What our world has become.
POSTED BY: Fremdfirma
UPDATED: Monday, June 29, 2026 21:34
VIEWED: 23018
PAGE 18 of 20
"you still haven't given a concrete reason why anyone SHOULD stop and listen to a street musician"
Once again you are arguing against an position I don't hold.
I was wondering - have you ever spent significant time in another country? Because, to say this yet again, different cultures have different flavors. What 'people in cities' do is different depending on which country you are in. It's not some pre-destined outcome of technology, complexity and interdependence. So the Danes, despite living in a fully modern complex city will stop and listen, the Torontonians turn and smile and the USers rush past.
Run this thought experiment in your mind - do you think Bruce Springsteen would gather a crowd in DC? Would a festive troupe garner smiles? And why not? So, what is it about US culture that causes that result? What is it about US culture that makes people defensive in public?
These are just questions. I think there is an underlying cause, but I'm curious what you think.
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Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
I was wondering - have you ever spent significant time in another country?
2 weeks in Canada when I was 8 or 9, pretty sure that doesn't count.
Quote:
Because, to say this yet again, different cultures have different flavors. What 'people in cities' do is different depending on which country you are in.
Right, like I said I never said that different countries would not have different reactions. You are placing my statement about social order into the argument about street musicians and it wasn't meant for here, I was talking to Fremd about the reason for the development of social order NOT about a specific reason why people ignore the street musicians.
Quote:
Run this thought experiment in your mind - do you think Bruce Springsteen would gather a crowd in DC?
Probably, it would depend on circumstance. If you put him in a transit station at rush hour then the crowd would form but it's probably be pretty small, if you put him outside in the off-hours like that video appeared to be then he would probably pull about as many as in that video. It really depends on how many people recognized him.
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Would a festive troupe garner smiles?
If they were in the middle of a transit station at rush hour? I'd guess no. If they were somewhere else probably.
Quote:
And why not?
My guess? They're in the way. A transit station is supposed to be designed to get you in and out quickly, when there's a bunch of clowns dancing around it slows down traffic and pisses people off. It's really not that different from getting caught in a traffic jam. I have my mornings pretty well timed out, I know when I need to get up and when I need to leave my house to get to work on time, when something gets in the way (be it a truck granny gearing it down the hill, assholes going 10 miles under the speed limit etc.) it annoys me.
Quote:
So, what is it about US culture that causes that result? What is it about US culture that makes people defensive in public?
Culture of physical separation? Culture of fear of crime? Culture of fear in general? Culture of persecution of those who are different?
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I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I’ve been to many countries. Stayed in many of them for extended periods of time. I’ve never seen anything to make me believe that the Americans are the most defensive and walled-off people in the world. Actually that sounds absurd to me, and I imagine that such statements have as much or more to do with personal prejudices then any sort of impartial assessment.
I’ve seen as many defensive people in London and Paris as I have in most major American cities. And of the large cities that I’ve stayed for several days or lived (which off the top of my head include London, Paris, Rome, New York, Detroit, DC, Memphis, Nashville, Atlanta, Huntsville, Birmingham (Al), Venice, Milan, Naples, Edinburgh, Dublin, Belfast and probably others I can’t remember) the only cities where I saw a large number of defensive people on the streets was Belfast and Derry. Although Detroit seemed to be as bad or maybe even worse then Belfast, but I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere in Detroit that wasn’t a part of the hood. When I lived in Detroit, I was very, very poor. Those were the only cities where I felt that a number of people actually tried to avoid me and often cast very suspicious glances at me. And this was much worse then anything in the US outside of particularly bad neighborhoods. Of the others, none of them really stand out to much, though New York, Paris and London are perhaps marginally worse then others. In these three cities I encountered a number of very short tempered people (although despite its reputation Paris wasn’t nearly as bad as New York or London). The large cities where I felt the most welcome and where people were the friendliest was Venice, Dublin, Amsterdam and Nashville; with Venice being the most friendliest and pleasant.
I’ve also been to several small towns which include too many to actually try and name them all (and I don’t remember the names of all of them anyway) but I didn’t stay in most of them for very long. But which include towns in the Northern US states, Southern US states, Northern Ireland, Scotland, France and Italy. The only small towns outside of the US and Northern Ireland where I’ve spent any length of time was Saint Andrews (Scotland) and Beauvais (France). In small towns people tend to be much friendlier and life often seems to be more conservative and slower paced. All of these towns were actually pretty friendly and only one event of a particularly unfriendly person in France strikes me. But then again I rarely stayed in these towns for more then a day or so (I think I spent a whole two days in Saint Andrews and Beauvais) except for the Southern US and Northern Ireland, which tend to be comparable to each other.
