- 10/26/08 05:21 pm
- Clotaire Rapaille - The Culture Code (Broadway Books, New York 2007)
izrādījās gan patīkami, gan interesanti, sakārtojot pa plauktiņiem un uzliekot punktu uz "i" manam personīgajam šīgada Amerikas piedzīvojumam, un pārsteidzošā kārtā savelkot visai daudz paralēles ar Latvijas kultūras kodiem, cienījamais autors aizraujošā un diezgan pamatīgā veidā skaidro amerikāņu kultūras kodus, salīdzinot tos ar francūžu, angļu un vāciešu kultūras kodiem, skaidrojot, kā tie radušies un veidojušies, un analizē no intervijām iegūtos stāstus, detalizēti skaidrojot amerikāņu vērtību sistēmu, apskatīti kultūras kodi tādās dzīves sfērās kā mīlestība, sekss, skaistums, fitness, veselība, jaunība, mājas, darbs, nauda, kvalitāte, perfekcija, ēdiens, alkohols, iepirkšanās, lukss, attieksme pret Amerikas prezidentiem un Amerikas paštēlu un tās tēlu citās valstīs
"Our adolescence stems from one essential point: we never had to kill the king to become who we are. Every adult was once a child, small and anxious. Then the go through stages of adolescence and rebellion. Many cultures act out their rebellion by killing their leaders (for example, the French rebelles by beheading Lous XVI), after which their period of rebellion ends and adulthood begins. We never killed our king, because we never actually had one. For this reason, our rebellious period never really ended. Rather than moving on from it, we hold on to it and reinforce it when we welcome immigrants to our shores. Coming here is a huge act of rebellion. Like the American revolutionaries, they leave their old cultures behind rathern than "finishing a job" by killing the king. Therefore, the remain rebels, and this constant influx of new adolescents helps keep our entire culture adolescent."
"Americans - regardless of their age - view love the way an adolescent views the world: as an exciting dream that rarely reaches fulfillment. (..) A woman searches for Mr. Right because she believes the stories she reads in books or watches at the movies; she finds someone she belieces she can "change" into her ideal man, and she disappointedly sees her efforts fail. A man searches for Ms. Perfect for many of the same reasons; he finds a woman, who excites him, he belieces it will stay this way forever, and he is disappointed when motherhood takes her interests elsewhere. This quest for perfection is, of course, on Code: our cultural unconscious compels us to have unrealistically high standarts for love. However, as that 50 percent, divorce rate indicates, the Code isn't making our lives easier."
"We look at seduction in such a negative way, that we bring a high level of unconscious suspicion to all relationships between men and women. Even when sexual advances are not confrontional, the unconscious message of "manipulation" is present. Americans inventes the concept od the "battle between the sexes". American books and talk shows endlessly exhort their audiences to rail against the way one sex treats the other. Tremendously succesful movies illustrate the way men and women manipulate each other during the act of seduction. While these books, talk shows and movies migh use humor to make their points, the underlying message is decidedly unfunny: seduction makes us very, very uncomfortable."
"This illustrates the extremist thinking of an adolescent culture. Since we are uncomfortable with sex, we equate it with the extreme opposite of pleasure, something that causes pain and death. It is also clear that as a culture we are far more comfortable with violence than with sex. We consider it bad manners to discuss sex at the dinner table, but we permit lengthy conversations about war, crime, or the latest action movie. (..) Americans have unconsciously "replaced" sex with violence. Our popular culture is filled with the sex/violence connection. How many times have we seen that film chiche where couples slap each other's faces before falling into each other's arms? The lines between sex and violence blur. Men talk about "bangling" a woman when they bed her. Women joke about castrating a man if he cheats on them. We commonly refer to singles bars as "meat markets". Americans are fascinated with violence. Americans may abhor real violence, but we find simulated violence enthralling. This is another offshoot of our cultural adolescence, we fell immortal, indestructible, and we are drawn to violence to test our invincibility."
