h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just two polite questions if I may? Who of you posters on this thread have formed your opinion of the US and it's people soley on second hand information ie: television,movies,sitcoms,local news coverage. Who has actually been to the United States and meet it's citizens?

I live in Canada a few dozen kilometers from the US border. My television is inundated with US 'culture' which my country has been fighting with legislation for decades. Canada allows US citizens to enter our country for work but the reverse is an exercise in intense bureaucrasy. I do manage to work in the US at least three of four times a year as well as visits to buy things there at ruinous exchange rates. My city is full of US tourists for most of the summer. I know of what I speak.

How many americans had been to, for instance, Vietnam, Cambodia or all those other countries america have warred with, during the past 57 years and more, to form an opinion of the people? Not to mention Iraq. Would you claim that most americans does not get their information second hand about Iraq? Still you wanna go to war again!

And WE would have to have been to america to form an opinion, or we´re wrong about critizizing you? (america that is; not you personally)

We don´t have to have been to a place to have an opinion about it. I´m sure you agree that you don´t have to try crack to have an idea that it is probably not good for you!


TD.

And by the way. Television, magazines, radio and other media is what we all rely on; we have to learn to sort out the trash from the gold, that´s how we form our opinions in a globalized world.


And we all think we have the answer, that what makes it fun.


TD.


Still me.

Yup.

Speaking of opinions, am I the only one that's worried about Bush's lawyers deciding he 'didn't need to ask Congress' whether he had a right to invade Iraq and assasinate Saddam? Isn't this a UN issue?

...This thread is compulsive, like picking a scab. You nearly heal up, and then start scratching at it again...

Anyway, like most of us I'm sure, I've been many places in the US, spending time and working among lots of different communities. Really big place; no one common way of life.

In fact, the heretics among us might contend that the "United States" don't actually exist except in some kind of collective umbrella of dire journalism, big-brand commercialism and folksy politics. It's the Umbrella that attempts to pull these disparate communities together, and it does so to fulfil entirely self-interested goals.

There's a widely-accepted idea that the US leads on a trail of decadence that the Rest of the World will follow a few years later. Maybe it's really the other way round. The US belatedly lives out the experiences of the rest of us in a dumb facsimile of the original. (The story later comes out branded "Made in the US", cf Big Brother etc, mainly because the Umbrella hates the idea of anyone else going there first)

Example : I just read a compelling account of Britain's savagery in Northern India c. 1857, in retaliation to the Sepoy Mutiny. The British could certainly claim provocation, but what was done was disproportionate, and more to the point stored up malice and resentment for the future. Parallels with the Post-9/11-US are striking, right down to the populist-press rabble-rousing.

This example is arbitrary; you can choose from dozens of historical episodes. In fact, European exploits in the Middle East and Southern Asia created all the precedents for the present debacles before modern Americans had even reached their West Coast. Many of the seeds were sown, of course, before America was even discovered.

Does this exonerate the US? Not really. We all should have learned by now. The spead of the Umbrella really ought to mean that there are enough of us watching, thinking and criticising to check the knee-jerk reaction and the escalation of aggression. But it seems that the US public are inspired by it instead. That's the US's (and indeed the World's) greatest tragedy, and my best answer to the question behind this thread.

P.

Never been to america but my opinions are mainly first hand (except for those from Jerry springer) Which means most of the americans I've met are the ones that do travel and I still found many (though not all) to be close minded and over patriotic. Bigger isn't always better.

Oh and for Pete's sake, sueing fast food chains for making you obese, get a life, what are you going to try next, sweetie manufacturers? Your kids will love you when there are no treats left because you can't be trusted to limit yourselves. (though I notice no-ones sued for liver damage caused by alcohol )

Mel

I think suing the huge corporatations is a good thing. We are not just talking 'burgers make you fat', everyone (probably) knows this. What is actually happening is that the likes of MacDonalds etc. are fortifying the food with ADDED fat and MSG, to make it, some would say, more addictive. Various studies have shown the potential of MSG and high fat to forming addictions. Of course people have choices, but people also have choices not to smoke or take crack. There is no need for the extra fat and MSG to be there, so they should take it out, or have health food warnings on the boxes. It reminds me of when coca-cola used to have cocaine in it...