In general, cities like Belfast and Derry, which have experienced a degree of civil strife, have the most defensive people in my experiences, but even then it’s not any kind of unbearable thing. The truth is that vast majority of people that I met in Belfast and Derry were very nice. Belfast in particular was real fun, since that was where I experienced my first terrorist bombing. Cities with very high population density (or perhaps it’s the number of tourists I don’t really know), like New York, Paris and London also seem to display a slightly elevated degree of defensiveness among commuters. The difference in defensiveness is most notable between urban and rural towns I think. There is something to be said of the culture too probably, but I think it’s probably a much lower order perturbation. The Italian, Irish and Southern American Cultures all seem to be friendlier and more outgoing then some others, and that might play a part in why the cities that I felt were the friendliest were in Italy, Ireland and the Southern US, but like I said, I think this is a much lower order affect, and it’s probably as likely that it’s coincidence. And the Dutch are so friendly you want smack to them, except for the Bus drivers for some reasons.
But anyway the only thing that I’m confident saying is that it is imposs
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Go to any large city at night and see how friendly the people are. That's where it really stands out.
This is why I think USers are defensive and why you can spot a Canadian in a crowd:
http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=18&t=29000
America ranks low in 'Peace Index'
1 Norway
2 New Zealand
3 Denmark
4 Ireland
5 Japan
6 Finland
7 Sweden
8 Canada
9 Portugal
10 Austria
11 Belgium
12 Germany
13 Czech Republic
14 Switzerland
15 Slovenia
16 Chile
17 Slovakia
18 Hungary
19 Bhutan
20 Netherlands
21 Spain
22 Oman
23 Hong Kong
24 Uruguay
25 Australia
26 Romania
27 Poland
28 Estonia
29 Singapore
30 Qatar
31 Costa Rica
32 South Korea
33 Italy
34 France
35 Vietnam
36 Taiwan
37 Malaysia
38 United Arab Emirates
39 Tunisia
40 Ghana
41 Madagascar
42 Botswana
43 Lithuania
44 Greece
45 Panama
46 Kuwait
47 Latvia
48 Morocco
49 United Kingdom
50 Mozambique
51 Cyprus
52 Argentina
53 Zambia
54 Bulgaria
55 Paraguay
56 Gabon
57 Tanzania
58 Libya
59 Cuba
60 China
61 Kazakhstan
62 Bahrain
63 Jordan
64 Namibia
65 Senegal
66 Nicaragua
67 Croatia
68 Malawi
69 Bolivia
70 Peru
71 Equatorial Guinea
72 Moldova
73 Egypt
74 Dominican Republic
75 Bosnia and Hercegovina
76 Cameroon
77 Syria
78 Indonesia
79 Mexico
80 Ukraine
81 Jamaica
82 Macedonia
83 Brazil
84 Serbia
85 Cambodia
86 Bangladesh
87 Ecuador
88 Papua New Guinea
89 El Salvador
90 Saudi Arabia
91 Kenya
92 Turkey
93 Guatemala
94 Trinidad and Tobago
95 Yemen
96 United States of America
97 Iran
98 Honduras
99 South Africa
100 Philippines
101 Azerbaijan
102 Venezuela
103 Ethiopia
104 Uganda
105 Thailand
106 Zimbabwe
107 Algeria
108 Myanmar
109 India
110 Uzbekistan
111 Sri Lanka
112 Angola
113 Cote d' Ivoire
114 Lebanon
115 Pakistan
116 Colombia
117 Nigeria
118 Russia
119 Israel
120 Sudan
121 Iraq
http://www.le.ac.uk/pc/aw57/world/sample.html
Nation SWLS Score
DENMARK 273
SWITZERLAND 273
AUSTRIA 260
ICELAND 260
BAHAMAS 257
FINLAND 257
SWEDEN 257
BHUTAN 253
BRUNEI DARUSSALAM 253
CANADA 253
IRELAND 253
LUXEMBOURG 253
COSTA RICA 250
MALTA 250
NETHERLANDS 250
ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA 247
MALAYSIA 247
NEW ZEALAND 247
NORWAY 247
SEYCHELLES 247
ST KITTS AND NEVIS 247
UAE 247
USA 247
VANUATU 247
VENEZUELA 247
AUSTRALIA 243
BARBADOS 243
BELGIUM 243
DOMINICA 243
OMAN 243
SAUDI ARABIA 243
SURINAME 243
BAHRAIN 240
COLUMBIA 240
GERMANY 240
GUYANA 240
HONDURAS 240
KUWAIT 240
PANAMA 240
ST VINCENT AND THE 240
UNITED KINGDOM 237
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 233
GUATEMALA 233
JAMAICA 233
QATAR 233
SPAIN 233
ST LUCIA 233
BELIZE 230
CYPRUS 230
ITALY 230
MEXICO 230
SAMOA WESTERN 230
SINGAPORE 230
SOLOMON ISLANDS 230
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 230
ARGENTINA 227
FIJI 223
ISRAEL 223
MONGOLIA 223
SAO TOME AND PERINI 223
EL SALVADOR 220
FRANCE 220
HONG KONG 220
INDONESIA 220
KYRGYZSTAN 220
MALDIVES 220
SLOVENIA 220
TAIWAN 220
TIMOR-LESTE 220
TONGA 220
CHILE 217
GRENADA 217
MAURITIUS 217
NAMIBIA 217
PARAGUAY 217
THAILAND 217
CZECH REPUBLIC 213
PHILIPPINES 213
TUNISIA 213
UZBEKISTA
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15, 16, 17 years pass
maybe 18 soon
Would Joshua Bell play on these crime ridden subway and streets today
and what the Deep State Globalist rag the WashingtonCompost has become
Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
Another thought occurred to me - have US cities ever been kind to buskers, especially classical musicians? In general Americans don't have much interest classical music. You practically have to be a snob or geek or French to like that sort of thing.
