[OT] National Pride?

[Sixchan]

OK, I'm curious about this. Could you tell me more about your evil native hobbits?

With pleasure. There are certain people here who don't progress much in height beyond 4 foot. And they are, more often than not, fat. And they like smoking stuff.
All of the above can be applied to halflings.

They have smashed kids' skulls open with thrown bricks in the school where I work. In the same school (and believe it or not this is one of the better ones) a girl's hair was set on fire with a deoderant can and a cigarrete. Broken bottle attacks are pretty common, as are knifings. They participate in organised crime. They are malicious people who take pleasure in making the lives of others difficult, painful or non-existant.
All of the above can be applied to evil people.

Aside from Halflings, they are also known as Dwarfo Neanderthalis, those *******s over there, and Non-Educated Delinquents (Neds for short).

 

[Mercule]

I think the willingness to travel to other countries is wholly separate from one's love of country.

You won't find anyone who loves America more than I do. Still, given the means and time, I'd frequently visit other countries. My wife and I have a general tour of Germany planned for some point. I'd also love to see England and Scotland. I've got a friend from India who worked in the US for several years and I should go see him and his country. Japan is also high on the list of vacation stops, or at least "I'd like to go there sometime."

As someone else said, though, we're a bit bigger and we've got these oceans beside us. I know Californians who think nothing of going to Baja for a weekend and Washingtonians who feel likewise about Vancover. It's all about convenience and proximity.

As far as my view on my home, politics is rather taboo on these boards. I'll state my position as gently as I can. If anyone, moderator or no, thinks I've crossed a line, drop me a note and I'll delete from here down.

IMHO (what else), America is deferent from pretty much every other nation in the world. Most lands seem to be a collection of people that needed organization, so something showed up that was appropriate. America was settled by people from all over the place with similar beliefs and was founded based on ideology.

That ideology is one of self determination (aka rugged individualism). That's what pretty much all of our core development is based upon. It's the refuge of people who just want to be left alone, so to speak.

If you think people only get ahead by luck or by unethical means, you really ought to find somewhere else to live. If you think we need to police what people say, then you don't belong here.

America is a place where people who disagree on everything else can at least agree that we all have the right to voice any opinion we want and believe whatever we want. No matter what those beliefs might be, we'll band together against anyone who might want to take away the freedom to speak them.

Has the reality always met the ideal? Not hardly. We're all human, even Americans. Almost every group in existance has been persecuted. Books have been burned. We do try, though. We may waver, but the principles are still there.

As cthuluftaghn said, though, I'm saddenned. America has begun to restrict the right of self-determination. Some aren't allowed to succeed and others aren't allowed to fail (from failure comes the knowledge to succeed). Some views are being deemed grounds for more punishment in cimes.

We're putting entirely too much stock in the policies and designs of other nations. Nations that were founded to shepard and babysit the peasantry and have it so ingrained that even in democracy, the individual doesn't seem so important (at least to an outsider).

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Re: National Pride?

Bahhh.....

Far too often I see "culture" or "tradition" used as the hammer of the older generation to control the actions of the younger.

America has a fine "culture" all its own. It may not be the same sort of culture as nations in Europe but then again tell me of a single country in Europe whose people are as diverse as Americas.

BTW, this thread is so going to get a lock slammed on it.

America has become so hung up on individuality, that we have lost our culture, in my opinion. That could be a deep and controversial topic by itself, so I'll move on.

 

[jasper]

I still get the happy feeling and smile when I hear about Europeans or USA members station over there.
Why you ask?

Bill Cosby the patron saint of pudding pops etc did a good routinue of how a proper English speaking Europeani would be confused about our lanquage.

European " Pardon me my kind sir but could piont out the way to the lavatory?'

Southern, "ewww allll kinne of talk funnny? where ewww all from any way howw?

etc.

yall come back youhere

 

[AGGEMAM]

European " Pardon me my kind sir but could piont out the way to the lavatory?'

Southern, "ewww allll kinne of talk funnny? where ewww all from any way howw?

As if there are not different dialect of English in Europe, not to speak of myriad of different languages over here.

I seriously doubt that any American could come to say Newcastle and understand a word of what the Geordies are talking about, and that is even an english dialect.

 

[Sixchan]

As if there are not different dialect of English in Europe, not to speak of myriad of different languages over here.

I seriously doubt that any American could come to say Newcastle and understand a word of what the Geordies are talking about, and that is even an english dialect.

The Halfling's tounge is just as bad. It's impossible to understand everything being said, even if you grew up hearing it. Word order is skewed. Grammar is non-existant. Ask them to speak English and thay say, "Umur tawin Inglish". Make sense to you?

 

[Zappo]

Mmm, where I live we're used to having hundreds of years old buildings lying around. After a while, it doesn't feel much special. Heck, my city is something like 3000 years old. Really, I'm more impressed by the way Americans find it normal to travel 200 km to visit a friend.

 

[AGGEMAM]

Make sense to you?

Aye Matay, umun tawin Geordie, ben ta de broon toon.

 

[Storminator]

Mmm, where I live we're used to having hundreds of years old buildings lying around. After a while, it doesn't feel much special. Heck, my city is something like 3000 years old. Really, I'm more impressed by the way Americans find it normal to travel 200 km to visit a friend.

Except we can barely conceive of a distance of 200 km. We'll go 200 MILES at the drop of a hat, but kilometers? Reach for the calculator...



PS

 

[Henry]

Again, seeing as how I am interested in this thread enough to participate in it, and how the mods not interested in killing this thread, let's not include the denigration of other people or national groups, in the announcement of pride in our own. If it gets inflammatory, I have to shut it down.

But what I would be interested in is in hearing more about ctuluftagn's original question - how do Europeans view their ability to travel to different countries with totally different cultures as freely as Americans do from state to state? I suspect, as I said, that it takes on the character of visiting a near neighbor state in the U.S. - except that American culture is much more homgenized within the same surface than European culture is. This has changed over the past 20 to 30 years, but it is still quite an experience for Americans - one that many consider the trip of a lifetime to see so much packed into so comparitively small a continent.