Re: Unamerican

Douglas Koller wrote:

>I was watching part of the Gay Rights Rally in Washington yesterday on
>CSpan, and at some point, the term "unamerican" (by a gay speaker) popped
>up. "Unamerican" is, obviously, an extremely loaded political term which
>means "going against the American ethos", which might mean "being against
>life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" plus a surfeit of connotative
>layers (and -- I don't wish to open a can of politcal worms -- can be
>co-opted by *any*one trying to diss opposing political views).
>
>My question to non-English speakers -- Irina, Christophe, Carlos, BP,
>Lars... (and perhaps to non-American, English speakers, though "unenglish,
>unBritish" doesn't sound like a big reach to me [unAustralian?]):
>
>Does political rhetoric in your country play this card?  Is there
>"un-Dutch", un-French", "un-Argentinian", "un-Swedish", "un-Danish"....
>behavior?  How is it codified (by which I mean, what prized views of your
>country is it supposed to be antithetical to?), and what is the push-button
>term in your various languages? "osvensk"?
Now I'm only half-Danish, but I think I can answer for Danes.

The word 'udansk' (unDanish) comes up often, but I don't think
there is any complete concensus on what exactly that term means.
People who lean towards the left in their political alignment
seem to refer to 'danskhed' (Danishness) as being liberal. Those
that align themselves more to the right seem to refer to 'danskhed'
as being nationalistic. Otherwise, both agree that typical 'dansk'
is one who 'respects the personal freedom of "others"' - but the
spectrum between left and right vary as to who the word "others"
apply to. For instance, those leaning to the left might say that
the muslim immigrants have the right to build mosques so that they
can practice their religion and that it is 'udansk' to do otherwise,
while those leaning to the extreme right might say that islam is
a very 'udansk' religion because they say it is a repressive religion
and thus should not be allowed to be practiced in Denmark.

Yadda yadda yadda...

The whole thing is ridiculous in my opinion. But I guess because I'm
a third-cultured person and therefore have no sense of patriotism, I
fail to 'connect' with the debates here in Denmark on what it is to
be truly 'dansk'. Part of the reason why I conlang/conculture BTW.

-kristian- 8)