From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Tue Nov 26 2002 - 10:27:14 MST
I thought I would poke my nose for a day or two in the extropians list
and express something that bothers me and quite a few other people
(the topic of the very bad direction that the U.S. Government is
headed and more things related to the perception of the U.S. in
the world) but I'm supremely frustrated: I feel sidelined, and
now I know that this group is not the right group to talk about
this topic.
Jef:
>I'm happy to be an American, and proud of my country's strengths,
You see, that is a *perfect* example. Out of all of the countries
I've spent time in these last years, and out of all of the people
I've met, I don't encounter these seeming necessary functional add-ons
to conversational threads. The person is just a human, who does not
feel necessary to qualify the country that they are from,
with some extra words about their pride or greatness.
I see and hear this more and more and more, in conversations
with Americans of every kind. I wonder if there is a large television
blaring these kinds of words in people's homes so that after a while
it is picked up by osmosis, because otherwise I honestly don't
get it. I didn't experience these kind of functional add-ons very
often in American people's conversations before I moved away, five
years ago.
I am sorry that I am picking on you Jef, your comment is actually pretty
mild, compared to what I've heard, which is more often a zealousness
along the lines of "we further the cause of freedom and the flourishing
of human civilization!" (.. actual words from one conversation I had).
This topic exhaust me. I'm signing off this thread now.
Amara
--
***********************************************************************
Amara Graps, PhD email: amara@amara.com
Computational Physics vita: ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt
Multiplex Answers URL: http://www.amara.com/
***********************************************************************
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."
--Anais Nin
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Jan 15 2003 - 17:58:24 MST