Define your national culture

[Free Missouri]

the majority of houses look like they've been imported from the Middle East

Can you show me photographs of these houses that look like they've been imported from the middle east?

I think he meant on the inside with decorations and all

[Unrepresented Peoples]

Cynical, Sarcastic, Patriotic and Eastern European stubborness

[Neu Leonstein]

I think he meant on the inside with decorations and all

I'm going to ahead and doubt that someone who describes the local residents as "hatebeards and black ghosts with feminime voices" spent a lot of time visiting these people in their homes.

[Cetacea]

Elephant & Castle is the worst place in Europe I've been. It is a hotbed for hatred against everything civilised while the majority of houses look like they've been imported from the Middle East themselves, mostly ran down inhabited by hatebeards and black ghosts with feminime voices.

I think he meant on the inside with decorations and all

I'm going to ahead and doubt that someone who describes the local residents as "hatebeards and black ghosts with feminime voices" spent a lot of time visiting these people in their homes.

yes

for instance you will note the clearly Middle East architecture featured in the Elephant


or maybe he was avoiding this dangerous site

[Yorkers]

Definitions of Americanness are often inconsistent, or pegged to some idealistic view of "freedom" and American immigration. People will either say being an American is based off a commitment to a rather vague notion of "liberty" (as if liberty isn't found outside the United States) or that being American is based off an incredibly naive view of how immigrants entered this country and assimilated.

A nation is based off of having a common heritage, faith, history, language, and culture. The United States has had a difficult time trying to reconcile this with its demographic reality.

The United States is a polyglot, multinational empire. However, within empires, there are nations. So within the United States, is there an American nation, much like how an Austrian nation existed within the wider Austrian Empire? I'd say that yes, there is an American nation.

This nation is defined by a common heritage (people of mostly Northwestern European descent who have been living here for multiple generations), a common faith (Christianity with a special emphasis on Protestantism), history (the ancestors of the people I am talking about settled, founded, and then built up the institutions that would become the United States), language (English, ditto), and culture (A culture derived from that of England, but with some more subtle German, Irish, Scandinavian, and Italian influences). The Founding Fathers essentially had this view of who is an American, as exemplified by the very first citizenship laws.

There may be some debate as to whether the group of people I just described get to hold the title of "American", but there is no doubt that they are indeed a nation within the United States, and they are the nation that I belong to.


As for defining my national culture, it is hardworking, Puritanical, individualistic, shrewd, intellectual, and distrusting of outsiders. Also distance and personal space are highly valued, something that has made for awkward moments with Latino people.

[Yorkers]

Please elaborate.

So there is this idea that some immigrants assimilate more than others, right? Some more right-wing people want to exclude certain immigrants because they don't "fit in". But no one seems to have a good tangible sense of what it is they are meant to fit into. What is it that would make you think that an immigrant is assimilated well into Australian culture, and another one is not?

Speaking the language, following the customs, not committing crime and being a burden on society, not engaging in diaspora politics, etc.

Are they involved in their local community? Do they have many native Australian friends? Do they engage in the same social customs and celebrations as the natives? Do they avoid placing primacy on their homeland and avoid engaging in ethnic politics to the detriment of Australians?

[Narland]

--snip-- lol wrong forum--I was giving my imaginary countries cultural predilections.

National culture is very meaningful as an aggregate of the individuals of that nation or country defines itself. These are not just generalizations but include protocol and etiquette as well. It changes over time, but gives continuity to our socialization (in the proper, not progressive sense). The culture of my great-great-grandparents was very different than mine, but provides structure and a legacy. When going to a foreign country it can take months or even years to acclimate, and many never do.

http://www.zompist.com/amercult.html
http://robertspage.com/culture.html

[Xeng He]

Culture is a lens through which our values and ideas form and are viewed through. It's not that we share the same customs, rituals, etc, it's that these same customs, rituals, etc, have affected all of us and our development, even if we don't embrace them.

What about a Middle-Easterner, say, who studied American history or who read the constitution online for some reason?

Also, which influences are cultural and which aren't? Is Miley Cyrus a fundamental part of American culture?

[Internationalist Bastard]

I find the US a wonderfully complex mix of ideals, trying to beat each other out politically because everyone thinks they are doing what's best. Just like the world

[Forsher]

Culture is a lens through which our values and ideas form and are viewed through. It's not that we share the same customs, rituals, etc, it's that these same customs, rituals, etc, have affected all of us and our development, even if we don't embrace them.

What about a Middle-Easterner, say, who studied American history or who read the constitution online for some reason?

Also, which influences are cultural and which aren't? Is Miley Cyrus a fundamental part of American culture?

How about the next time when a thread is linked in another thread you check to see that posting in it isn't a gravedig? It's annoying if anyone wants to quote from the thread after your gravedigging leads to a locked thread.

Or did you just randomly decide to gravedig this thread?

[USS Monitor]

My national culture says the dead should be allowed to rest in peace.