Baptista-Bastos on European ignorance

[Phlegethon]

Diário de Notícias - Portugal

Baptista-Bastos on European ignorance

Commentator Baptista-Bastos writes in the daily Diário de Notícias that Europeans know less and less about the cultures of the countries of Europe: "People would have us think that we are Europe, that we belong to Europe and depend on Europe. But we know nothing about Europe. ... Europe remains a mystery to us. We travel more, but we know less and less. If a few publishing houses that want to maintain their freedom in a world dominated by conformism and profit hadn't had the courage [to publish certain contents], we wouldn't know the first thing about the cultures of most European countries. What kind of Europe is that? Those in power have built up their legitimacy on the idea that capitalism is a necessity. Europe is a large economic area, but it is ignorant of its own cultural, social and human aspects. The social, political and economic parts of this project are all conditioned by greed, avarice and the desire for profit. We didn't need this Union to be Europeans. Europe already had a culture before the states and nations came into being. The funniest thing is that Europeans have never been so aware of their affiliations [as they are today], yet never have they had such a hard time uniting." (05/08/2009)

[Aemma]

Interesting notion this idea that Europeans don't really know other Europeans and by extension themselves very well.

How valid is such a statement do you think?

[Piparskeggr]

Sounds like my idea of why Americans are different than Europeans, only it seems, we are not so different.

Pip

[Phlegethon]

There is a general trends towards idiocy, with the EU actually accelerating this process. It is, however, a worldwide phenomenon - and primarily a result of American cultural imperialism.

[Piparskeggr]

There is a general trends towards idiocy, with the EU actually accelerating this process. It is, however, a worldwide phenomenon - and primarily a result of American cultural imperialism.

I neither think nor believe that "Americans" can shoulder the whole load here.

However, I will concede that we are the world capital for bad cinema and television, at least from my experience. puke An imperial power in this for quantity, not necessarily because of quality.

Unlike many of my fellow citizens, I have traveled outside the boundaries of my homeland. I have been in Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and some of the small Caribbean countries, as well as Canada, both normal and French.

Everywhere I've gone, I have tried to be a good guest; phrase book in hand. :D

I have found a welcome, and folks who wanted to help me, because of my courtesy towards them and their culture.

The vast majority of Americans are ignorant, just as Baptista-Bastos describes Europeans, in the same way, I think...willful ignorance due to lack of need or desire for knowledge; nothing more, or less.

How, then, do we BUILD, create something stronger?

This is my concern.

[Piparskeggr]

By the way, a first cousin of my dad's is one of America's most dangerous cultural imperialists; she gives voice to Rocky the Flying Squirrel.

Humor is a dangerous weapon ,-)

Pip

[Aemma]

There is a general trends towards idiocy, with the EU actually accelerating this process. It is, however, a worldwide phenomenon - and primarily a result of American cultural imperialism.


This issue of how "American imperialism" (:rolleyes:) fits into all of this aside (but I would like some clarification as to what you mean by this specifically please), it has always seemed to me on the one hand that the very idea of Europe as a conceptual entity has always been fairly well developed and unquestioned, really. Europe always meant x, y, z countries in some form of large community of said individual countries AND with a fairly solid and well-ingrained understanding of x, y, and z countries and their respective people(s).

Despite the issues surrounding the formation of the EU and the quagmyre of which nation-states should or shouldn't be members, it never really occurred to me that in this day and age there would still be some very seemingly pronounced ignorance among Europeans as to the various Peoples, including ethnicities and cultures that make up this geo-political entity we call Europe. This article's author seems to intimate that this is indeed the case in present-day Europe: citizens of European nation-states actually seem to know little about other European cultures and people. If anything, I have always admired Europe (and Europeans) for being at ease, almost nonchalant, about its "multi-faceted wholeness", if I may be permitted, where the whole not only recognises but knows its constituent parts.

Based on the above, I will re-state my initial question:


Interesting notion this idea that Europeans don't really know other Europeans and by extension themselves very well.

How valid is such a statement do you think?

[Phlegethon]

Well, Germany alone has borders with nine countries. By car I could probably make it through the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Switzerland in one day. But just because I can do it I am not planning to actually do it. I hate travelling and hardly ever have the time and funds to do so, unlike the majority of the European members on this forum. Actually my last vacation was in 1987.