Re: [OpenHeroQuest] Digest Number 187 - several topics

From: Chris Lemens <chrislemens_at_Phr1sn511UJORbIv7-vTkCeIdBmVukbcncLZZq-4bIGMO4-xfUAr-OtP3RCGO6fb>
Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2003 13:34:40 -0800 (PST)


Philip Murphy, replying to RRRRRR:

> >>...sure, we have Thanksgiving, but
> >>the Germans have Oktoberfest...
> >>Would he be so upset if we asked
> >>"What Gloranthan festival equates
> >>to Oktoberfest?"
>
> You are deliberately misinterpreting what
> I said. The point is that Mr Hans Average
> German would NEVER associate Oktoberfest and
> Easter, nor assume them to be the same sort
> of thing. An average German would know that
> Oktoberfest is a German thing and assume that
> it was not celebrated outside his own culture.
> On the other hand, Mr Joe Average American is
> so big-headed and ignorant of the USA's place
> in the world that he has exactly the opposite
> belief regarding Thanksgiving. He probably
> believes the Communists banned it in China.

So, I'm guessing that you are sufficiently ignorant so as not to know that Canada also celebrates a holiday called Thanksgiving, commemorating a different event, but having the same spirit.

Now, using your logic, shall I decry "your country's (standard) educational system" for causing you to be "so big-headed and ignorant" that you believe that Thanksgiving is celebrated only in one culture?

Further, I totally fail to see how you could think that Americans could believe that everyone celebrates Thanksgiving. In America, the holiday is linked to patriotic, psuedo-historical stories about how the Pilgrims came to America to escape persecution by close-minded bigots; Thanksgiving is celebrated in rememberance of their first harvest, which assured their survival in the new world. How could this possibly be celebrated in any country that does not have a similar history of colonization?

For that matter, what makes you think Oktoberfest is only celebrated in Germany (even ignoring Austria and German speaking areas of Switzerland)? America is a country of immigrants. There is a large section of the central Texas hill country where Oktoberfest is celebrated. Again using your logic, I guess you're just so big-headed and ignorant that you assume we're all brainwashed clones.

That sounds like close-minded bigotry to me. Your assumptions about Americans are the same ones that Southern racists made about blacks, Northern Irish Protestants made about Catholics, etc. Try understanding us, rather than just spewing hatred. Or if you reallly dislike everything American, try going without it for a week.

How, exactly, does an Irishman come to hate America? In my experience, the Irish love Americans as soon as we open our mouths. Sometimes even enough to buy us a pint.

> Philip
> "I know I promised, Lord, never again. But I also
> know that YOU know what a weak-willed person I am."

Surely, you mean "weak-brained".

Ppppptthhhphthp!



Chris Lemens

Do you Yahoo!?
Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now
http://companion.yahoo.com/            

Powered by hypermail