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From: jimr@hcrvx2.UUCP (Jim Robinson)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: 'Free' Trade? -- culture (from "Amerika")
Message-ID: <2740@hcrvx2.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 18-Feb-87 11:50:44 EST
Article-I.D.: hcrvx2.2740
Posted: Wed Feb 18 11:50:44 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 19-Feb-87 03:40:32 EST
References: <12419@watnot.UUCP> <1469@hcrvx1.UUCP>
Reply-To: jimr@hcrvx2.UUCP (Jim Robinson)
Distribution: can
Organization: HCR Corporation, Toronto
Lines: 79
Summary: 

In article <8477@watrose.UUCP> bcpalmer@watrose.UUCP (Barbara Palmer) writes:
>In article <353@van-bc.UUCP> sl@van-bc.UUCP (Stuart Lynne) writes:
>>
>>To the extent of having some shows about Canada, showing many Canadian
>>produced shows (the recent Ann of Green Gables being and excellent example).
>
>If you really knew Canadian culture, you would know it's "Anne-with-an-e" :-)
>
>We are already invaded with American culture - how many people watched/are
>watching "Amerika"?  Who let them film part of this boring piece of propaganda
>in Toronto?  I agree with Jerome's posting - if that's what the States have
>to offer us for "culture", who wants more of it?

If it's as bad as you say, who cares? Nobody will watch it. (Instead
they'll all be tuned into the CBC eagerly awaiting Barbara's
next word. :-) Or are you afraid that the  average American or Canadian
is really so dense that he cannot distinguish speculative *fiction*
from reality. I'm curious as to whether those that object to "Amerika"
also objected to "The Day After". Both these films fall into the exact
same classification except that one is "politically correct" and one
isn't (it is left as an execrise for the reader to determine which is
which :-) At any rate, nobody is *forcing* *you* to watch Amerika, so
why should you care what others do. 

[flame on] 
You nationalists sure sit on one high horse. Do you people
really think you've got the right to tell people what they *should* be
watching and/or listening to????? Let's face facts: your average
Canadian really does not give a flying fig about culture (at least as
defined by the nationalists). They really don't care if the rock band
they're listening to is from Toledo and not Toronto. They don't care if
the sitcom they're watching takes place in Vancouver Washington and not
Vancouver BC. The only ones that do care are small bunch of people who
happen to have a very large voice and have learned how to wrap a
Canadian flag around their knee-jerk American xenophobia. 

One joker said that he was worried that his kids would grow up thinking
that George Washington was the first Prime Minister of Canada. Well, I
really hate to break this to ya, but that's a non-issue. Historical
truths are a totally different matter altogether. If your kid grows up
with such a bizarre notion it would be because *you* and the *school*
your kid attended did one heck of a poor job educating him/her. 

Jamie is worried that Canadians will start thinking of themselves as
poor cousins, wrt culture, of the Americans. Why? Because the sitcoms
Canadians watch take place in the States? Because the US produces such
losers as "Amerika" and "The Day After"? Give me a break.  This country
is very similar and yet very different to the US. And I, for one, do not
need someone banging me over the head in order to realize the
differences.

What worries me is that Canadians will become the Americans' poor
cousins wrt the economy. Why? Because Canadians are stupid enough to
expend vast quantities of time and effort squabbling over in which
country a damn TV show should be made instead of worrying about the
*real* problems facing this country. Such as how a resource based
nation that spends next to nothing on R&D is going to make it into the
next century without a monumental drop in the standard of living its
people enjoy. Or how an export oriented nation is going to obtain
guaranteed access to a market of over 100 million people; something
that every other industrialized country already has.

So why don't you nationalists lighten up. If Canadians would rather
partake in American "culture", what's the big deal as long as it's a
choice that they freely made. Or does the phrase "democracy in action"
send shivers up your spine? 

[flame off]

I think that a precise  definition of the word culture would useful for
this debate. Normally I think of culture as being concerned with art,
poetry, ballet, etc. The nationalists, however, tend to include many
other things in their definition. So how about? Any of you nationalists
want to give it a whirl? Or are you worried about giving the rest of us
a *real* target to shoot at, as opposed to this nebulous concept that
defies description.

J.B. Robinson