Irish people, be Yourself!

Etrurian

I invite you to be yourself.
I had occasion to stay in your great nation and I've read a lot of things about Irish history, modern (last twenty years) too.
Staying there, I felt staying in my home (Maybe I was an Irish in my past life ), in true and beautiful feeling with the land and the people.
Only a thing made me a few sad. I saw that in a lot of things american-neoglobalizedman lifestyle was very visible, as here in Italy. That's not a traumatic trouble for newest things, but it's not for me a good thing if it can conditioning the common life of the person. A lot of people believe in the superiority of the American society: I think that Irish society is more and more civilized, with its troubles (if not it would be heaven..) but with a lot of civil rules inside the single man also.. rules decaying in the bigger european nations (mine too) and in the States. Don't let your culture and your fantastic society to be standardized.

Cheers from Italy
And sorry for my elementar and wrong english

aidan_walsh

Etrurian wrote:

And sorry for my elementar and wrong english

Are you kidding!? Your English seems better than a lot of people here...

Ivan

I dont know, it kinda looks like he wrote it in Italian and then fed it into Babelfish or some such.

Point taken though.

Etrurian

Ivan wrote:

I dont know, it kinda looks like he wrote it in Italian and then fed it into Babelfish or some such.

Point taken though.

Thank you anyway :rolleyes:

sceptre

Let's move this to Humanities - there's a potential discussion in who or what we (Irish) are and who or what we should be.

OfflerCrocGod

There are a lot of good things in the USA, just because the current administration is very bad doesn't mean we should just ignore them. Anyway part of our prosperity is due to the commercialism of our society, that is not such a bad thing at all. I definitely don't want my only career option in the future to be "de patatoe man" just because it's "traditional". Grazie tutto lo stesso Signore Etrurian

Etrurian

Oh move this thread if it's in the wrong section. There are a lot of sections in this forum, it's not very clear often where to post. Sorry :cool:
However It wasn't an attack to US society, but at the modern society (italian too) of civilized nations. As I stayed in Ireland, I had a great impression of Irish people and some changes could be a great thing, some others not.. perhaps italian people are too bad compared to you (joking..)

impr0v

I know what you mean and it's a fair point, but I think it's an irreversible process.

Most western societies seem to be converging to a point where they will be indistinguishable from each other. Whether it's a good or bad thing depends on your point of view I guess. Being nostalgic about change itself is one thing, but it's also very easy to forget that things are changing for a reason. Tourists in particular would love to arrive in from metropolitan modern societies and see horse and carts carry comely maidens and red cheeked hurlers up and down the mainstreets of cobblestoned parochial towns, but I don't think any of the natives are prepared to do while the rest of the world leaves them behind.

There are of course ways to implement change without subscribing to the generic American ideals and completely sacrificing your national identity, but the consensus here seems to be in favour of the current approach. Planning in particular has a large role to play in shaping society at a macroscopic level, and the current rash of 'retail park' developments will do the country no favours in the long term, in my opinion.

Even our language is being Americanized to large extents, which is no great surprise given how exposed we are to American culture in the form of media exports and to an extent the internet. Who does one blame for this, and is it even a bad thing? Again it's a subjective thing.

Etrurian states that Italy is moving in that direction too, despite the increased insulation of having its own language and a cultural history that is (arguably) richer than ours. If Italy cannot hold out, how can we expected to do so?

nutkase

impr0v wrote:

I know what you mean and it's a fair point, but I think it's an irreversible process.

Most western societies seem to be converging to a point where they will be indistinguishable from each other. Whether it's a good or bad thing depends on your point of view.

Even our language is being Americanized to large extents, which is no great surprise given how exposed we are to American culture in the form of media exports and to an extent the internet. Who does one blame for this, and is it even a bad thing? Again it's a subjective thing.

Etrurian states that Italy is moving in that direction too, despite the increased insulation of having its own language and a cultural history that is (arguably) richer than ours. If Italy cannot hold out, how can we expected to do so?

American Culture is all but dead and gone. which is how I would like to address your point of language being "americanized" The american people did not have a say in the euroizing of america, so what is comming back is really european. euro-snobs do not like it becuase the nationalizm has been so watered down does not seem so "rich" or pure refined. Purity of culture is something Hitler aspired to did he not?

Kev_ps3

Only a thing made me a few sad. I saw that in a lot of things american-neoglobalizedman lifestyle was very visible, as here in Italy.

Yes, its very sad. Its all about money and greed.

A lot of people believe in the superiority of the American society: I think that Irish society is more and more civilized

Superiority of the american society??? Ha ha ha
Thats the biggest joke ive ever heard.. America has no culture, its just a hateful counrty with no identity.. The White man has lost conrtol unfortunaltely...

Etrurian

kev boy wrote:

Superiority of the american society??? Ha ha ha
Thats the biggest joke ive ever heard.. America has no culture, its just a hateful counrty with no identity.. The White man has lost conrtol unfortunaltely...

This isn't my belief. It's the main idea of western civilized people, influenced by medias.

simu

nutkase wrote:

American Culture is all but dead and gone. which is how I would like to address your point of language being "americanized" The american people did not have a say in the euroizing of america, so what is comming back is really european. euro-snobs do not like it becuase the nationalizm has been so watered down does not seem so "rich" or pure refined. Purity of culture is something Hitler aspired to did he not?

OK, many of the people who created American popular culture were of European origin (although other groups were involved as well) - the thing is that they've created their own culture that Europeans perceive as being alien (even if they are enchanted by it). It's not so much that Europe wants to have "purity of culture", it's more a question of making sure that all the other cultures in Europe and indeed the world are not wiped out by American culture.

All you need to do is spend some time in America and you see that the place is not at all what we're led to believe it is.

impr0v

nutkase wrote:

American Culture is all but dead and gone. which is how I would like to address your point of language being "americanized" The american people did not have a say in the euroizing of america, so what is comming back is really european. euro-snobs do not like it becuase the nationalizm has been so watered down does not seem so "rich" or pure refined. Purity of culture is something Hitler aspired to did he not?

Was the aspiration not more towards purity of race than purity of culture? Either way I hardly think the comparsion, or insinuated comparison, is warranted. Expressing a desire to maintain a national identity in the global village of bland is not exactly hoisting the swastika and shaving one's head.

I should probably have clarified that the American culture I was referring to might not actually be American culture at all, just the particular version of it we (re)import, believe to be genuine, and seek to imitate.