--- J Y S Czhang <czhang23@...> wrote:
> In our Polycarbonate Age - in which
> everything from pre-natal healthcare
> to gravesite maintenance is commodified and the
> processes of life and nature
> themselves are commodifiable (i.e.
> bio-engineered genetics and modified foods),
> socio-cultural (and coopted subcultural)
> "lifestyles" are just another
> "product-line." Our very lives in the "Global
> Village" are threatened by mass-mediafication
> as well as "bio-commodifation."
There doesn't seem to be much culture in this,
after all. Culture is supposed to be a thing that
goes on between people of a community. A kind of
extended bonding. A practice of tradition. What
we have on offer isn't that kind of culture, to
be sure.
> The future - at worst - seems to be
> headed towards a BladeRunneresque scenario...
> In this context "Which world? Which
> culture?" should be "What worldview?
> What 'culture' and/or 'cultures' ... and
> whose?"
Well, there's no reason why _one_ has to be
chosen. I would hope the "real world" is big
enough for them all - I am sure our own worlds
are!
> Do we want a pre-packaged,
> preservative-loaded Toss Salad MacDonaldland or
> a potluck smorgsbord in which
> everyone wants to join in is welcome and takes
> active part?
I'd rather the latter, but it seems the former
has the upper hand for the now. So, huzzah for
IB, Middle Earth, Teonea and all the other
expressions of smorgasborderie!
> ... on a lighter note:
>
> In a message dated 2003:07:12 07:31:54 AM,
> feaelin@KEMENEL.ORG writes:
>
> >Hmm. An alien race would probably regard "All
> > Terrans" as having a single
> >culture. Odd thought, that.
>
> Yes indeed. This reminds me of Michael
> Moorcock's burlesque sci-fi novel
> _An Alien Heat_ set in some far future ...
> apparently all today's languages
> are mistakenly thought to be
> dialects/regionalects of one major language:
>
> "Good evening, fraulein. I parle the
> yazhik. Nay m-sai pa." ['accents'
> couldn't be easily typed in this email]
Europanto revisited!
> Being sorta like an alien in the U S of A,
> I find "American
> popular/mainstream culture" quite bewildering
> most of the time and at times blatantly
> offensive to either my Asian or British
> Colonial sensibilities ... or both.
Well, you're sure not the only one!
Padraic.
=====
beuyont alch geont la ciay la cina
mangeiont alch geont y faues la lima;
pe' ne m' molestyont
que faciont
doazque y facyont in rima.
.