[linux-audio-user] Re: LinuxMAO.org, a french Linux Audio Wiki

[Maluvia]

>Can't have tons of culture when the country is only 400 years old at
>most.

I would second that, as well as your observation that our 'cultural'
influence in the world revolves mainly around our movie industry.
It has been my feeling for a long time that what passes for American
culture is just 'Pop Culture' and the entertainment industry.
Culture stems from shared history and experience, and that which binds
people into a common system of values and behaviors - and it seems that in
America, television, movies and the inescapable crass advertising that
always accompanies it *is* that binding force.
Regional dialects are disappearing as people - especially the young -  seek
to emulate the speech, appearance, and behavior of their favorite TV/movie
stars.
I'm afraid Hollywood and McDonald's *is* our culture.

>So that's pretty much uniform.  And this uniformity prevents people
>from facing 'tons of culture'.  
>
>As for the second point I mentioned, people having in general more
>interests in things, this is very flagrant with the percentage of
>Americans not caring what Bush has lead them to so far.  Political
>chitchat in America often boils down to echoing something heard on
>TV.  In Europe you at least get the feel that the individual has given
>some thought to the matter.

So true, and I would attribute this to our 'Hollywood' culture as well - it
teaches people to be passive consumers of information and material goods
and to conform to media-promoted images.
Thinking is actively discouraged - I learned this the hard way in college
and graduate school - especially by the rising would-be theocrats
All my friends from foreign countries were so much more open-minded and
willing to question things and consider alternative viewpoints.
They demonstrated an individualism which while supposedly the hallmark of
American society has all but disappeared.

- Maluvia