What is American Culture?

[KAT]

All right lets say it is "minority culture" and not "American Culture". What region do you have to be from to be categorised as from the "American Culture"? The only two I can think of is from Washington DC or Hollywood. DC is where Americans go to worship America, and Hollywood is its voice to the world. Ironically enough Hollywood gave me those images or Americans in the first place. More importantly what is "Minority Culture" isn't America just built up on a collective of minorities? "Send us your meek" and all that.

*coughcough evenlevistrausswasborningermany coughcough*

your country might be bigger...but that doesnt mean you got more culture [huh]

 

[jake431]

An easy definition - Things shared by the vast majority of native born Americans.

We share some of these with other countries, but I believe that all together they make our culture.

-Believing in God; or the freedom to worship your own god.

EDIT:I am not excluding the subjects mentioned in the previous posts...this is in addition to them.

I would amend that to read: "Believing in God; or the freedom to worship your own god. Or to not believe in God." Then I would agree with that as an American cultural value.

-Jake

 

[KAT]

HOLLYWOOOOOOD???

Im sure everybody will enjoy this side while im laughing here in Germany

http://www.germanhollywood.com/

 

[Lauren]

Burlesque.

I think this was actually introduced in France.

your country might be bigger...but that doesnt mean you got more culture.

Which was exactly my idea of starting this thread! I always think of the European countries as having so much culture! It was hard for me to put "what america is about" into my head

 

[KAT]

Which was exactly my idea of starting this thread! I always think of the European countries as having so much culture! It was hard for me to put "what america is about" into my head

i know its hard to think about! Since i got to the US i see many differences, but sometimes Europe seems more "real" and not as "artificial" . Please..im just saying my "european" opinion about this and dont wanna hurt anybodys feelings , i accept everybodys opinion...
for me my home is Europe/germany, but i also like it in the US even though i complain sometimes, but i do it here and there...who doesnt? [huh]

 

[jp*81]

Individual Cultural Values...

or minority values (I just called it those, I'm not sure what it's proper name would be) are more detailed. I would say "American Culture" is a vague term if you compared them. And they can all be generalized under Western Culture to get an even bigger picture.

I am not sure anyone understands me so I will stop.lol

 

[scotrace]

America is hard

Europe is easy!!!
The French have cuisine, wine, decorative arts, a beautiful language that adds immeasurably to our own, cheeses, music, fashion, on and on

The Italians have decorative arts, cuisine, ROME, religion, fashion, and more

Russians (I know, not Europe) have literature, vodka, icons...

The Germans have technical and organizational genius, cuisine, beer, music...

The English have the rule of law, iterature, port...

Something to hang their hats on and say THIS is our contribution!!

America? MUCH harder, in terms of culture.

But we have Louis Armstrong, Thomas Edison, Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, Ike, Ford, FDR, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Gable, TR, Eleanor, John Wayne, Mather, Poe, Helen Keller, the Wright brothers, Frank Lloyd Wright, Bell, Franklin, Saulk, Glenn...

Perhaps the American cultural genius is in creating the environment in which a large number of oustanding, creative people are given freedom to contribute beyond measure to the global culture?

 

[Lauren]

Scotrace, I think you hit the nail on the head! That's exactly the sort of thing I was thinking!

 

[Senator Jack]

This is something I think about all the time. Where to begin?


People always accuse me of being anti-American - even at this board in a roundabout way. But I'm not. I really do love the culture of this country, and it's a shame that because of the government and big business, we're known as the louts of the world, rather than the brilliant people who brought the world:

Hamburger stands
Booker T. And the MGs
Sam and Dave
Motown Records
Elvis Presley
Burt Bacharach
Hal David
Cole Porter
Andy Warhol
Roy Lichtenstein
Edward Hopper
Barbecue ribs
The MGM Musical
Fred Astaire
Arthur Miller
Edward Albee
West Side Story
Guys and Dolls
The Marx Brothers
Kurt Vonnegut
The Honeymooners


Obviously, the list can go on and on. Our problem here is that new artists, would-be innovators, no longer emulate the greats, they think like businessmen these days, big businessmen, and mainly ask themselves what they can do to make a buck. What sells? The other problem that we have is that most Americans don't even realize what that culture is about. How many Elvis fans really sit there and listen to those records? I mean REALLY listen to them. Listen to Scotty Moore's guitar, or even Doc Pomus' words? To them Elvis represents a time when they were teenagers and that's it. It could have been anyone. I find most American don't even appreciate or even understand their own culture. At best, those old songs elicit memories of a backseat gropings.

So I guess I'm saying the real reason for it not looking like we have any culture is because the majority doesn't even appreciate that culture. We don't celebrate it any real way. We issue stamps and cast statues, but we never really think about the brilliance of those people. Their brilliance is only relative to our memories, what we got out of it.

I guess I'm not making myself clear here. I'm plowing through tonights cocktails (Paris Cocktail - gin,lemon, parfait amour) If anyone can explain it to me, please do.

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[KAT]

Fred Astaire aka Frederick Austerlitz

"There are two kinds of Austrians—rascals and musicians—
I, of course, am a musician!”
— Fred Astaire quoting a quip of his father's

The Germans have technical and organizational genius, cuisine, beer, music...

