18th April 2005, 10:44 AM
Xenophobia is of course not limited to the United States, but it is definitely much, much stronger here than it is in say, Europe where there is an actual sense of world community. That is a very foreign concept in the U.S. And if you've always lived in the same place your entire life, never set foot out of the country, then that sense is going to be even stronger. The key here is conformity. Like you've been saying, DJ, you would rather see a culture conform to something you are familiar with than accept its differences. Sure you may like some neat things about other cultures, but the more similar it is, the better. I'm the exact opposite. The more different, the better. I like to learn about and experience as many different cultures as I can. I see the beauty in diversity. I love hearing other languages, be it Japanese, French, Italian, Korean, Cantonese, whatever. Language is a very important part of culture, and when you make that conform to your own culture you lose a lot of what makes that other culture unique. I think it's bad to cater to the lowest common denominator. I find it very unfortunate that most people like to avoid foreign things as much as possible.