February 13, 2006
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“KNEE JERKING FOR JERKS”
I love to listen to BBC news. This is primarily because women with accents turn me on, but it’s also because it’s fascinating to hear news agencies from outside the U.S. talk about the U.S. Listening to the BBC or TASS or other news agencies certainly gives you a better understanding of what the rest of the world actually thinks of us. If your reaction to that statement is “why does it matter what the rest of the world thinks of us?” then you obviously are a student of the George Bush School of Foreign Policy and I suggest you stop reading now.
I was listening this morning to a BBC report about the civil servant strike in
So…are their values wrong? Shouldn’t they have high blood pressure, ulcers, heart disease, and a climbing divorce rate like we do in the
Of course they should! Or at least that is what those who believe the rest of the world should adopt everything that’s western think.
Here’s my point: My knee-jerk reaction was a poor one. Just because a person, a group, or a nation has a set of values that are different than yours doesn’t necessarily make their values wrong, it only makes them different. When we every approach every relationship based on the presupposition that opposing values have no validity because they are not our own, we have doomed that relationship to failure and to conflict, and we have lost the opportunity to learn from someone different than we are.
Far too much of our personal, national, and international life is built on this kind of blatant arrogance (and yes, I think George W and the religious right are the major culprits, but let’s not forget that we on the left can be an arrogant bunch of elitist bastards when we want to be.)
I know this to be true because I know everything and anyone who disagrees with me is a complete idio…..Oh crap, I’m jerking that knee again!
Comments (13)
You jerky guy you!….loved this post…wouldn’t it be nice to value family life over coporate ladder climbing!…loved this post Mark, as usual. well thought out.
Funny, my knee-jerk reaction is that the U.S. should be adopting those European values to help solve our unemployment problem, plus a few other issues. If everyone were paid enough to live on by working 28-35 hours a week and the government mandated minimum paid vacation of 20 days per year, we’d all be healthier, happier, and, probably, more productive. Some studies show that people aren’t productive more than 4-6 hours a day anyway, even though they’re at work for 8 hours or more. Of course, companies wouldn’t make as much money to pay those CEOs millions of dollars a year, but I’m sure they can make do with one yacht instead of two.
When I lived in Germany, our German neighbors constantly got onto my mom and I for working too much. I thought that was the weirdest thing ever said to me, until I stopped working long enough to realize the culture I was living in. I can’t say this for all of Germany, but where I lived, everything seemed relaxed. I wish America could adopt that way of life. People in the town of Wilerbach seemed at peace. I miss that peace!
I love BBC too, but not because women with an accent turn me on…..
(altho’ I will admit I love their different pronunciation and enunciation of the language we share) I love it that they seem to not care if their reporting is PC. They call it like they see it.
Great Post, as usual. It’s a sad thing we enlightened ones seem to be in the minority.
xoxoxo
Love those accents!
As for the rest… if they’re willing to be crushed by international competition in order to save 1.5 hours per week of leisure time, I say more power to ‘em!
The great thing about unemployment is it’s all leisure time!
Maybe we should blow them up. You know because they are different from us. I agree with that guy from Texas with the silly hair cut. If we blow up the rest of the world, they can’t blow us up. Wasn’t that what his campaign was about? …………………..I was trying to decide if I was on the right or left. After spinning around for a minute, I got dizzy, fell over, bumped my head, and decided to move to europe. I hear Amsterdam is nice this time of year, with the women of high virtue and the strict drug laws, and they only work 38 hours a week. I don’t know why I’m still here.
I love all brits they are awesome!
and about a ^ comment.. I’ve lived in Germany and visited many times.. it’s important for them to take lots of time off and rest..
americans are working ourselves to death.. sigh..
RYC: LOL. .ok, I know.. my sandwich making is crazy… but hey.. I work too much.. LOL..
exellent post! i wish we could make a little dent somewhere to change the value system in this nation.
I’ve always been in favor of the siesta. And I’m attempting to get my two-day work week passed on to the right people.
If only Cheney were able to jerk his knee, he wouldn’t have to go around shooting people.
Who you calling an elitist bastard?
My daughter has been friends with Swedes. They have state health care, government paid college or trade school, and 5 weeks vacation. Now if they just didn’t have six months of darkness….
I am in total and complete agreement with you. I may have a different take on the Iraq than most. Please don’t get me wrong, I love my freedom and my democracy… but I think it is arrogant to believe that I need to go in and establish my way of doing things in a country that has their own way. Whose says my way is the best? It is what I like. But Heck I like Tuna Fish sandwiches with potato chips on them… doesn’t mean everyone else needs to change their diet to discover the true value of those sandwichs, does it? Plus until we understand what causes others to make the decisions that they do (no matter how rash they seem to us) we will constantly be at war, and therefore unsafe. Understanding of anothers values systems would go a long way.
Actually I love Men with British accents…I like the BBC and Monty Python… . I was born in South America, and therefore I have a different take on cultural differences than most people….I was blessed to do a lot of traveling with my parents when I was younger, and they did a lot to help us understand that you can’t look at the world and judge things based on how they are in your corner of the world. What I find fascinating is that most students in Europe travel and learn about 3 or 4 languages. When they come to the States, they want to learn about us, and how we do things here…. When our students go to Europe, unfortunately many of them spend most of their time trying to make things be like they are at home, or complaining that they are not. So somewhere, we are missing educating our kids about the rest of the world. My two cents, anyway….
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