Americans and ants
Tonight Tim and I watched the movie Barcelona with a couple friends sort of on a last-minute impulse. Apart from the fact that it was nice just to casually get together with people at the last minute, I enjoyed the movie which was casual-dialogue-philisophical style .. otherwise classified as alternative .. or independent. You know what I mean. Hopefully.
The movie is about a couple expats in Barcelona, each with their own set of quirks and oddities; and in particular, the European view of Americans seems to come up a lot in the dialogue. At one point, the following analogy was made which I found quite insightful:
The US is like an enormous ant farm.
A see-through plastic case enclosing an ant colony.
It’s a toy sold to children so they can
watch ants build their own society.
The US is like an ant farm
for the rest of the world.
But, people living in other countries
can’t observe the ants.
They must rely on journalists
and commentators for a description.
The problem is,
that these people seem to hate ants.
A see-through plastic case enclosing an ant colony.
It’s a toy sold to children so they can
watch ants build their own society.
The US is like an ant farm
for the rest of the world.
But, people living in other countries
can’t observe the ants.
They must rely on journalists
and commentators for a description.
The problem is,
that these people seem to hate ants.
on June 30th, 2007 at 1:43
love it
on June 30th, 2007 at 14:23
If that was the case, it wouldn’t be a problem :p
on June 30th, 2007 at 20:13
i second you gauri
on July 1st, 2007 at 15:17
i don’t hate ants. i cant hate what i don’t know. i cant hate since there is no reason to hate them or anything else for that matter. you can only hate if you have a really good reason for and even than hate will be the wrong word. dislike is more like it i think. and no i don’t dislike ants nor Americans. not every ant is the same and not every human is the same so i could never hate a group. i just love exploring new worlds and new understandings of new cultures. so don’t hate something just hate yourself for not knowing enough of it. sure its is easy to say i hate America, Europe or Asia but i think its is the lack of knowledge that makes people hate or it is jealousy be coarse they have something we don’t.
but maybe i think to much ^.^
on July 1st, 2007 at 20:18
I was being humorous, it is a common joke to dislike Americanisations and their patriotism, at least it is here in the UK :S
I dont hate America in general, i agree with you Maikel that you cant hate what you dont fully know. But there are certainly things i dislike about the country.
on July 2nd, 2007 at 1:41
^.^ yeah i know and i do agree with you but than again i don’t like every thing here in the Netherlands to.
on July 2nd, 2007 at 13:17
so if i know many americans and generally don’t like many of them, that means its okay to hate them, right? lol.
maybe its because i’m not exactly caucasian american. i’m just asian american.