"Female participants, raised in a culture where the unconscious Code for sex is VIOLENCE, consistently told stories whose unspoken message was that one needed to strike a balance between being attractive and being provocative. They gave the clear impression that a line divided being beautiful and being too sexy, and that if they crossed it, they put themselves in danger. Unconsciously women compile a list of rules to follow: high heels are fine at a social function, but too sexy for the workplace; a tight-fitting, low-cut dress might be acceptable at a private cocktail party with your husband, but if you're single and you wear it to a bar, you're on the prowl; bold makeup can work for a night on the town, but if you wear it to the supermarket, expect some sidelong glances. (..) Feeling beautiful was associated with feeling attractive to men. A large majority of the stories women told about feeling beautiful related to finding a man - and a large majority of those talked about finding men who were life partners, not quick flings. Men are programmed for sex, as much as he might protest this, the average man is willing to have sex with just about any woman, willing to have sex with him. If man notices a woman's beauty, though, if he stops to admire her physical magnificence rather than simply throwing her over his shoulder, his soul is elevated to another level. If a woman can impres her beauty upon a man permanently, if she can stay beautiful in his eyes, she can make him a better human being. She is doing more than keeping herself virtually appealing to him: she is elevating him from a rutting animal to something more exalted. (..) Women need to be beautiful to seva the men in their lives and therby to elevate and perpetuate the species; at the same time, though, they can't be too beautiful, because that is dangerous. The Code for beauty is man's salvation, but the other side is perdition. The thing that can save you can also damn you. Prostitutes and woman who dress in outrageously provocative ways are completely off Code because they suggest to men an easy way to fill their baser desires."
"Fat is significant issue in this country. More than 125 million Americans are overweight. More than 60 million Americans are obese. Why are so many of us fat when we know fat is bad for us? Because fat is not a problem. Fat is a solution. Psychologists have been aware for a long time that fat is an answer to a problem rather than a problem itself. (..) Just as the other side of the axis from beauty for Americans is provocativeness, the opposite position on the axis from fat is connection. As a culture, we believe that thin people are active and involved. They are proud and succesful and their clothes fit great. On the other hand, fat people, according to the stories, are disconnected from society. They turn people off, they stay inside, and they fail to interact with their families. (..) We might uses alibis, like "big bones" or a slow metabolism. We might talk about "love handles" or how true beauty resides "on the inside". Quite ofthen, though, those of us who struggle with our weight are also struggling with one of our connections - to loved ones, to roles we play, to the "rat race". The Code for fat in America is CHECKING OUT. (..) As Americans, we are masters at putting undue pressure upon ourselves. We must be supermoms. We must climb the corporate ladder. We must have a relationship worthy of a Harlequin romance. That's an awful lot to handle. In fact, for many of us, it's much too much. Therefore, we unconsciously check out. Better to blame the fat than to acknowledge our desire to eschew expectations. Getting fat is the most common available unconscious way to check out of the rat race, to adopt strong identity (as an overweight person) without having to fight for it, to move from active to passive. Being fat allows us to know who we are (fat), why this happened (the overabundance of food "forced" on us), who is responsible (McDonald's or some other fast food restaurant that "makes us" eat their food), and what our identity is (victim). Fat also allows us to use commonly accepted alibis to regress to childhood. Another tension we experience is that as babies and young children, we are fed with the intention of making us fat - no one wants a skinny baby - but as we get older, society pressures us to be thin. If we get fat enough, we unconsciously think, perhaps other will take cares of us again, as they did when we were babies. (..) Before we can conquer the solution of fat, we need to answer one fundamental question: from what I checking out? Acknowledging that one eats when one is tressed, depressed, or otherwise overwhelmed by the world is definitely on Code. If one understands that stress leads to "checking out", one can pay more attention to the underlying problem. Does eating make the problem go away? Does excess weight remove you from circumstances that cause the problem? Do you really want this solution? While one might argue their nutritional wisdom, diets are on Code because they offer consumers to check in to. When these dietes ar at the apex of their popularity, they are the topic of conversation in kitchens, supermarket lines, coffee shops, and cocktail parties all over the country. Participants in these dietes can check in to a large subculture of other people losing weight this way, giving them a sense of connection. As the Code shown us, loading up on carbs is a solution; too much pasta is rarely the real problem. (..) Side by side, the Codes for beauty and fat give us glimpse into something deeper than how we regard physical appearance in America. If you're beautiful, we've seen, you're performing a noble mission; if you're fat, you're checking out of your role. We celebrate beauty, are awestruck by it, aspire to it. On other hand, we discriminate against fat people and marginalize the morbidly obese, even though overweight women make up the majority of the female population in this country. We see, how central in our culture is the pursuit of salvation."
