Cultural assignment #2

American holidays

This picture of the shamrock decoration represents a part of American culture for me. Although St. Patrick’s Day is originally an Irish holiday, it’s more of an American thing, because I have heard that Irish people rarely even celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Americans love holidays, and I have seen billions of fitting decorations at Wal-Mart every time one was coming up. Back in the Netherlands, I have celebrated St. Patrick’s Day just once, with about four other friends, in the only Irish pub that we have in my hometown. It was probably the only place where it was celebrated in the area, and I had only heard of this holiday once before, in an American sitcom.

I believe that some of these holidays are only this popular because they have been promoted by advertisements of big companies, and are meant to make the people buy more of their products. The holidays are somewhat a symbol of today’s consumerism that is typical for America, but is also to be found in other parts of the world. Money becomes more and more of a status symbol, and we keep forgetting about other things in life that are probably more important than a bunch of pieces of paper.

But the holidays definitely don’t just have this dark side attached to them. Sometimes I wish we would celebrate holidays like Thanksgiving in Holland. It brings people closer together and cheers everyone up for at least one day.

Bobby McFerrin – Don’t Worry, Be Happy

Here’s a little song I wrote

You might want to sing it note for note

Don’t worry, be happy

In every life we have some trouble

But when you worry you make it double

Don’t worry, be happy

Don’t worry, be happy now

Ain’t got no place to lay your head

Somebody came and took your bed

Don’t worry, be happy

The landlord say your rent is late

He may have to litigate

But don’t worry, be happy

Look at me, I’m happy

Ain’t got no cash, ain’t got no style

Ain’t got no girl to make you smile

But don’t worry, be happy

Don’t worry, be happy

Good mood song

 

This song fits me because it’s quite silly, and I believe that if you don’t act silly every once in a while, you must have the most boring life ever.

Every time when I’m feeling a little blue, this song by Bobby McFerrin can lift my mood. It reminds me of how when you don’t care too much, it doesn’t matter to you as much either. That’s also why this song fits my personality. There are only a few moments in my life in which I was extremely stressed out. That is because when the pressure increases, I start to worry more. But at some point the goal that I’m working towards just seems unachievable and then I start to care less. Only when I’m really passionate about what I do, I will plan out what I want to do in advance just so I can get it done in time. When it’s just something I have to do, I postpone doing it until time is pressing; ‘procrastination’ is my middle name. It’s something that drove my tutor in high school nuts sometimes. I don’t even remember the amount of times she took me aside to talk about how I’m a slacker and how I have to try harder. It might be a counter reaction to my mother, who freaks out over the littlest things; things that I normally shrug my shoulders at. You might call me lazy, and it is a bad trait that I am trying to get rid of, but in a way it also helps me survive in a world where life goes faster and faster as time passes.

 

Cultural Assignment #1

One social interaction that is typically American to me is sports, and more specifically American football. As far as I know, this type of sports is only officially played in the United States and it’s also the most popular one here. Almost every American has a team that he or she takes pride in and the Super Bowl is one of the biggest annual events. It’s a social interaction, not only because it’s a team sport, but also because people come together at the bar, the stadium, or just in your own living room to watch it. When my parents came to IUP last week we ate at a local bar and at some point it was terribly crowded in there. Apparently there was an ice hockey game on between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers, so obviously the bar was packed with people from both areas, rooting for their team. Every time one of the teams scored, everyone burst out cheering. Even though it was loud, my parents and I didn’t mind it, because the mood was cheerful and it showed us American culture at its finest.

Although I believe sports aren’t as important to Dutch people as they are to Americans, there is one that is really popular there, namely soccer, or as we like to call it: football.  I was never a big fan, but every time the European Cup or the World Cup is on, you can find me in front of the TV with a bunch of friends, all wearing entirely orange outfits. I think the orange comes from the original flag of the Netherlands (which was orange, instead of red, white and blue) and it is used for pretty much everything that is typically Dutch. The two major events in Holland where we wear orange are during the soccer cups, and on a holiday we call ‘Queen’s Day’.  It’s the celebration of our former queen’s birthday on April 30^th, but nowadays it’s just an excuse for people to take the day off and party until the early hours.

So on Queen’s Day, almost every Dutch person looks almost the same, because they choose to wear solely orange clothes. On normal days, most people try to do the exact opposite; to have your own style and look as individually as possible.  Yesterday I was walking to Sheetz when I saw a guy walking in the same direction who was wearing quite a peculiar shirt. I thought to myself: ‘Why would anyone ever want to wear that?’ But I quickly apprehended that he must like it, and that no one has any right to tell someone what he or she has to wear. Some people might think that the clothes I wear look silly sometimes, but we are all different humans, with differing styles. If everyone would wear the same outfit everyday and act the same way, this world would be such a dull place to live in.

