

I’m from Philadelphia, and I learned that most people outside of America either don’t know of it or only know two things about it: cream cheese and the theme song to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Re: Nacirema

#43

Post by s1artibartfast »

runjake wrote: post #33
PaulHoule wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is definitely true that NYC and LA are over-represented in American media. Marx and Lenin wrote about the "idiocy of rural life" but there is an urban idiocy to go with it. Frequently you meet urban people who have no idea where wealth comes from, any more than you'd get an understanding of ecology from looking at a fish tank. In New York it is a running gag that downstate black politicians are opposed to marijuan…

> "idiocy of rural life" I think it's important for all free people to ask questions of themselves such as, "If organizations and government weren't there to provide me $service, what would I do to stay alive?" ($service being personal security against threats, healthcare, emergency care, power, fuel, water, food, and so on.) It is my opinion that everyone should have a rough game plan for each of the above. The answ…

I don't understand your example. It seems to me that rural residents have a much better game plan and experience with those questions.

What am I missing?

Re: Nacirema

#44

Post by rendall »

7thaccount wrote: post #30
rendall wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an immigrant from the US to Finland, it's such an overwhelming advantage that it actually interferes with my engaging with Finns on their own terms and in their own language. Almost everyone is delighted to switch to English and discuss all things America, to the point that I really do not have immediate, external pressures to level up my Finnish. Nearly everyone finds my grumpiness about this baffling, so I just…

How is living in Finland, and how is your Finnish? I thought the language was nigh impossible to learn.

I love, love living in Finland. It has brought me much joy. In a way, when I go back to the US to visit, I have a weird feeling that I'm leaving a more civilized place to a one that is still quite civilized, just, a little less civilized.

Finnish is not impossible. It is difficult in some respects, but really a good half of the difficulty stems from the fact that nearly everyone speaks English and experiences myötähäpeä (vicarious embarrassment on your behalf) when you struggle with it, so they will step in immediately with English rather than watch you dangle on the hook. It's a rare treat when someone refuses to, or cannot, speak English and we're forced to speak only Finnish.

Re: Nacirema

#45

Post by pjc50 »

thatBilly wrote: post #18
pjc50 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know more US supreme court justices than combined from all other countries The hegemony of coverage of the US legal system and politics causes all sorts of weird effects. You get Canadian protestors invoking the First Amendment .. to the US constitution. (The first amendment to the Canadian constitution seems to be the accession of Manitoba?) Just as you get people wearing NY Yankees baseball caps everywhere, peo…

Hi pjc50, are you Scottish?

Yes, the use of "outwith" was deliberate!

Re: Nacirema

#46

Post by runjake »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #43
runjake wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "idiocy of rural life" I think it's important for all free people to ask questions of themselves such as, "If organizations and government weren't there to provide me $service, what would I do to stay alive?" ($service being personal security against threats, healthcare, emergency care, power, fuel, water, food, and so on.) It is my opinion that everyone should have a rough game plan for each of the above. The answ…

I don't understand your example. It seems to me that rural residents have a much better game plan and experience with those questions. What am I missing?

I'm suggesting they/we have good reasons (self-sufficiency) behind our "rural" ways.

Eg. a law enforcement response to a serious crime is still about 20 minutes. We have extended power outages every year. Every few years, we have 24-72 hour power outages.

Re: Nacirema

#47

Post by CPLX »

cainxinth wrote: post #42
CPLX wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends. I got in the habit of just saying I’m from New York instead of the US. Seems like everyone wants a friend in NYC to fulfill their goal of going there someday for a trip and having a cool local connection.

I’m from Philadelphia, and I learned that most people outside of America either don’t know of it or only know two things about it: cream cheese and the theme song to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Just say you live in the Philadelphia district of the New York area.

Re: Nacirema

#48

Post by hnbad »

stevage wrote: post #4
hnbad wrote: post #2

The article sets out to explain the use of the term to allow more objective introspection but then only gives satirical examples. That's a bit disappointing. You'd think reframing your own country's/culture's actions, behavior, politics or religion in intentionally alienated language (i.e. renaming key figures and concepts) would have some more practical examples. The idea reminds me of the solution to fair sharing o…

Are you disappointed by the original paper, or the Wikipedia article about it?

The Wikipedia indicates that the original paper is satirical.
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