From: Steve Smith<ssmith36@sprynet.com> To: zorn-list@mailman.xmission.com Reply-To: ssmith36@sprynet.com Subject: Re: re : mcdonalds

God (or whoever) bless Patrice Roussel.

I've been quietly sitting here on my hands for days now, quietly wishing that a small handful of smug, sanctimonious individuals would just fucking TRY to remember once in a while that George W. Bush is not synonymous with "America" and imperialism/colonialism is not synonymous with "America" and McDonald's is not synonymous with "America."

I agree. But it's hard to get away from symbolic capital when that capital is always on export. There are as Joe Zitt said a lot of diverse food cultures in the states, music, art (Patrice is totally right in suggesting that US art has been dominant over the past 50 odd years), film, etc. That said, you get a rather different perspective when you're outside the US and looking back at it then when you're immersed in American life on a daily basis. As an American myself I rarely get upset when outsiders start dissing on the US. I join in sometimes. But there's always a point when the picture gets a little distorted and you realize that other people really have no direct experience with the US. The same as so many Americans who have little direct experience with other cultures, and when they do, can't seem to get out of the little prism by which they view them.

Still, the monolithic view from the outside persists. Dig: Not every one of us is proud of what some of us have done or said or committed on behalf of the rest of us here some or even most of the time, most of us still recognize that in the mean time we have a lot to be proud of... and -- at least for the moment -- the right for all of us who actually live here to complain openly about just what it is WE don't like about our country, thank you very much, and to take action when action is warranted.

Yes, that's certainly true, but that action always bumps up against the structural limits of the culture. We have two political parties of consequence. And having two choices some how constitutes democracy. Never mind the fact that there's little difference between them anymore now that both are marketed toward the so-called center. There are many different Americas, more or less good, but much of the best stuff, many of the best people, rarely get an opportunity to be seen outside the US, which is why so many non-Americans have such distorted views of the country and why so many care little about learning more.

And lo and behold, while I sit and steam and sulk, it takes a certafiably cynical Frenchman like Patrice to finally step up and give voice to that which I was too pissed off and offended to accurately verbalize. So thanks, Patrice. I honestly feel a lot better now.

Well, Patrice is in a very good position as a French expat living in the states and looking at it first hand--and not just on a little vacation. He can see all of it--not just the stuff that gets marketed overseas. Adorno had it in for "mass culture." That's the America I don't like much. And also the one that insists on the political center. The America I like a lot is the diverse one with all kinds of surprises and pleasures in the nooks and crannies. But don't blame the disaffected foreigner residing in his home country for not being able to see it. He's being told and sold to look at something else. NP: Taster's Choice Instant--Didn't make it to Starbucks today. _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com