a lot of people these days seem tone deaf, its not about being a snob, classical music at one time almost was the folk music of its time. Do people today remember notes, hear modes can they hear Harmonic Minor or Dorian or Phrygian, will they hear the space between tones, broken chords or arpeggios, can they remember the form and composition of more than one bar of music?
people hear some Shit-Hop beat maybe, I'm not sure they even clap on time
Milwaukee News Crew Filming Segment Captures The Moment A Stolen Car Wrecks Into Parked Cars, Thug Falls Out And Runs Away
https://vidmax.com/video/227768-milwaukee-news-crew-filming-segment-ca
ptures-the-moment-a-stolen-car-wrecks-into-parked-cars-thug-falls-out-and-runs-away
stupid women run up to help the saggy pants car jacker feral criminals
More shootings
https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/3-shot-in-northeast-dc/361997
0/
California’s Looming Crime Catastrophe
https://www.city-journal.org/article/californias-looming-crime-catastr
ophe
Recent legislation makes it easier for felons to claim racial bias—potentially putting them back on the streets in large numbers.
a Japan jazz guy in NYC he intended to return to Japan, adding that "My wife and I worry about raising kids here [In the United States], especially after this happened
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/nyregion/jazz-pianist-attack-racism
.html
Washington Compost started to notice a race to the bottom
at Mount Sauron the Belly of the Beast, L'Enfant Plaza is at the nucleus of federal Washington
these days American listen to dumb electronic noises and Rap doesn't even have chords
'Pearls Before Breakfast
Can one of the nation's great musicians cut through the fog of a D.C. rush hour? '
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After ‘Fall Guy’ flop, Hollywood braces for uncertain summer
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4657039-hollywood-summer-box-office/
Town Community gone, the nuclear family unit wiped out.
In America’s culture of death, there is neither peace nor freedom
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/jun/1/in-americas-culture-of
-death-there-is-neither-peac/
Why has American culture declined so much?
https://www.quora.com/Why-has-American-culture-declined-so-much
Is Culture Dead?
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/dialogue-program/culture-dead
Mid-twentieth century America gave strong evidence of a consensus on culture. It was a time when melting pot values were held up as the natural aspiration of a diverse population. The only alternative to these values was the ancient ethnic cultures that had sheltered early generations of immigrants and linked them to ancestral lands and folkways. A half-century later the situation is dramatically different. Not only has the national cultural consensus declined but traditional ethnic cultures have lost their sway as well. Christopher Clausen argues that America is in a post-cultural condition rife with choices available to individuals who can define themselves in bold new ways. The decline of both a central American culture and ethnic cultures means for Clausen that we are in an age of freedom and nostalgia.
Is American Culture Dying? It Depends on Your Definition of “American Culture”
https://bigthink.com/culture-religion/is-america-a-dying-culture-it-de
pends-on-your-definition-of-culture/
In a recent Guardian profile, actor and playwright Sam Shepard declared that American culture is “on [its] way out,” especially since so much of its industry has been off-shored.
Mass Religion is dying I'm not sure if this is a good thing or bad but most Millennials are leaving organized religion in droves, meanwhile with open borders they replace old Christian culture with thousands upon thousands of islamics some of which are willing to do terrorism or to stab Rushdie
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Beethoven had high amounts of lead and arsenic in his body
https://www.deseret.com/u-s-world/2024/05/22/beethoven-lead-poisoning/
banning music at that weirdo Euro show
Why hasn't Israel been banned from the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest like Russia was in 2022?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-11/israel-eurovision-2024-song-con
test-russia/103829704
Rosie O’Donnell Says Her 11-Year-Old Autistic Daughter Is Now Non-Binary
https://vidmax.com/video/227918-rosie-o-donnell-says-her-11-year-old-a
utistic-daughter-is-now-non-binary
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Smiling' female postal worker, 48, is brutally shot and killed while delivering mail in Chicago as locals mourn 'mom of the neighborhood'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13657223/Octavia-Redmond-fema
le-postal-worker-shot-killed-Chicago.html
in all the chaos and selfies and online posts
an age of education might be born
Let's Play Music Launches Online Platform for Children's Music Lessons
https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/274460240/letaposs-play-music-laun
ches-online-platform-for-childrenaposs-music-lessons
Rap In 2024 Be Like....
https://vidmax.com/video/228626-rap-in-2024-be-like
why do some call it cr-Rap ?
unfortunately for the left he might even be correct here
US political commentator Ben Shapiro says rap isn’t real music
https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/ben-shapiro-thinks-rap-isnt-music/
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Street Acrobat China
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Argentina - Tango street dance on Avenue Florida
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