:cheers1:

wise words.
i think you really said it right with your thread Scotrace

 

[Sefton]

Robert Johnson
Charlie Patton
Blind Lemon Jefferson
Louis Armstrong
Billie Holiday
The automobile
comic books
the phonograph
radio
freeways
Television
Hollywood (from the silent days until about 1950 for my taste)

 

[KAT]

JUST TO NAME "A FEW"

Inventions
Chronologically

1440 movable type Johannes Gutenberg
1510 balance spring (clockwork) Peter Henlein
1709 alcohol thermometer Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit
1714 mercury thermometer Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit
1850 Geissler (flourescent) tube Heinrich Geissler
1861 telephone Philipp Reis
1867 dynamo generator Werner von Siemens
1876 ammonia refrigerator Karl von Linde
1877 four-stroke internal combustion engine Nikolaus August Otto
1884 Nipkow scanning disk (TV) Paul Nipkow
1884 (AEG) Emil Rathenau

1885 automobile (Daimler-Benz) Karl Benz
1885 automobile (Daimler-Benz) Gottlieb Daimler
1885 diesel engine Rudolf Diesel

1887 Mikrophon gramophone, microphone Emil Berliner
1888 electromagnetic waves Heinrich R. Hertz
1892 Quecksilberdampflampe Arons tube, mercury vapor lamp Martin Leo Arons
1895 X-rays (discovery), Nobel Prize in Physics 1901 Wilhelm C. R??ntgen
1896 glider Otto Lilienthal
1897 cathode-ray tube
(Nobel Prize 1909) Karl Ferdinand Braun
1899 Aspirin®, aspirin Felix Hoffmann (Bayer AG)
1900 flourescent lamp Edmund Germer
1900 rigid airship Graf Ferdinand von Zeppelin
1902 alternating current, lightning research Charles Proteus Steinmetz
1906 Test for syphilis August Paul von Wassermann
1920 (adidas) athletic shoe Adolf (Adi) Dassler
1920 Nobel Prize, thermochemistry Walther Hermann Nernst
1928 first scientific pregnancy test Selmar Aschheim
1931 electron microscope, Nobel Prize in Physics 1986 Ernst Ruska
1939 DDT Paul H. M?ºller
1942 V2 rocket Wernher von Braun
1942 spread spectrum technology Hedy Lamarr (Web)
1945 Z1-Z4 computers - The Z3 was the first programmable computer Konrad Zuse
1954 rotary cylinder engine Felix Wankel
1960 Redstone rocket (US) Wernher von Braun
1995 MP3 MPEG Level 3, Fraunhofer Inst. Karlheinz Brandenburg
Bernhard Grill


WHO WANTS TO GIVE UP? lol I HAVE SOME MORE [huh]
and wasnt it Hitler who came up with the Autobahn? lol

 

[KAT]

.......and Im just teasing you all here
I got it already ..i hope you noticed that?

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Huh? Don Ameche invented the telephone, dammit!







lol

 

[Lincsong]

WHO WANTS TO GIVE UP? lol I HAVE SOME MORE [huh]
and wasnt it Hitler who came up with the Autobahn? lol

[/QUOTE]

That is correct. During World War II Dwight Eisenhower saw how effiecient the autobahn was in transporting troops. As President he envisioned such a system for the United States. During World War I he traveled cross country and was disgusted by the lack of roads. The original U.S. Highway system was built in the 1920's. He envisioned the Interstate System being built on the Autobahn model using routes similar to the Highway system. This dream became a reality and transformed America. Way to go IKE!:eusa_clap :eusa_clap
American Culture is the ability for the most number of people to have a great degree of comfort and wealth. Yeah, some people in remote areas of Appalachia live in dirt floors, that's the exception not the rule in America. Many people in urban San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, St. Louis and Honolulu don't have air conditioning. Big Deal! Open a window and turn on a fan in the summer if it's hot. That's your cooling. We didn't have air conditioning at the University of Hawaii 15 years ago, or in Illinois, did that make us backwards? They probably still don't have air conditioning in the dorms and some classrooms in those places.

 

[KAT]

Huh? Don Ameche invented the telephone, dammit! lol

lol lol lol sorry that is wrong lol lol


Reis had difficulty in interesting people in Germany in his invention despite demonstrating it to (among others) Wilhelm von Legat, Inspector of the Royal Prussian Telegraph Corps in 1862 (Legat, 1862). It aroused more interest in the United States In 1872, Prof Vanderwyde demonstrated Reis's device in New York where it was seen by Thomas Edison, and possibly officials of Western Union and Alexander Graham Bell. Both Bell and Edison drew on Reis's device to produce and patent components of the telephone.

 

[scotrace]

Scotrace, I think you hit the nail on the head! That's exactly the sort of thing I was thinking!

And you made my day!

edit: And KAT: Danke!

 

[scotrace]

The other great German trait.

Hubris.

 

[KAT]

That is correct. During World War II Dwight Eisenhower saw how effiecient the autobahn was in transporting troops. As President he envisioned such a system for the United States. During World War I he traveled cross country and was disgusted by the lack of roads. The original U.S. Highway system was built in the 1920's. He envisioned the Interstate System being built on the Autobahn model using routes similar to the Highway system. This dream became a reality and transformed America. Way to go IKE!:eusa_clap :eusa_clap

HAHAH cause even Eisenhower got some german heritage

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) is one of only two American presidents of German extraction. (The other was Herbert Hoover.) On Oct. 14, 1890 in Denison, Texas, Dwight David Eisenhower was born into a German-American family that goes back to Johann Nicolaus Eisenhauer (ca. 1691-ca. 1760) who came to America with his son Johann Peter in 1741 and settled in Pennsylvania.

 

[KAT]

Originally Posted by Lauren Henline
Scotrace, I think you hit the nail on the head! That's exactly the sort of thing I was thinking!
QUOTE]


but i said so too

MRS WEISSENHEIMER IS OFF TO BED...ITS LATE OVER HERE ..SO ILL BE QUIET NOW