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Is American Culture Healthy?
October 10, 2008 04:27 AM | Posted in: CuriositiesTrying out the Ask500People polling / survey / crowdsmarts (collective intelligence is too clean a term for this) service, I thought I'd throw out a complicated question, but ask for a simple answer.
In light of the collapse of American - and now global - financial markets [which are melting faster than the polar ice caps, if anyone's interested in what may prove to be a telling environmental parallel with dire implications for our collective future], I'm wondering "Is American culture healthy?"
Here's the responses so far - join in!
local tags: climate_change, collective_intelligence, crowdsmarts, crowdsourcing, culture, US
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I answered "no" and I see more Americans seem to be doing the same. I'm not sure how I feel about the Europeans piling on, what do they really know about American culture?
That's definitely the trend so far. And I'm not sure how much the Europeans know. Many do live 'downstream' from a lot of American media, so their level of exposure to (parts of) our culture is higher than ours is to theirs (unless you count buying imported cheeses and wine as exposure to culture?).
And it is more likely that Europeans will have visited the States, or even have lived in America, than the other way round. But I've also seen quite a few European expats residing in the States who knew little to nothing beyond the bounds of their small expat-centered social group, and had little experience traveling in American beyond their home city. That usually plays out along the following dynamic: "I live in [New York / San Francisco / Boston / Los Angeles], and I've visited [one or two of the above, where I don't live, but have expat friends who do, so can visit easily, safe from the possibility of meeting real Americans, who I know from TV and movies carry guns and smoke crack while driving around 24hrs a day to consume constantly, as their socially and politically regressive president directs them to], so I know America..."
But I digress. I suppose we're all guilty of using stereotypes; they're the (much) cheaper, faster, version of genuine insight.