Re: CHAT: cultural interpretation [was Re: THEORY: language and the brain]

Sorry, but this notion of the US being the acme of freedom is complete tosh.
Don't get me wrong - I really love the US and can't wait to visit again. I
have several American friends whom I like and respect greatly. The truth is,
there is no league table of freedom; all states of necessity impose certain
restrictions on what its citizens can and cannot do, and these restrictions
are conditioned by the culture. For instance, in France you have to choose a
name for your child from a selected list. Though personally I think this is
a silly and repressive idea, I don't think for one moment French citizens
feel less free than (say) Italian or British citizens, who whilst not having
this particular restriction, have others. Part of the problem with the way
the rest of the world sees the US is that it seeks to impose the US
definition of freedom upon everyone else, rather in the same way that
missionaries imposed their worldview on other cultures in the past (and
unfortunately still do)
Oh, and I'd probably put the prototype 'Free' state as somewhere like
Iceland.
Mike
> > But seriously, you must admit that the US is at least the prototype of
the
> > "free" state, with all that entails - some combination of "gold
standard"
> > and "beta release".  We're still working out the bugs, and freedomwise
> > we unfortunately seem to be tending in the direction of less freedom
> > in the interest of (the illusion of) more safety, Ben Franklin be
damned,
> > but we still, by and large, have more liberties than most people
> > elsewhere in the world.  For instance, compare the Scandinavian practice
> > of requiring that babies be given first names chosen from a
church-approved
> > list with the U.S.'s mandatory separation of church and state and
complete
> > governmental apathy toward what and how people are named.
>
> Not that it matters alot, but at least Sweden does not have a such
practice.
> Allowing a church control over something like that would be quite alien to
> Swedish political culture. That said, secular authorities can and do stop
> parents from giving names that they can argue would be demetrial to the
> child's social life - a while ago they stop a couple naming their
> daughter 'Tequila'.
>
> Spain under Franco had a law similar to what you describe, IIRC.
>
>                                                       Andreas
>

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