HW #9: Individualism as an American Cultural Value

1. It is rude to ask about someone’s personal life, income, and perhaps political preference. These topics are considered private and people normally only talk about it with close friends or relatives. Americans also prefer not answer questions about their income and political opinion with strangers, because others might judge them on whatever the answer is.

2. Individualism seems to be typically valued by Americans, and it especially forms a big difference with Buddhist cultures, where family is very important to someone. Taking care of your own parents after you get a job is very normal for Thai people, whereas Americans rather mind their own business and choose to hire someone to take care of their parents. The aspiration of becoming rich and famous amongst Americans also shows how important individualism is, and the Buddhist culture sees this as an illustration of greed.

3. During my first semester at IUP, my friend drove me around her neighborhood to show to me where she lived. One thing I noticed was the big difference in house sizes, and how close relatively poor neighborhoods are to wealthier ones. I found it very weird to see that there is such a huge difference between lifestyles in America and that’s when I figured how important individualism is to Americans. Also, when someone would drive by in a very expensive looking car, my American friends would say: ‘Wow, that guy must be very rich!’ or ‘I wish I had a car like that’. For me, the first thing that came to mind was: ‘What a show-off…’

Homework #4: The New Politics of Consumption

1. Because peoples’ “wish-list” grew enormously, they value solidarity much less than they should. Today’s society made people think it’s necessary to have all those luxury goods and that’s why they’d rather spend money on treating themselves than helping others out. This creates alienation, because people will associate less with each other. The gap between the incomes of the rich and the poor grew significantly, and that leads to us thinking we are not the same and we don’t belong to the same group.

2. I think it would help with the class division problem. If average salaries grew to a more reasonable income, people would understand each other more and it might make them realize that they actually don’t need half of the stuff they buy.

3. – Individuals try to keep up with the norms of the social group with which they identify.

- TV became a big part of our lives and TV-shows are more focused on the lifestyles of the rich and upper-middle class, which inflates the viewer’s perception of what others have.

4. Competitive consumption changed me in a way that I spend way too much money on things that I can get for much cheaper. A couple of years ago, I was dying to get a smartphone. I’ve had it for a year before I came to IUP, and I had to buy a new phone to use here in the USA. I picked the cheapest phone, because calling and texting were the only things I required from my mobile phone. And having a simple phone like the one I have again made me realize that I don’t miss using my smartphone at all and the only reasons for me to buy it were that it was pretty and that it had a lot of extra applications.

 

Homework #3: Moral Machines

1. I think the incident described is probably a worst-case scenario and very exaggerated. But it is true that when something unexpected happens, people start to panic and make mistakes, which can lead to catastrophes such as the one stated in the text. So it is possible for something like that to happen. It’s just the public reaction that makes it a really big problem.

2. I think Artificial Intelligence will become very sophisticated in the future, but it will never reason the way we do. Not just because I think it’s infeasible, people will also deliberately keep their intelligence level lower than that of us humans, for the sake of our own safety.

3. Positives: It will make live much easier for us. AI will be able to make decisions by looking at things objectively (if they’re programmed that way), which is sometimes needed. Negatives: If AI malfunctions, they can pose a danger for the whole world. People won’t be able to grow or learn the way we do by making our own decisions.

4. Story of my life. I.e. computers crashing while working on something in Microsoft Word which wasn’t saved yet. Or printers that aren’t working when you need something printed as soon as possible. Or internet networks that crash when you need internet the most.

Homework #2: Morality

1. I didn’t really know a lot about Mother Teresa and Bill Gates, and I had never even heard of Norman Borlaug before. But just because the media and the church have been beautifying Mother Theresa, I considered her to be the most admirable. After reading the facts the author gave, I would say Norman Borlaug is the most admirable. Borlaug’s work helped prevent the death of thousands of people and the media didn’t even correctly credit him for it. Bill Gates does a good job too by spending a part of his fortune on research and prevention of diseases like malaria, diarrhea and parasites. But to be honest, I would feel at least obligated to do so if I had as much money as he does.
2. If people use their power and money to make the world a better place to live for poorer people, or if they work to create peace, they get my support. Of course there are too many people who did something good to pick who is the most admirable. But to give some examples, Oprah Winfrey and Ghandi are pretty admirable persons. Oprah uses a great part of her fortune to aid people in troubled parts of Africa, and even though Ghandi lived a pretty good life, he helped the people of his own country and created peace without using violence.
3. Yes, if morality wasn’t universal we would have a lot more criminality on this planet and creating laws would be even more difficult and time-consuming than it already is.
4. Harm, fairness, community, authority and purity. In my opinion, Americans value community the most. Especially after disasters like 9/11, people start to gather and help each other out wherever they can. Also, they tend to root for the sports teams of their own city and, in a lot of cases, they are proud of the state they live in.