@Jermofoot:
@U-505:
Ok, so I was on my way to Wal-mart and McDonalds as I was thinking about what exactly our culture is and the irony was definitely not lost on me.
I think you could have stopped there…it says it all. Or was that meant to be a joke? :lol:
It was both a joke and a reflection of the state of our culture. Unfortunately or not. :-D
@Jermofoot:
How about Hollywood? Pop stars (not that other nations don’t have their own…)? Coca-cola?
The obsession with “celebrity” is definitely a part of our culture. But, that all goes back to my post about the gladiators and Greek actors. It’s a portion of other cultures that we adopted. Although, we did take it to a higher degree.
@Jermofoot:
but doesn’t that mean being omnicultural, we are really cultureless?
Ok, these are things. But do they make a culture? Does everyone play baseball, jazz, drive big & fast cars, are celebrities, etc. etc.?
Again, more stuff. Take away all that, and we don’t have a “culture.”
You’re right. I’m kind of guilty for taking us in that direction. It’s not what we invented, it’s how we use them that defines parts of our culture. But I do think that we have a culture.
Take the internet. That we invented it isn’t important. It’s the fact that we are almost completely dependent on it now that reflects our culture. We communcate, make connections, entertain ourselves(porn anybody?), transact business, and educate ourselves with it. Think about how much time each day that you spend on the internet. If it went down suddenly we’d be lost. Yeah, we would eventually cope but it would devastate us initially in all kinds of ways. Socially, economically, as entertainment.
I think our culture is mostly defined by “Git er done”. And “I want it and I want it now”. And “why do we do this? Because we can. The means and the consequences be damned”. And violence. We are a violent culture despite our “supposed” status as the worlds leading democracy and advocate for peace and freedom.