The Life of Brian, US in terminal decline

[dumpthemonarchy]

The US is in terminal decline for two resons

1. The US cannot laugh at itself due to its earnestness and religion. Saw the movie The
Life of Brian on video. Fantastic spoof of religion and politics. Hollywood couldn't make
a movie like this if they tried. Would be attacked and censored. Not that anyone in the
US would ever think of making a movie satirizing religion that bites. All prez candidates
talk about how religious they are. In Washington DC, in one of the museums, Abraham is
called a great lawmaker.

2. American just don't know history. Fareed Zakaria, international editor of Newsweek,
wrote in Foreign Affairs May/June 2008 issue, an article titled, "The Future of American
Power" that "The eleven premiers of Britain's self-governing colonies were in
attendance," Premiers? They were prime minsters. See below. Comic.

http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page929.asp

Eleven colonial Prime Ministers were in attendance. The Queen's progress continued via the Mansion House across London Bridge and through South London, before returning over Westminster Bridge, past the Houses of Parliament to Buckingham Palace.


Basically, Americans are just clued out about other countries. Nice people but just can't get a grip on what's going on beyond their borders. Here, it is in the American mentality that only Britain has a prime minister, whether it is the present or the British empire. Words matter, but they can only relate to words in an American context, not an international one.

An article just after said the US was not that strong due to so many international actors such as NGOs. It used my favourite word these days, entropy. Which means disorder, random chaos. Put yer seat belts on.

 

[Kreskin]

I doubt many Brits know the difference between Sponge Bob, Scrooge McDuck and the Fresh Prince of Belair. They have about the same degree of relevance as the Queen of England so we'll call it 'all-square'.

I don't even know who lives two houses down from me but I do like the US political system better than ours or the Brits. I have lost faith in parliamentary games and yackfests.

The US has a very interesting history. They've had more to worry about than who the Queen is drinking tea with or what fluffy title they've acquired by birth-right.

I am not religious nor offended by religious comedy but I seem to remember nodding off a few times during the Life of Brian.

Speaking of new favorite words, today two US politicians used the word 'egregious'.

But, more importantly, don't take my ramblings seriously.

 

[FUBAR]

You would be wrong there Kreskin. Most Brits know who Sponge Bob, Scrooge McDuck and the Fresh Prince of Belair are. They also know who Barak Obama and John McCain are while most Americans wouldn't know who Gordon Brown is. In a way dump is right, because most Americans never travel to other countries they have no interest in them. because of that the news programs only mention anywhere else if the story involves America otherwise all the news is internal.This is a bit old but still relevant...

Excellent entry on Language log based on this article in the New Yorker. During a recent press conference, Democrat candidate to the US presidency John Kerry pretended he couldn't understand or speak French (in which he is perfectly fluent), presumably to safeguard his political future. This is what Geoffrey K. Pullum says: "I would have thought that to have a US president (for once) who could argue fluently and convincingly in the native language of some other heads of state would be a fantastic asset. But instead it is perceived as a kind of disloyalty, evidence of being an untrustworthy egghead, and you would lose millions of votes over it. It's both depressing and amazing."

From here:Je ne parle pas français ~ NakedTranslations.com ~ English to French translation

Seems knowing something foreign is bad or not approved of in the US .

 

[Scott Free]

I think this says it all:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jfealLrWLIY

 

[hermanntrude]

hey dumpy. Looks like you got through to the owners of that website. they changed "premiers" to "colonial prime ministers"

 

[I think not]

Don't worry FUBAR, we know who the teletubbies are, we still have a grudge about that.:lol:

 

[thomaska]

The US is in terminal decline for two resons

1. The US cannot laugh at itself due to its earnestness and religion. Saw the movie The
Life of Brian on video. Fantastic spoof of religion and politics. Hollywood couldn't make
a movie like this if they tried. Would be attacked and censored. Not that anyone in the
US would ever think of making a movie satirizing religion that bites. All prez candidates
talk about how religious they are. In Washington DC, in one of the museums, Abraham is
called a great lawmaker.

2. American just don't know history. Fareed Zakaria, international editor of Newsweek,
wrote in Foreign Affairs May/June 2008 issue, an article titled, "The Future of American
Power" that "The eleven premiers of Britain's self-governing colonies were in
attendance," Premiers? They were prime minsters. See below. Comic.

http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page929.asp

Eleven colonial Prime Ministers were in attendance. The Queen's progress continued via the Mansion House across London Bridge and through South London, before returning over Westminster Bridge, past the Houses of Parliament to Buckingham Palace.


Basically, Americans are just clued out about other countries. Nice people but just can't get a grip on what's going on beyond their borders. Here, it is in the American mentality that only Britain has a prime minister, whether it is the present or the British empire. Words matter, but they can only relate to words in an American context, not an international one.

An article just after said the US was not that strong due to so many international actors such as NGOs. It used my favourite word these days, entropy. Which means disorder, random chaos. Put yer seat belts on.

Gosh not sure how to argue with "The Life of Brian" and improper substituions of premier and prime ministers. Arguably, The Life of Brian is the standard by which all civilizations should be judged.

Any timeline prediction of when the decline will actually hit rock bottom, or is this just wishful thinking?

 

[MikeyDB]

I don't think America is in a terminal decline. What is/was "America"?

America is the nation that Americans want their nation to be...... If they choose to surrender their nation to the dollar, that's their business....no pun intended...

The United States like Canada has enjoyed a relatively lengthy period of "peace" and luxuriant prosperity. Nothing comes either good or bad without an affect on not only the people themselves but on the larger picture of the human endeavor. Americans like Canadians belive they're entitled to live a quality of life vastly different than the greater majority of humankind. We've been conditioned to believe that "might is right", that every American and every Canadian deserves to celebrate their "prosperity" through consumption and excess. The "models" modelled through television and media in general portray the "happy" "successful" "sexy", "rich", "popular" life-style as that quality of life that is the entitlement of Canadians and Americans.

That this happiness and prosperity come through self-interest devoid of any sense of responsibility for our actions either to each other or for that matter to anyone else is the self-identity that undergirds the moral and ethical philosophies of our two nations.

We can live comfortably with great disparity evident within our cultures. We can declare strata that define our neighbors and our countrymen using race, using religion, using the exhibition of "disposable income"....whether in fact that "disposable income" is real or the charade of "easy credit". We embrace the idea that an automobile is subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) testimony to our wealth and power. We've been conditioned to greed that tells us that even if we don't really "need" or "use" an enormous five bedroom three bath, triple car garage, in-ground pool etc. that we "owe it to ourselves" to purchase this house and rest assurred that we can recoup our investment......

We don't care (not even a little bit) that our corporations and businesses promulgate this sense of entitlement without regard for men women and children used essentially as slave labour in distant nations to supply our goods and services and feed our appetites. When it's "politically correct" some of us will make noises about "human rights violations" by those nations that supply our goods, our oil our "quality of life"....but will never consider living any other way than that to which we have become accustomed. If that means that our clothing our trinkets and baubles come from China...a murderous and notoriously unjust nation....well that's just the way things are.....

We'll be surprised from time to time when the people we've been handing trillions of dollars for our gasoline and our plasticized reality for a very long time....tell us that they don't like us...... That the wealth of their nations is focused and confined to the "royal family" or the "military junta" or the puppet dictatorship that we've been supporting for long long periods. Our appetites demand that we frequently change the leadership of some nations, to maintain access to resources and continue our "leadership" in setting the tone and fulfilling the "dream" of self-interest. We'll placate and soothe...to the point of handing billions upon billions of dollars to our "good ally" who just happens to be involved in oppressing the people of a region that we took from the people who lived there and gave to our good friends. Good friends who have enormous influence on our media, our economic systems....our politicians have long acknwoledged that pleasing a select few is good for political support and re-election.... We don't care if the seas are dying from being over-harvested by not only ourselves but by othe nations who supply us with our food and who we welcome to fish the same grounds as we have for hundreds of years. We don't care that our air is filthy, that's the acceptable consequence of four-wheel-freedom. We don't care that our social institutions have become pawns in a political chess game that witnesses people left homeless and suffering while we send our youngsters off to fight an illegitimate and criminal "war on terrorism"..... that has in and of itself spawned a new cultural ethos predicated on paid "contactors" as substitute for national military.

We chose to create these situations just the way they've unfolded.

 

[dumpthemonarchy]

Actually hermantrude, they didn't change this web site. And they can't change the magazine either.

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20080...eed-zakaria/the-future-of-american-power.html

So, like, why doesn't the Cdn movie biz make some movies like Life of Brian? We're supposed to be less religious than the pious yanks. We'd rather sell Canadian geography as the US in Dances With Wolves or Brokeback Mountain. And give subsidies to the US to do it.

Basically, the world is a dynamic place and the US is not keeping up, which is not good for Canada. I heard McCain mixed up Shia and Sunni Muslims a while back, problem is, he gets paid to know this stuff. Then we see on Youtube McCain mixes up Germany and Putin, another cute quip by McCain. Good one Scottfree. But really, how many Russian or German lobbyists are there in Washington?