"What do you do? In America the question really means - what job do yo do, and the only expected answer involves your work. It's another way of asking "What is your purpose?" as though one were looking at an unfamiliar machine and asking "What is it for?". We usually ask it almost as soon as we meet someone. "Where do you come from?" is the first question, followed by "What do you do?". (..) Most of my European friends are baffled that I continue to work so hard long after I've made enough money to keep me comfortable the rest of my life. Europeans usually take six weeks of vacation every year. Here, two weeks is the norm, and many people take their work on vacation with them, or even go years without vacation while they are building their careers. This has been the American approach to work from the very beginning of our culture. When our forefathers came to America and discovered a huge undeveloped land, their first though wasn't "Let's have some tea". It was "Let's get to work". There was a New World to create, and it wasn't going to create itself. Towns needed building. The West needed opening. There wasn't time for leisure then, and in a very real way, we still believe there isn't time for it now. Americans work longer hours than the people of any other culture. Americans celebrate work and turn succesful businesspeople into celebrities. (..) For Americans, work isn't simply something you did to make a living or because you had to do it. Even if you didn't like your work, it had a much more powerful dimension, a life-defining dimentsion. The American Culture Code for work is WHO YOU ARE. Americans very strongly believe that they are what they do in their jobts. Why are unempolyed people often depressed by the loss of their jobs? Because they are unsure of how they will pay the bills? Certainly. At a deeper level, though, it is because they believe that if they are "doing" nothing, then they are nobodies. If work means "who we are", then it is perfectly understandable that we seek so much meaning in our jobs. If our jobs feel meaningless, then "who we are" is meaningless as well. (..) American rarely accept a dead end in their jobs without a fight, and they strongly believe that you are only as good as your last deal. A billionaire still works sixty hours a week because he need constant affirmation of who he is. Our work ethic is so strong because at the unconscious level, we equate work with who we are and we believe that if we work hard and improve our professional standing, we become better people. (..) The self-made millionaire is an inspirational symbol for us because it proves that all of us can work hard, find the thing that we do superbly, and forge an extraordinary identity. Deep down, we believe that you never have to be stuck in what you do. Self-reinvetion is definitely on Code. If your work no longer provides you with the sense of who you are that you desire, it is not only acceptable but also preferable to seek something new. Americans are most aggresive identity-seekers. They don't wait for someone to tell them what to be, but rather take significant risks to become what they believe they should be. None of us want to feel that we are "done", that who we are will remain stagnant for the remainder of our lives. Retirees, after decades of work, seek new jobs in retirement, even when money isn't an object. They work because they so strongly connect their identities with the work they do that they feel the need to keep working in orger to feel that they still exist."
"The Code for money offers a very powerfull tool for understanding America. People around the world perceive us being concerned only with money. This huge misconception is one of the reasons so many of them fail to see what really does motivates us. (..) Our culture is filled with "self-made" people, and in some very real way, we all have the same starting point with regard to wealth - we all began poor. We came here with no money and established the goal of making life better for our children. The notion that we "come from nothing" pervades America. In a sense, we have the poorest rich people in the world, because even those who accumulate huge sums of money thing like poor people. They continue to work hard, they continue to focus on cash flows and expenses, and they continue to struggle to earn more. (..) Money signifies more to Americans than the means to buy things. It shows us how we're doing, tells us how far we've come from impoverished poor roots. Money remind you that your "business is a good one", that you've worked hard to get something, that you can carry your burdens, that you are appreciated, and that you are moving up to the next level. The American culture has no titles of nobility to show us who the big winners are. Without them, we need something that performs a similar funcion. The American Culture Code for money is PROOF. Because we believe money is proof, we see a very strong connection between money and work. Money earned via hard work is admirable, proof that you are a good person. We have little respect, however, for those who inherit money rather than making it on their own. We might be fascinated by the exploits of someone like Paris Hilton, but we don't feel that she's proven anything, because she was born rich and her celebrity stems exclusively from her wealth. We love it that Bill Gates has more money than the Queen of England, because he earned every penny of it himself. (..) We believe we're only as good as our last deal, and even when we've made billions we want to make billions more to prove how good we are. Money is the proof of goodness, not in itself the goal." - Current Music: patricia kaas - syracuse
- 2 piedūrāscepies, rausīt
- 10/26/08 07:20 pm
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чайка
nu baigi - baisi un inchīgi
bet tai pat laikā neliek mieru doma ka kāds cits tikpat labi tam visam varētu atrast citus cēloņus un likumsakarības
bet inchīgi, nchīgi - kaujies, nu
- 10/26/08 07:24 pm
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nu, kad no malas tā atstāsta, tad jā, bet kad lasa no sākuma līdz galam, tad diezgan pārliecinoši, kā smejies, ieej stāstā:)
- kaujies, nu