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Any American Prog Experts?
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Dog 3000
Dog 3000
4611 posts

Edited Dec 03, 2008, 21:52
Re: Prog, Marx and Elitism
Dec 03, 2008, 21:46
Well, it doesn't look that way from over here (a "big city Harvard lawyer" just got elected president, right???) Brains are a pretty big deal, and always have been -- though usually in more of a "technical" sense than a "philosophical" one (how to get to the moon or make a billion dollars, not writing something like "Das Kapital.")

But I think you are very right about the looking-back aspects of Euro-prog. America-prog tends to be more "present/future" oriented?

I would say the biggest difference in mindsets is that American's don't have a sense of "history" the way Europeans do -- just about everyone over here has a family history that "starts (over) when they got to the new world" (except the "Indians" of course, for whom it's kind of the reverse.) Europeans (as well as Asians and everyone else outside of N & S America and Australia, the "colonial continents") are realtively hung up on history, "the past."

I mean, the oldest buildings around where I live date from the early 20th century. "What history?"

Though there is definitely a strain of nostalgiazing (sic) "the Native experience" as a sort of strain of American romanticism. But it seems more prevalent in movies (especially revisionist Westerns, Billy Jack) and books than music?

There's also less of a sense of "ethnicity" for a lot of people (many New Worlders being "mutts" -- again, see the guy moving into the Whitehouse!) Though true there are certainly also a lot of Americans who wear their ethnicity on their sleeves (from Norwegian-Americans to Jews to Irish, Arabs, you name it.) In Europe I think there is a sense of "Germany is where Germans have always lived" that doesn't exist over here. Though definitely seems to be changing lately with all the immigration -- and the UK/Ireland probably have always been more "diverse" than some European countries -- probably the "sea faring"/imperial thing combined with several distinct groups stuck together on smallish islands that kept getting invaded!

(Sorry if that sounds bunkish, it's just my 3000 mile view!)

Which really has nothing to do with "class" per se . . . I guess ethnic stuff and "plain old money" are just more important over here. Different focus in viewing "social categories" which makes sense due to different history/culture.
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