Headline, December07, 2013

''' LAUGHTER : 

THE BEST MEDICINE -EVER '''

One great tale:

Last November, I toured six German cities over a span of nine days. In my limited exposure to this nation, I was primarily struck by two points:

a) the citizens of Germany are friendly and nervous, and b) the citizens of Germany perceive Americans to be:

Obese, puritanical, nonsmoking retard. Their opinion of the United States is mind-blowingly low, even when compared with how the U.S. is viewed by France:

{ I think this is because the French are keenly aware that everyone on earth assumes they are inherently anti-American; as such, they overcompensate ). 

Now, I concede that my reason for viewing Germans as  ''friendly''  is completely unsophisticated; I believe Germans are nice because they were nice to me, which is kind of like trying to be a meteorologist by looking by looking out a window.

But     -at least from what I could gather   -the reason German citizens assume Americans are barbaric and vapid is almost as unreasonable, even though they're usually half-right.

During a weekend in Frankfurt, I went to an exhibit at the Schirn Kunsthalle art museum called    ''I Like America.''  This title  {as one might expect}  was meant to be ironic; it's taken from a 1974 conceptual art piece called    '' I Like America and America Likes Me,'' in which German artist Joseph Beuys flew to New York and

Spent three days in a room with a live coyote and fifty copies of the Wall Street Journal. This piece was a European response to the destruction of Native American culture, which made about as much sense to me as it did to the coyote. 

The bulk of   ''I Like America''  focused on German interest in nineteenth-century American culture, specifically the depictions of Buffalo Bill, cowboys, and the artistic portrayal of Indians as Noble Savages. It was kind of brilliant. But it was curious to read the descriptions of what these paintings and photographs were supposed to signify.

Almost all of them were alleged to illustrate some tragic flaw with American ideology. And it slowly dawned on me that the creators of ''I Like America'' had made one critical error: While they had not necessarily misunderstood the historical relationship between Americans and cowboy iconography, they totally misinterpreted its magnitude. 

With the possible exception of Jon Bon Jovi, I can't think of any modern American who gives a shit about cowboys, even metaphorically 

How did all this come about?  Well, first impressions are usually wrong. Unfortunately for the world and all of us, they often turn into stereotypes. which then turn into truth:

WE ALL HATE STEREOTYPES. Stereotypes are killing us, and they are killing our children, and they are putting LSD into the water supply.

Stereotypes are like rogue elephants with AIDS that have been set on fire by terrorists, except worse. We all hate stereotypes..

Except that we don't. We adore stereotypes, and we desperately need them to fabricate who we are  -or who we are not. People need to be able to say things like, ''All stereotypes are based on ignorance.''........!

Because expressing such a sentiment makes them enlightened, open-minded, and incredibly unpleasant. Meanwhile, their adversaries need the ability to say things such as,  ''Like it or not,  all stereotypes are ultimately based in some sort of reality,'' because that....

kind of semilogic can justify their feelings about virtually anything. Nobody really cares what specific stereotypes they happen to be debating; what matters more is how that label was spawned, because that defines its consequence.

It raises a fundamental query about the nature of existence: Is our anecdotal understanding of the world founded on naivete, or is build on dark, unpopular truths?   That is the question. And here (I suspect) is the answer: neither. Stereotypes are not really based on fact, and they are not really based on fiction.

They are based on arbitrary human qualities  ''no one cares about at all. Whenever a given stereotype seems right  or wrong, it's inevitably a coincidence; the world is a prejudiced place, but it's prejudiced for the weirdest, least-meaningful reasons imaginable.  

This delightful post continues:

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of New Zealand. See Ya all on !WOW!  the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' This Way Up '''

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless