82_VOL_83
Nickelback rocks!
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2012
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Was pretty easy for me to live in India three years ago, Dubai, Rome...
Where are you guys moving that it is difficult to do anything without knowing the native language? I'm truly curious.
America was historically called a melting pot. The idea was many diverse cultures merging together to form a new culture, the American culture. I see nothing inherently wrong with celebrating your own culture, but, as with many things, there comes a point where you have extremists who wield that culture like a hammer and attempt to beat you over the head with it. They're not trying to coexist, peacefully, side by side, they're attempting to dominate. An extreme microcosm of this can be found in street, and even moreso in prison, gangs. Gangs are generally divided up among cultural and ethnical lines, with each gang trying to become the dominant power.
I guess I'm rambling a bit, but my point is there exists in this country factions of people that do not want to coexist peacefully. So how do we address and change that? We can advocate they have the right to feel as they do, but in so doing, you justify the words and actions of those that react in kind. If that's the case, then everyone becomes a hypocrite for demonizing those with opposing views.
JMO, but it's a very slippery slope. I won't pretend to be as intelligent as some on here actually are, so maybe they can see it in a light I have yet to find. What I see is a chaotic mess. This country is not okay. I believe in cultural diversity and think it helped make our country strong at one point, but what we have today is cultures seeking superiority, and it's not just the (for lack of a better term) English culture. Everyone's afraid of being left behind, and all the in-fighting has weakened us to a point of concern.
It is a perfect example of an oppressive slave state with a very rigid monarchical and aristocratic structure torn apart from within due to competing interests.
Again, what is the analogue to the US in 2014?
King Arthur: I am your king.
Woman: Well I didn't vote for you.
King Arthur: You don't vote for kings.
Woman: Well how'd you become king then?
[Angelic music plays... ]
King Arthur: The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by divine providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. THAT is why I am your king.
Dennis: [interrupting] Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
Say you and I are both devout Catholics. I end up accidentally killing your dog. You are very upset and demand recompense. You want me to pay you $500 while I think that $100 is more than enough. Neither of us will budge, so we decide to let our priest mediate the dispute. He decides I ought to pay you $300. I pay you $300.
Should that arbitration process not be held up as valid in court?
Sure they did...but not because they wanted to be Americans and not be Germans, Italians, Poles, or Irishmen. They wanted, and they did, retain their cultures for multiple generations. They certainly did not come wanting to take on the Anglo-American culture that was dominant in the US at the time.
Not as much as allowing their cultures to bond with the existing culture as well as taking on new ideals to better fit in.
Language would be a prime example of that. Sure they kept Italian or Korean or whatever as their secondary language, but they still learned English as a primary language and allowed themselves to be assimilated into the melting pot of America.
Since you're such the history buff, how many of those immigrants didn't celebrate the 4th of July? Thanksgiving?
I'll hang up and listen.