From: Francois-Rene Rideau (fare@tunes.org)
Date: Wed Jun 20 2001 - 07:02:12 MDT
On Tue, Jun 19, 2001 at 11:42:28PM -0700, Lee Corbin wrote:
> [About Americans vs Europeans] For example, François-René ÐVB Rideau [...]
In as much as I recognize that I share many specifically european, and
even specifically french, traits of characters, I think it is particularly
inappropriate to take me as a typical european thinker: I certainly am not.
My vietnamese mother, my internet culture, my initiation to the classical
liberal tradition, and my individual personality, all make me very atypical
in France. Most french people I know would be surprised or even offended
by your taking me as their representative.
More generally, I see little point in arguing about general cultural traits
found in various countries, and even less when interaction between
particular individuals is concerned, since national traits are moot,
and individual variations are great.
> [FRRDVB] occasionally rejects out of hand some arguments by others
> with abruptness seldom seen here otherwise,
> and he's certainly not from the Teutonic tradition.
Personally, I tend to think this abruptness in expression is something
I rather inherited (and amplified) from my vietnamese mother,
so I wouldn't use such assertion to illustrate a specifically french trait.
As for the "out of hand", please note that (and I claim no specificity here)
there are arguments that I have already met several zillion times,
so that I needn't think about them anymore.
If you think I rejected an argument without thinking enough about it,
please tell me what argument it was, and I will give it a second thought.
Merely having an open mind is nothing; the object of opening the mind,
as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.
-- G.K. Chesterton
> But until you show more evidence, I have to
> suppose that these are just individual differences.
You better!
>> Then the European seems like a pinko-commie-bastard to the
>> Yanks,
Well, Europeans _are_ pinko-commies (although not bastards).
>> and the Yanks seems like uneducated-narrowminded-airheads
>> to the European.
And Yanks _are_ uneducated-narrowminded (although not airheads).
Never ascribe to malice that which is caused by greed and ignorance.
-- Cal Keegan
(uh, who's Cal Keegan? anyone has a more precise citation?)
>> For heavens sake. Some people are still discussing the
>> idea of the free market. And many don't like it.
Some people somewhere are still discussing the idea of darwinian evolution,
the idea of the earth being flat, or the idea of such or such
self-proclaimed prophet being a god, etc. So what?
[ François-René ÐVB Rideau | Reflection&Cybernethics | http://fare.tunes.org ]
[ TUNES project for a Free Reflective Computing System | http://tunes.org ]
To fight a violent enemy, violence is necessary;
but to fight violence itself, violence is vain.
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