> There are still regional differences in the US, but they are
> diminishing and I think outsiders are correct in seeing the US as a
> place of fairly uniform degenerate culture. The stupefying
> commercialism that binds America together as a nation is more powerful
> than any dwindling traces of regional tradition.
That's your perception; I have a different one. I see plenty of diversity in the people I brush shoulders with, the clothes they wear, the food they eat, and (I'm assuming, if I could read their minds) the ideas in their heads within one square mile of me, let alone the whole country.
What I'm questioning is the inference: everywhere you go you see McDonald's Golden Arches; therefore, everyone is alike. Where is the evidence supporting it? Go into any McDonald's and actually spend some time conversing with the people there, and I'll bet you would be surprised by how individualistic they are.
It's fascinating to me, by the way, that so many leftists are captured by this ideological concept that their fellow Americans are soulless, mass-produced robots whose minds have been totally rotted by "commercialism." Have they ever actually talked to these people they dismiss so glibly? I think this idea is mostly a way leftists rationalize the lack of success they have had in persuading ordinary working Americans of their ideas. The argument seems to be: "My radical views are obviously the right ones for working class people to have, but hardly any of them agree with me. So it must be because they don't have any brains; it can't possibly be because there's anything wrong with my views, or the way I am presenting them."
On Sep 26, 2004, at 2:08 PM, John Thornton wrote:
> When I lived in St. Louis the light rail proposal to St. Charles was
> also label "dark rail" and people said the exact same thing. "Negros
> from the city would ride up there, steal their TV's, and ride back
> home". I thought they were kidding at first but these people were
> quite serious. At least I derive some small satisfaction in hearing
> this same tale from someone else as I could hardly believe I was
> hearing it at the time. It's just too ridiculous to believe but it
> does happen. When asked where they got this idea several stated they
> had "been in cities where they saw people riding on transit with
> stolen TV's". When asked how they knew they were stolen the answer was
> usually "you can just tell". Hard to argue with logic like that. If
> this had been a comment from a lone individual I would have given it
> no thought but I heard this dozens of times in just a few weeks from a
> variety of white people.
Sure, you find bigoted people like that all over -- some in cities, some in suburbs and elsewhere. But if you look at the reality of who uses mass transit in cities, it's obviously not just thieves with strongly pigmented skins. It's just about everyone, except for those who have limos and chauffeurs to convey them around (or who take taxis everywhere). I'd venture to say that that's true of Baltimore, also, though I've never ridden mass transit there.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ When I was a little boy, I had but a little wit, 'Tis a long time ago, and I have no more yet; Nor ever ever shall, until that I die, For the longer I live the more fool am I. -- Wit and Mirth, an Antidote against Melancholy (1684)