"[A]lthough you make some good points in your retort, you miss a few important ones."
"You are pretentious and self-righteous, and have no business 'defending' people from one of the greatest family-bonding organizations in America."
September 01, 2006
No business defending Indians?
Here's what a couple critics said after reading my criticism of the Y-Indian Guides:
"[A]lthough you make some good points in your retort, you miss a few important ones."
"You are pretentious and self-righteous, and have no business 'defending' people from one of the greatest family-bonding organizations in America."
"[A]lthough you make some good points in your retort, you miss a few important ones."
"You are pretentious and self-righteous, and have no business 'defending' people from one of the greatest family-bonding organizations in America."
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9 comments:
Yeech. It's coming back to me now. I might have actually participated in something like that when young. It's long past time to get rid of such things. If they want to play dress-up, let them act like Klingons or ancient Spartans.
As I wrote in my writeup, I was briefly in the Indian Guides too. Unless it's changed drastically, the program provides stereotypical thinking about Native people, not real knowledge.
Writerfella here --
That such an 'outre' program existed means this: 1. There is no true 'American culture' and those who wish that such would exist MUST borrow from cultures they have destroyed. Why? Because they are the inheritors of the results of such destructions, the cultures they now must imitate. Why again? Because they occupy a land that created the people who dwelled upon it.
And 2., Such forces did not cease just because the original people thus created were destroyed. So, those forces are at work on the people who replaced the originals. The people who now occupy the land are being converted, however slowly, into the people who originally occupied the land. They are being changed into "Native peoples," no matter how hard they may deny it. The problem is, the land no longer is the same as it once was, and as crippled and polluted and ravaged as it is, it is the land that is at work. What will become of the new people beset by the forces that created the First Americans? Only they can decide, because they have made that particular bed, and so it is them who must lay in it...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
There is an American culture. It is strong; so strong in fact that some other countries pass laws to limit/censor it lest it overwhelm their own "culture".
Writerfella here --
If so, then show us a picture of an 'American culture' that strictly is 'American' and then further depict its tenets and development. Is the 'American English' movement such a proof? Is American Imperialism such a proof? Does anyone truly believe that "inside every Iraqi there is an American crying to get out?" Is the drive to legally establish one single form of religion as "American' an example of such culture?
Simply gainsaying such issues by simply expressing an opinion does not suffice, as opinions never are facts and facts never are opinions.
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
Can you show even one culture that is entirely "pure"? Or do you realize that all cultures everywhere are a mixture of what was there before (done by others), influences from elsewhere, and what is being done now.
"as opinions never are facts and facts never are opinions."
If the opinion is factual, then it is a fact. An opinion that is not factual is just plain incorrect.
What are some aspects of this "one" American culture? Tacos, sushi, curry? Hip-hop, manga, the tango? Powwows, seders, oktoberfests? Buddhism, Wicca, Santeria? Give us some idea of this one culture and what it consists of.
If the so-called American culture is a mix of several cultures and influences, it isn't one culture. If people have a few shared beliefs (e.g., democracy, capitalism) they also have many disagreements. In short, America is a multicultural stew of ingredients, not a monocultural bowl of gruel.
I agree 100% with what you said there, Rob. When I said there was "an American culture", I was not defending the ludicrous "One Single Culture" idea. I was defending the "multicultural stew of ingredients" from bashing by Writerfella.
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