Re: CHAT: Which world? Which culture?

--- JS Bangs <jaspax@...> wrote:

> "America has no culture because we
> throw everything away" is a meaningless
> statement; what you mean is,
> "American culture is a culture of throwing
> things away."
That's as may be, but I didn't say we have no
culture because we throw everything away. I think
we have no _greater_ culture - American Culture -
because there's not much "shared territory". It's
all little communities doing their thing. Who
knows: maybe _that_ is American culture, everyone
doing their little cultural thing unmolested by
everyone else doing their own little cultural
thing.

> You also are mixing prescriptive and
> descriptive ideas of culture. You say
> "Culture is *supposed to be*", which is well
> and good, but does not
> demonstrate that we don't have culture.
Well, I _don't_ think we have what culture is
supposed to be.

> I agree that our culture could
> stand to be a lot more communal and sedentary,
> but the fact that our
> culture is not these things does not make it
> not a culture.
Well, if it ain't that thing, then it ain't that
thing! Culture _is_ a communal thing; if the
larger "community" doesn't have that kind of
culture, then what it has isn't culture. At least
in the usual sense.

> The point,
> I think, is that corporate v. communal is the
> wrong distinction: good v.
> bad and healthy v. corrupting are more
> important.
Six of 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.

.

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