(no subject)
I finished Michael Adams' Fire and Ice this week. Adams is Canada's most prominent private pollster, and the book is the result o a decade's worth of studies that show that Canadians' values are actually becoming more different from those of the Americans, contrary to the usual assumption.
It was an excellent book except for one tragic chapter about our differing histories. I really wish commentators on Canadian society would quit relying on their high school textbooks for their history. They might as well be going to a Magic 8-Ball -- "Was Lord Durham's assessment of the rebellions as 'two nations warring in a single breast' accurate?" Answer: "Outlook Not So Good."
Probably the most interesting chapter, though, was an appendix listing "Values Tracked Only in Canada." These were things that -- during their initial interviews -- many Canadians mentioned that they had strong positive or negative feelings about, but few if any Americans did.
(By "values" they mean everything from "ways of living life" and "things that are important day to day" to the grand theories and paradigms of life. )
Sadly, Adams doesn't often tell us which things Canadians talked about a lot because they liked, and which ones they talked about because they thought they were bad things, though some are probably pretty obvious -- I have a hard time imagining anyone singling out polysensorality (my new favourite word) as a negative.
(Polysensorality is the belief that life should be sensual experience, but that too much emphasis is put on sight and not enough on the other four senses. Polysensorality is probably Adams' word for this hitherto nameless topic, but this was something apparently many Canadians felt passionate about.)
Some of the values that only Canadians mentioned were no surprise -- Canadians talked in large numbers about "Belonging to the Global Village" and "Flexibility of Gender Identity" and "Deconsumption"and "Openness to Others," while Americans didn't.
Much more surprising is that few Americans raised the topic of "Attraction to Physical Beauty" and "Attraction to Violence [in TV and games]" though maybe that's for same reason that the fish doesn't notice the water.
On the whole, it was a brilliant read. I'm now nearly finished Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland.
It was an excellent book except for one tragic chapter about our differing histories. I really wish commentators on Canadian society would quit relying on their high school textbooks for their history. They might as well be going to a Magic 8-Ball -- "Was Lord Durham's assessment of the rebellions as 'two nations warring in a single breast' accurate?" Answer: "Outlook Not So Good."
Probably the most interesting chapter, though, was an appendix listing "Values Tracked Only in Canada." These were things that -- during their initial interviews -- many Canadians mentioned that they had strong positive or negative feelings about, but few if any Americans did.
(By "values" they mean everything from "ways of living life" and "things that are important day to day" to the grand theories and paradigms of life. )
Sadly, Adams doesn't often tell us which things Canadians talked about a lot because they liked, and which ones they talked about because they thought they were bad things, though some are probably pretty obvious -- I have a hard time imagining anyone singling out polysensorality (my new favourite word) as a negative.
(Polysensorality is the belief that life should be sensual experience, but that too much emphasis is put on sight and not enough on the other four senses. Polysensorality is probably Adams' word for this hitherto nameless topic, but this was something apparently many Canadians felt passionate about.)
Some of the values that only Canadians mentioned were no surprise -- Canadians talked in large numbers about "Belonging to the Global Village" and "Flexibility of Gender Identity" and "Deconsumption"and "Openness to Others," while Americans didn't.
Much more surprising is that few Americans raised the topic of "Attraction to Physical Beauty" and "Attraction to Violence [in TV and games]" though maybe that's for same reason that the fish doesn't notice the water.
On the whole, it was a brilliant read. I'm now nearly finished Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland.