GameBanshee Forums

Originally posted by fable:
<STRONG>

I would question that the US rewards success. It rewards material success: if you make a fortune, you are important, you are more worthwhile than other people--and let's face it: this is by no means either a modern or American attitude. The US simply does in the open what many other cultures, particularly European ones, have done quietly for years. French government scandals, anyone...?

But there are other standards by which success may be measured, and the US pays little attention to these, as a rule. I wrote here several weeks ago that the inventor of the robotic arm has been working for several years in Japan, because he couldn't get a job that would pay as much as an average corporate office manager in the US. His "success" has led to breakthroughs in medical treatment and scientific research that are both remarkable and help many people each year, but it doesn't catch the imagination the same way extravagant wealth does. Americans are obsessed with wealth, and with the toys it can buy. This is tangible, this is the Horatio Alger story come true. It's harder to envision the austere success of a man who creates a robotic arm--or another who triumphs privately, quietly, over cancer, or a third who takes up the cello at the age of 55 to play Beethoven quartets.

These are all successes, but they're successes of the intellect, of organization, of the spirit, of enthusiasm. They lack glitter, so they never get reported; and besides, whoever recited or listened to a fairy tale about a cancer recovery patient? Our endings all feature the hero and heroine moving into a castle to live happily ever after; and making fairy tales come true is part of the American myth, IMO.</STRONG>

Originally posted by Sailor Saturn:
<STRONG>Yer sense of direction is a little off. I ain't no Southern Bell from the South. Ah'm even better cause Ah'm a Texan. Ya'll yankees seem to get that thar fact confused, but don't worry, we'll straighten yout. </STRONG>

Originally posted by Happy Evil:
<STRONG>Anyone that aint from Texas is a Yankee, right? </STRONG>

Originally posted by Maharlika:
<STRONG>I think it all boils down to what is deemed a priority in one's society, not to mention the necessity of that particular thing.</STRONG>

posted by Yshania:
<STRONG>LOL! and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - Vinnie Jones is hardly Hugh Grant or Roger Moore I think media If not the films - what about one of our biggest exports the BBC? I remember growing up thinking the BBC newsreaders were posh and London was a foreign country (maybe it is in it's cultural diversity)

Originally posted by Vivien:
<STRONG>the turny nob on my mouse has been making me skip backwards in web pages (it's a bit odd).</STRONG>

Originally posted by Vivien:
<STRONG>C.E.: I would quote your comment, but the turny nob on my mouse has been making me skip backwards in web pages (it's a bit odd). Just wanted to say that I probably shouldn't have taken anything personally. I knew no one was intending it that way, and tried to say that... I truly wasn't trying to say anything negative to anyone.</STRONG>

Happy Evil writes:
I think people who feel reward in discovering the types of unheralded successes that you mentioned know where to seek them out.
Do we expect those types of stories to be positioned above the winners of the Superbowl in mainstream US commercial media?
Ideally maybe, unfortunantly idealism doesnt bring ratings or sell periodicles.

Originally posted by loner72:
<STRONG>Could it be that citizens of other nations have a more diverse scope of interest, reflected in their educational systems, while Americans are simply more focused in their chosen pursuits? Americans might just care more about their own personal interests, career-wise and leisure-wise, than about covering as broad an area of knowledge as possible. This focus could then be mistaken as lack of education, apathy, or ignorance.</STRONG>