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Grex > Agora46 > #135: What you always wanted to know about the USA and its citizens <-- For Non-US grexers | |
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jaklumen
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response 67 of 79:
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Aug 4 04:50 UTC 2003 |
I still think divorce happens because people don't fully understand
what they are getting into-- and haven't fully prepared for it, don't
know what they want, don't have realistic expectations, and don't
realize that marriage is constant work. I'd say preparing for
marriage begins way back in the preteen years in a gradual and slow
process. I've explained it before and don't feel like explaining it
all again. But I'll still say a good marriage is a well-thought out
labor of love that is not by any means taken lightly. (And granted, I
admit you might not get it on the first try.)
resp:45 (6) With so many hormones kicking in, and bodies starting to
change, should a person really be making decisions this early about
sexuality? Nothing has stabilized yet? Granted, quite a few people I
know have had these sorts of feelings, so to speak, from the childhood
years, but it seems lately that this is more a product of the very
late modern era-- i.e. in the years when homosexuality could be spoken
of a little more freely in the U.S. Whether this is due to supposed
lessening of social pressure, or society's greater emphasis on sex,
one cannot tell, but *I* do somewhat suspect the latter somewhat.
Even the experts admit sexuality is not perfectly fixed, and again, I
have trouble accepting a confirmation made when hormones are not in
balance. The 'coming out' age used to be more around the early
twenties or so, but again, the debate could be made over sexual
maturity or social freedoms given around that age.
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md
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response 68 of 79:
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Aug 4 13:12 UTC 2003 |
Another truth about the USA that isn't always evident in the movies is
that the USA has been coasting for at least thirty years now. The mass
and velocity were so enormous to start with that it's taking forever to
coast to a stop. There are occasional little bumps like 9/11 and
the "dot-com implosion" that reduce the momentum slightly, and there
are compensatory jolts of force like the rise of the African American
educated middle class. But, on balance, the machine that was moving
the whole thing along is no longer powerful enough to do so.
The machine, of course, is human practical intelligence, what used to
be called "American ingenuity" (although there is nothing
especially "American" about it). There are a million theories about
why it lost its power in the USA: liberal humanists blame the know-
nothing Christian Right, intellectuals blame degraded public education,
Ayn Randites blame the rise of unreason, feminists blame testosterone,
conservatives blame the tax-and-spend mentality, religious
fundamentalists blame godlessness, snobs blame popular culture. Insert
your pet theory here. These are all related, and there might even be
truth in some of them.
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janc
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response 69 of 79:
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Aug 4 13:49 UTC 2003 |
Don't completely agree. I think that the rise of the internet was a
definite example of some spark-plugs still firing. And though it wasn't
entirely an American thing (it never is), it was in many fundamental
ways an American development. And .com bust or no, the internet is here
to stay.
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remmers
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response 70 of 79:
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Aug 4 15:30 UTC 2003 |
Playing devil's advocate just a bit: Wasn't most of the fundamental
research that made the internet possible done 30+ years ago, consistent
with Michael's timeline in #68?
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janc
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response 71 of 79:
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Aug 4 15:45 UTC 2003 |
Yup, I guess Michael's right after all!
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jmsaul
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response 72 of 79:
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Aug 4 15:52 UTC 2003 |
> What myths/images/impressions created by Hollywood movies, usually,
> would you like to dispel about the US?
"The US doesn't really look like that." Most TV shows and many movies
(especially stuff made before say 1985) were filmed in Southern
California. The first time I visited LA and Pasadena, it was really
weird: all of a sudden, I was in places that looked like the TV shows I
had watched growing up. The lighting was right, the buildings looked
right, etc. I hadn't experienced that before.
> Apparantly getting a toddler into a movie
> is harder than an alien, a talking pig, or a dinosaur.
Real toddlers are probably impossible to work with on movie sets, and it's
still very hard to do a realistic CGI human being. Easier to do something
non-human, because people won't catch it as easily.
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md
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response 73 of 79:
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Aug 4 16:10 UTC 2003 |
Also, real Americans can always tell when a supposedly Chicago or New
York movie was shot in some budget Canadian locus like Toronto. I've
seen plywood-and-plaster sets that were more realistic.
US suburbia is never as interestng or amusing as movies like American
Beauty want you to think it is.
US cops are pretty good shots. The innocent guy who is falsely accused
and trying to escape, or who just gets in the line of fire, seldom
makes it out unharmed.
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oval
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response 74 of 79:
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Aug 4 16:25 UTC 2003 |
" US suburbia is never as interestng or amusing as movies like American
Beauty want you to think it is. "
uhh, ya it is.
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janc
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response 75 of 79:
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Aug 4 18:35 UTC 2003 |
Very little U.S. law enforcement is conducted by private vigilantes. Any
police officer who behaved like just about any police officer in any TV show
or movie would be fired immediately. The TV ones are always either
incompetent or lone-wolf heros who conduct high-speed car chases through
shopping malls. Neither is encouraged in real life.
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gull
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response 76 of 79:
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Aug 13 01:51 UTC 2003 |
Re #17: Sort of like how my friend from Washington gets annoyed when
people use 'West Coast' when they mean 'California'.
Re #49: I've heard Manhattan mostly smells like urine. True?
Re #67: I agree with you for the most part, but on the other hand,
hormones change all through life. They peak sometime in your twenties,
generally, then decline gradually after that. It's not as if there are
only changes in your teens and then things are stable for the rest of
your life.
Re #72: At the rate things are going now, pretty soon all the movies
that are supposed to be set in the U.S. will look like Canada. ;>
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oval
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response 77 of 79:
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Aug 13 11:43 UTC 2003 |
the subway tunnels mostly smell like urine.
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cross
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response 78 of 79:
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Aug 13 15:12 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
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jaklumen
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response 79 of 79:
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Aug 13 22:21 UTC 2003 |
resp:76 1) That would get annoying. But we seem to get a lot of
Californication up here anyways. You can't escape the influence.
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