From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Wed Dec 04 2002 - 02:07:52 MST
On Wed, Dec 04, 2002 at 12:33:37AM -0800, Lee Corbin wrote:
>
> Observe how well this fits a point made by Anders in another
> thread ("Culture", Mon 11/25/2002 7:58 AM):
...
> balancing criticism, while ***European (especially
> Scandinavian) researchers mention all issues and problems,
> expecting the audience to give constructive criticism on how
> to reach stronger conclusions.***
>
> (Italics added.) Indeed it appears that "community
> spirit" is more widespread outside the U.S., and in
> more ways than one!
I would not make such a strong statement. While many non-US cultures are
far more collectivist and emphasize altruism to a high degree,
"community spirit" is a fairly noticeable US culture trait. Maybe it is
something which is enschrined rather more than practiced, but I get the
impression that it is still more prevalent than in many other places.
One reason might be the short historic distance to the frontier culture,
where it was far more needed, and the community-based social
institutions which have been codified.
> But to re-iterate the most important question in another
> way: how can it be that in a nation of 290 million
> people, with enormous liberties of the press, that any
> particular slant taken by some (say Japanese) foreign
> newspaper is not mirrored by some point on the political
> spectrum within the U.S. itself?
Maybe because the mainstream does not encompass the full complexity of
views, and in fact tends to represent a certain subspace of views? The
US has a far more diverse mainstream than many other countries, due to
its size and individualist emphassis, but it is not arbitrary. Certain
views are too weird, too far out, too controversial or simply "do not
fit", and are hence less reported. What we see in media define what we
consider to be mainstream subjects. Since journalists and editors get
their impressions of the world through the media too, they will tend
judge new things by comparing them to the known, setting up a filtering
feedback effect. A kind of spontaneous bias.
There are likely reflections of any outside view somewhere within the
US. But is it published in something widely read?
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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