"WHEN FASCISM COMES TO AMERICA IT WILL BE WRAPPED IN THE FLAG
AND CARRYING A CROSS." -SINCLAIR LEWIS

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Star Wars: From Bits And Pieces

The original trilogy, as told by someone who's never actually seen it but rather has just absorbed it via cultural osmosis. It seems fairly obvious to me that a person this clueless has either kept themselves willfully ignorant of most of Star Wars lore for their entire life or else was born within the last decade and a half. Either way, I wouldn't date her, for two very different reasons:

I weep for the future. Hans?

5 comments:

Van Zan said...

"Well... there were these guys, who I think were Palestinians, who flew planes into the World Trade Centre so we, like, bombed Iraq because Saddam Hussein is, like, doing in Israel like Osama bin Laden is in Iran, or someplace near Afghanistan like that where they also have Hamas..."

JBW said...

VZ, you're Australian; I had no idea. G'day!

Van Zan said...

Wondered when you would work that out...
Not necessarily. I could merely be an American in Australia.

But no, and yes, I'm an Australian citizen and I've sock-puppeted as an American.
I've worked and lived with Americans for years at different times so it comes easy.
Everything I've said about myself is true except my mother is not an American citizen, as I once lied.

I apologise JBW, but I've found that when I blogged openly as an Australian, the responses soon turned to "We're America, we're the superpower - you do whatever the fuck we say, and fuck your opinion". And that is absolutely no exaggeration.
I wanted to just talk to the issues without all that. It's been tricky at times. There were contexts and comparisons I wanted to make but couldn't, and there were some odd things that I had trouble with. There are philosophies in American politics that have no analogue elsewhere. Some things that seemed patently ludicrous where I had to hold myself back and think "no hold it.. in an American context that is not quite so priggish or bombastic as it seems to me".

It was getting awkward. I was going to give this away and post as an Australian again, but I'd see something and want to comment - without "Hi. I'm from Australia. This is what I think about ..."
Frustrating too. Australia would lose more soldiers in Afghanistan, but it was all about the "war against evil" that America was fighting alone.
The US and Australia both backed Israel in Gaza, yet AP would claim only America, sole champion of goodness in the world, was backing Israel.
Someone actually commented on AP as an Australian recently and most of his comment was explaining what this and that is in Australia, drawing equivalents and parallels... so that at the end of it all he could make his point (which was wrong anyway but...)

Someone might ask "Well how would you like it if we as Americans commented on Australian politics??"
Actually I'd be very interested - but that is not likely to happen.
Some would say they have no issue, I should have been "honest" etc etc but that brings me back to my experiences above when I was being "honest"...

Sorry and I hope you will understand.
I know some won't.

JBW said...

VZ, amigo: it was merely an observation, not an accusation. I've liked pretty much every Aussie I've ever met (there have been many) but regardless, I consider your opinion on things American and other as valid as the Jill-six-packs living on either side of me and I would never invalidate someone's opinions because they did not share the same nationality/continent that I do.

That said: if you're going to try to hide your national identity online, less use of words like "centre" and "priggish" might serve you well in the future. Not that I care, but there it is.

Van Zan said...

heh... didn't spot either of those. Cheers mate.