I'm not sure suing the companies is a valid route to take, but I do think the companies should take responsibility for the added extras in the food and detail them explicitly on the package.

Why anyone would wanna eat the stuff is another matter...

Because sometimes all you want is a macdonalds hamburger damn that MSG!

But as you say it's a widely known fact that most processed food has 'flavour enhancers' so are we going to ban all pre-processed foods? Of course not. If someone cannot say to themselves, hang-on I'm putting on weight maybe I ought to cut down to only 3 MacDonalds a day then I'm sorry but I have no sympathy. Same goes to people who have smoking related cancer, I pity their families but I don't feel sorry for them.

Another reason why I dislike americans - it is not 'ok' to be seriosly obese, you are putting your health at risk and taking up valuble time and space in hospitals just because you can't be bothered to look after yourself.

Mel

Obesity costs the NHS something like £3 Billion a year.
To try and blame the US for that problem is unfair, to say the least.

There is a thread about the McDonalds law suit, in any event, so really not the thing for discussion here.

I'm not blaming the US I'm blaming the attitude that it is ok to be seriously obese because 'you like your food' and have no will power.

Mel

'Another reason why I dislike americans - it is not 'ok' to be seriosly obese'

Seemed to be saying that Americans some how had the corner on the market. Apologies and lights if I misunderstood.

It's the fact that it always seems to be americans standing up and saying I'm fat and I'm proud, it annoys me. I don't feel you should point and laugh, but I do feel they should make the effort to be healthy.

You've only got one body and so many people are insistent on ruining it. I know that one of the types of diabetes has reached such levels in the uk that if they tested the population they wouldn't be able to deal with the results and a lot of this is due to the fact people are over weight, I have been led to believe that obesity can make you prone to diabetes (type 2 I think though don't quote me!). Now my taxes are paying for the treatment of those who have been diagnosed yet my grandfather had to wait months to have his cateracts (sp?) removed. Something is not right.

Mel

*sits back and listens thinking to herself that this is probalby how wars start*

Does anyone remember some little country that decidied they wanted to rule the world, and conquered half of it? I think they're somewhere to the north of France...
Anyway, the point is that, however we did that, we did it. Nowadays, it won't work as well, as everyone watches everyone else, but I can't shake the feeling that sooner or later someone other than Bin Ladin or Sadam are going to start bombing the living daylights out of our 'pals across the pond'. Ever since September the 11th, I've had the feeling that the destruction of the twin towers would hail in the first major war of the 21st Century. Maybe I'm not that far off, though I damn well hope I am...

If a true world war 3 started I hate to say that I believe it would follow Tom Lehers song "I'll see you when the war is over, an hour and a half from now"
It would be Nuclear, it would be quick, it would be devestational and we wouldn't recover from it for generations to come

Mel

"Whoopie, we're all gonna die".

I hold this truth to be self-evident,
that all men may be cremated equal.

Yes, it's up to the people 'cause the atom don't care,
you can't fence me in 'cause I'm just like air,
and I don't care about any politics,
or who got what into whatever fix.
All I wanta do is sit around
and have my nucleus bombarded by neutrons.
Now the moral is this just as plain as day,
that Old Man Atom is here to stay,
I'm gonna stick around and that's for true,
but ah, dearly beloved, are you?
So listen folks, this is my thesis:
peace in the world or the world in pieces . . .

Old man Atom - Sons of the Pioneers

And if Vern partlow, who wrote it, could spot it in 1945, why do we find it so very difficult today?

I'd never heard that before but I like it, very apt!

The trouble is that until there is no poverty, disease famine etc there will never be true peace

Mel

If it does come to pass just blame it on america. {United States}