rob Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 Don't we have a positive vibes thread somewhere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 Don't we have a positive vibes thread somewhere? yes, but I don't have a sound card at work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 this website needs an enema Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
underworld Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 Don't we have a positive vibes thread somewhere? yes, but I don't have a sound card at work. i bet you would if you lived/worked in france Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 this website needs an enema Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
builder206 Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 I thought my post was positive vibes. Do you hate French people who like America? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 I thought my post was positive vibes. Do you hate French people who like America? Je n'étais pas de parler de votre poste Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenSeagal Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 To say nothing of the positive or negative aspects of living in American culture, one thing that is overwhelmingly telling about American culture is the pervasively ignorant attitude that living in any other country would be absolutely miserable by comparison to living here; moreover, that the subjects in those countries either a) Are miserable and wished they lived here, or b) if they profess to be content in their lives, they are just blissfully ignorant of what they are missing by not living here. Anyone who has traveled much, and while doing so has paid the slightest interest to the lives of the people they've encountered, can not possibly hold such a view as binding and all encompassing. No one can deny that the standard of living and opportunies that exist in the US are generous by any measure. Yet I sympathize heavily with what Prole is driving at, which is that the standard of living here is also producing a lazy, bored, distracted culture that has lost the ability to distinguish between need and want, and which also has no real appreciation of the standard of living and opportunities it enjoys, because it's gotten to where "suffering" in this culture means you can't afford to upgrade your ipod to the 160GB model instead of the Nano. You can trumpet the positivity of free market capitalism all you want, but it doesn't change the fact that the hyper-consumerist culture it has produced here is one that is shallow, escapist, distracted, and self-absorbed. And you wonder why "family values" have faded? Again - who gets the blame for this? There are only so many capitalist titans in our society, their wants are limited, and their aggregate demand for goods and services are quite limited relative to that generated by the average worker. To cap the irony, most of them have made their fortunes by catering to the wants and desires of the NASCAR or McMansion sets more efficiently than any other participant in the marketplace. You can blame them for the gaudy fixtures in their Hamptons beach retreat, but not the Velvet Elvis poster above the Lazy-Boy recliner anchored in front of the flat-screen showing the latest UFC fight. So is my description of the culture accurate- bored, distracted, self-absorbed? Or I am totally off base? Would it be fair to say those providing the goods and services, and those consuming them, are both really doing the same thing- immersing themselves in desire and acquisition? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenSeagal Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 Steven, why do you and Michelle Obama hate America so much? I don't hate. I'm Out for Justice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 Well, I'm getting by with a 60gig iPod, even though all my tunes don't fit on it at this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 Well, I'm getting by with a 60gig iPod, even though all my tunes don't fit on it at this point. I still don't own an iPod at all. I must be anti-American. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenSeagal Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 Well, I'm getting by with a 60gig iPod, even though all my tunes don't fit on it at this point. You just don't get it- you NEED the 160 GB iPod. YOU NEED IT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 Even more important...I DESERVE IT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 But I'm holding out for the Terrabyte iPod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenSeagal Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 I should also add that you will probably enjoy David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest," which is a long and hilarious meditation on the anxieties that you expressed in your post. I read the book 10 years ago, and it seems kind of prophetic in hindsight. I guess my main observation would be that if American culture ever manages to move beyond "ME" , while retaining all it's social freedoms and opportunities- then that would be something entirely new. You could say the same of all cultures in fact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 make that Terrabyte iPod with the Total World Hunger Relief option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 I guess my main observation would be that if American culture ever manages to move beyond "ME" , Americans are extremely generous with their time and money. To characterize them as a monolithic, uniform, egocentric block is unjust and just plain wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prole Posted February 20, 2008 Author Share Posted February 20, 2008 Relying on a tissue-thin argument that “we’re just giving people what they want” is simply ludicrous. That the “masses” generate demand is true, but only when you define demand in the abstract. No one is born with an innate desire for nascar, kiwi-flavored tequila, blackberrys, oxygenated bottled water, lip implants, or truck nutz. The market is not meeting needs and human beings are not growing new ones. To suggest that people are demanding the vast array of rubbish on the market obfuscates the very real and very huge apparatus (billions of dollars) devoted to marketing, advertising, R&D, media synergistics etc. that represents a majority of the intellectual production in this country. The notion that people “just want these things” is pure faith-based nonsense and suggests a much grimmer view of human nature than I would ever put forth. That the educational, cultural, and spiritual potentialities of working class people cannot and should not be nurtured by working people represents a retreat from humanism and enlightenment values. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 Relying on a tissue-thin argument that “we’re just giving people what they want” is simply ludicrous. That the “masses” generate demand is true, but only when you define demand in the abstract. No one is born with an innate desire for stoppers, tri-cams, hexes, C4's, ice-screws, GPS's, ice tools, pickets, gore-tex shell jackets, 4-season tents, 60 m ropes,... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prole Posted February 20, 2008 Author Share Posted February 20, 2008 Perfectly true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 i was Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 Porter, are you in love with me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 Porter, are you in love with me? do you like Huey Lewis and Ichiro? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 at the same time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-spotter Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 I heard there might be an American spy satellite part for sale in Lucky Dollar Pawn at Main and Carrall tomorrow morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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