right. just like our current democracy came through "platonic republics"?Jay wrote:
The categories came through Thomas Jefferson via Francis Bacon
memory is history and biography, whereas reason makes you think. my reason shelves have economics, philosophy, math theory and design books. imagination is art and literature. I mean, they're all sub-organized as well, like a dedicated shelf for philosophy so a book about how to build tables isn't sitting next to a book on public choice theory etc.uziq wrote:
right. just like our current democracy came through "platonic republics"?Jay wrote:
The categories came through Thomas Jefferson via Francis Bacon
how do you distinguish between a work that is 'memory' and 'imaginary'? what's the taxonomy? bookstores and libraries divide things according to categories such as fiction and non-fiction for a reason.
I mean, it's not so I can say "look at me I organize my books like TJ did". It was mentioned in one of his biographies that this was how he organized his books, it made sense to me, and I happened to have three bookshelves, so I copied him. Shrug.uziq wrote:
haha if it works for him then it's harmless ... but organising your books the same way that jefferson and bacon did is the height of pretentiousness.
Last edited by uziq (2016-11-04 12:41:14)
I had to look up what pietistic meant.uziq wrote:
elon musk's pietistic biography.
You really think a persons cultural roots get erased in two generations?uziq wrote:
jay you're about as german as a ye olde oak can of hotdogs.
My grandparents spoke German at home and talked about the fatherland endlessly. I grew up eating the crappy food, listening to endless oompah music etc. I've been to germany but speak very little. Shrug. I'm not denying that I'm American, but the culture I grew up with at home was different from say an Italian Catholic. There really is no monolithic American culture. Everyone came here and stayed in their own little ethnic groups, at least for a few generations.uziq wrote:
you grew up in a blue-collar neighbourhood of long island and i doubt you've ever been to germany (outside of a military base) or speak german.
maybe i'm wrong about those last two, but what i'm trying to say is ... 99% of europeans are more culturally german than you.
your average english person is more 'culturally german' than an american sat in long island. our cultures have far more traditions and mores in common.
there really is nothing funnier than americans who fetishise their ancestry. i could maybe take you seriously if you were living in some dutch farming community in wisconsin or something, or the fucking pennsylvania amish. but no, you'll talk about how 'german' your upbringing was in a suburb of new york. haha. just like all those leprechaun motherfuckers in boston, amirite?
I was actually just about to type out your second paragraph myself so... agreeduziq wrote:
but there is a monolithic 'american' culture. you are all american before anything else. i'm not saying you're homogeneous or all the same, and all have identikit lives and customs. but you're american. i wouldn't say the same of your grandparents who had one foot in either culture, old world and new world. but you're american. you may not be some all-true-american-WASP-great-great-great-great-greatfather-on-the-mayflower type american, but you're a fucking yank. you guys just use the ethnic/cultural tags as ways of feeling special in that giant melting pot you have.
it's weird and kitschy when americans do their 'european' traditions as well. there's something deeply weird and sad about american tourists wearing kilts in edinburgh or boozing in dublin. your relatives left for a reason and consciously started their identity – and by proxy your identity – anew. why are you obsessed with the 'fatherland'? germany doesn't want you.
Last edited by Jay (2016-11-04 13:38:22)
I just read the stories about Somalians groping good german girls at festivals to make myself feel betteruziq wrote:
we've all seen the funny/sad videos of american right-wing pundits talking about 'no go zones' in our cities and how 'terrible' the situation is in europe now, our culture totally 'overrun'.
(this is the cue for dilbert to come in and give his typical expat hate-rant about how his country isn't the same as it was when he left it in 1977...)
germany have been some of the most vociferous supporters and appealers for help with the refugee crisis, just fyi jay.
Well I could, but I don't know, I'm not really in the mood.uziq wrote:
this is the cue for dilbert to come in and give his typical expat hate-rant about how his country isn't the same as it was when he left it in 1977...
Last edited by Dilbert_X (2016-11-05 02:13:27)
as i'm sure i hardly need to tell you, hardly a worse problem in scale or magnitude than our own indigenous child-rape gangs and institutionalised abuses.Dilbert_X wrote:
Well I could, but I don't know, I'm not really in the mood.uziq wrote:
this is the cue for dilbert to come in and give his typical expat hate-rant about how his country isn't the same as it was when he left it in 1977...
I suppose I could post something about Pakistani child-rape gangs, maybe later.
