Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!imprint From: imprint@watmath.UUCP Newsgroups: can.politics Subject: What is Canadian culture, $$ Message-ID: <5292@watmath.UUCP> Date: Sat, 21-Feb-87 00:20:55 EST Article-I.D.: watmath.5292 Posted: Sat Feb 21 00:20:55 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 21-Feb-87 07:53:37 EST References: <183@fornax.uucp> <840@mprvaxa.UUCP> <188@fornax.uucp> Reply-To: imprint@watmath.UUCP (Imprint) Distribution: can Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 122 Canadian Culture: What is it? A definition. If a bird and a fish were in conversation, and the fish were asked "What is the difference between your medium and that of the bird?", he wouldn't be able to answer, at least not unless he had visited extensively with the birds. The fish doesn't know he's in water! He takes it quite for granted. But if he is dragged unwittingly into the air, he dies. What is Canadian Culture? What is American Culture? Space limitations being what they are, here are a few elliptic suggestions. Paul Revere, the American Revolutionary Hero warns: "The Redcoats are coming! The Redcoats are coming!" I keep having to point out to my American friends, "I am a Redcoat!" Think about that. The RCMP, still wearing the old standard British Army Scarlet are heroes of Canadian folklore. But in America, the same institution of Imperial authority is anathema. Americans worship freedom, Candians look to peace order and good government. (P.O.G.G.) Canadians tend to respect authority. (In sociological studies, more so than almost any nation except USSR) Americans lionize the rebel, the savagely independent hero. While you will find numerous individual exceptions, this is the tendency. That is a part of Canadian Culture. Culture concerns values, attitudes, morals. Harold Innis described culture as (this must be a paraphrase) doing that which we don't like to do well. Compare the Canadian attitude to social services to that of America. Look at Medicare and Unemployment Insurance, for which the US has no equivalent. That is an expression of a cultural value. Compare the CBC, for which America has no equivalent, that is an expression of a cultural value. Compare the crime rates and the rates of ownership of handguns, and again you see cultural values being manifest. Underlying these surface manifestations are deeper ideas about what a society is, what a man is, and what a leader is. Underlying that is an idea about what a man (or woman 8-)) owes another. Compare the foreign policy posture of Canada and the US, re: South Africa, Cuba, Nicaragua, and you will find cultural differences. Compare the educational system in the two countries. In American schools they teach American History. In Canadian schools you find the teaching of History. There is a difference. America is unique in the family of nations in boasting of its ignorance of foreign countries. Most other places in the world are eager to find out about their neighbours. Most Americans know next to nothing about Canada. Yet most Canadians have travelled more extensively in the US than Americans have! Canadians are travellers, second in the world after New Zealanders. Sixty per cent of Americans, on the other hand, have NEVER LEFT THEIR HOME STATE!!!! I know it's hard to believe, but it's true! Look at post-secondary education. In America there is the rivalry of the public vs. private schools. Private for the rich, public for everyone else. In Canada the universities are all publicly subsidized because education is a priority. Universal Accessibility is sacrosanct -- and whether you like it or not, this represents a real cultural difference. Just take a stroll in ANY American city after 10:00 p.m. and compare that with a comparable stroll in ANY Canadian city at the same time. This might well blow your mind (be careful). To top it all off, remember that the Americans ELECT JUDGES!! Can you believe it? The Judiciary is elected. This just blows my mind. As for the question of censorship and cultural self-defence, and all those awkward concepts, it is my feeling that we are very fortunate to have defeated the American invasions during the Revolutionary War and during the War of 1812. Another sort of invasion is occurring now and appears to be as dangerous as the others. If we could be assured of burning the White House yet again -- well -- maybe it should be considered. But then, like the last time, the Americans would just whitewash the whole affair and it would be forgotten. (By the way, the White House, and much of Washington D.C. was burned by Canadian and British forces in retaliation for the plunder, rape and pillage of York (Toronto now) by American troops in what even US historians call "a black day in American History". Free trade, too, it must be remembered, has been flirted with periodically since this country was established. It appeals to mercantile sentiments who see the success of US enterprises and wish to emulate. What the merchants forget (though the rest of us remember) is the cost. "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?" [Mk 8:36] Free Trade has always died a death of American insensitivity. They just don't understand. Should the day ever arrive when we fail to understand ourselves, then that won't matter anymore. But I have this hunch that the day has not yet arrived. Now, as for Brad Templeton's fear of Cinematic Censors -- Brad, move to New York, if they'll have you :-) And remember that shortly before the Battle of Waterloo, after which your city is named, America declared war on Canada. Had the Battle of Waterloo and the War of 1812 not been won, you wouldn't have to worry about being forced to watch Canadian media. It would not exist. There would be no choice. Doug Thompson These views are not necessarily those of Imprint Publications -------------------------------Imprint-------------------------------- | CSNet: imprint@math.waterloo.edu CC 140 | | uucp: {ihnp4,decvax,allegra,utzoo} University of Waterloo | | !watmath!imprint Waterloo, Ontario | | CDNnet: imprint@math.waterloo.cdn N2L 3G1 | | arpa: imprint%math.waterloo.edu@ (519) 885-1211 x 2332 | | csnet-relay.arpa (519) 888-4048 | ------------------------University of Waterloo------------------------ Imprint is the student newspaper of the University of Waterloo.