Ranty McRantypants here...

[johnstonmr]

I am sick unto death of the willful ignorance people in this country live under. I am entirely sick of it. I just cannot understand why people think its ok to remain entirely ignorant of other cultures and other ideas than their own.

Comments

[khanfused.livejournal.com]

Some people hearken back to the days when most people never went more than 25 miles from home ... and their brains can't handle anything farther?

[milescochran.livejournal.com]

Erasmus once said that for any government to work three things bust be commonly held. A common geography, a common language and a common faith. The US is physically isolated from most other cultures and those we are joined with are the subject of mockery. We also have a language common only to the UK which I would think is the most commonly "understood" (and I use the term very loosely) culture outside of our own that isn't thought of as silly. Since our faith is less about religion in America and more about capitalism the only way we relate to other nations is through economic competition. We don't have a cultural starting point to understand others and so we simply don't try to.

Only people who are given (or even force fed) those initial ways to relate to other cultures have the opportunity to do so. I got to know Japanese culture because I had the culture hook of anime, I learned about UK culture because I wanted to get the jokes in Doctor Wo and Faulty Towers. I only learned anything about the Mediterranean because I started reading classical philosophy. I only know what i do about India because I dated a girl whose parents were from India. It's all about how we have that initial exposure, and so many people simply don't have that.

I hope?

[jimbo-the-gecko.livejournal.com]

It is much, much easier to think and relate to the world immediately around you. For example, I just arrived in Texas for a work thing, and the taxi driver (born and raised Caucasian Texan) decided to rant the entire way about how India and China are "stealing" our jobs and ruining our economy. He failed to see that our own corporations are willfully giving them this business because it is significantly cheaper and there are hardly any legal hassles with employees in these countries. But in his little Dallas world, all he sees on TV and surrounding him are that local silicon manufacturers are closing up shops and moving and Americans are losing their jobs. He is not putting any effort into researching the actual CAUSE of this because it is so much easier just to watch the news and believe what they say.

Face it, people are lazy.