In the KT, sociologist Jon Huer wonders why Koreans are protesting US beef when they should be protesting America’s cultural invasion:
What baffles me in the whole mad cow disease-inspired anti-Americanism is that, compared to the “cultural” way America has invaded Korea and jarred loose its social-moral fabric, mad cow is wholly insignificant.
Koreans ought to protest America’s soft-power invasion that undermines Korea’s basic social-moral foundation each day. It has been indeed mind-boggling to watch the rate of “Americanization” in Korea.
It is inaccurate to say that all of Korea’s social ills, crime, juvenile delinquency, divorce, and overall loosening of societal discipline that are all on the rise is to do with America’s cultural invasion.
But any reasonable observer would agree that such radical social change in Korea, all toward deterioration, has much to do with the American cultural imports. Americanism simply promotes liberalizing individualism and self-assertion that can be devastating for a country that has no adequate infrastructure to deal with them.
On the other hand, a relatively small number people have died of mad cow related symptoms compared to other diseases. The world’s health-related organizations watch this disease every day and are prepared to deal with it with all sorts of mechanisms. I trust their work and eat beef in relative tranquility.
But who is watching America’s cultural invasion ― through TV, movies, songs, fast food, mangled English, moral-political-social practices and policies that are highly liberalizing and radicalizing and so on ― in a society that has been basically Confucian for hundreds of years?
A whole generation of Korean youth is being infected by this American-born virus to which Korea seems to have no protection. Unlike importing American beef, which has a side benefit of providing inexpensive protein, these pernicious cultural artifacts from America have no known side benefit.
Of course, Prof. Huer is right — there have been no known side benefits of America’s cultural invasion, which has been ongoing since the first American missionaries set foot on Korean soil in the late 19th centuries. That is, if you don’t include Protestant Christianity, notions of gender equality, concepts of social egalitarianism and political liberalism, modern education and medicine, a global worldview, and new forms of arts and media that — among other things — have created the basis of contemporary Korean pop culture and the Korean Wave.
Oh, and baseball.
If it makes you feel any better, Prof. Huer, there’s always Cheonghakdong. And North Korea.
PS: Sad thing is, I actually agree with the larger idea — as I’ve said a thousand times, I’m glad I live in a country where kids don’t shoot each other over Xbox 360s. But Jesus, Korea’s society deteriorating? Because of American culture?
61 Comments
North Korea is only the better for having been infected with American culture only slightly; the odd ship on the Daedong river, a few months in the early 1950’s and the NY Phil. Nobody listens to RFA, nobody owns a pair of Nikes and you’re not even allowed to take photos of the civilians unless you somehow spoil their innocence.
Guff, of course, though the “mangled English” bit is hard to argue with.
Eujin — good point! And one incorporated into the post.
guy sounds like steve schertzer.
does he OWN the classroom?
If Korea had 300 million people I guarantee you the kids would be killing each over something. Probably not Xboxs, maybe kimchi?
If they had “the right to bear arms” I guarantee there would be a lot of shooting going on, especially if you consider the temper tantrums they throw.
Sure, there are a lot of things wrong in America, but what America did in less than 500 years, Korea couldn’t do in 5000 years and will most likely never do.
Koreans don’t deserve to have America as a friend. This latest beef thing shows that. The media told blatant lies as usual which the Koreans chose to believe.
Sorry, I may have missed that, distracted by clicking on the Cheonghakdong link.
I think essentially, from the sociological perspective, the North and South can be taken as an almost perfect twin experiment, or at least as perfect a one as one will get in the real world. Somewhere, deep inside of me there there is some part of me that is attracted to the idea of a bunch of people basically living in a preservation, frozen in time, without interference from the outside world. Essentially that’s what I think has been created in North Korea and I feel that it is also the intention of the North Korean government to create and maintain such a state (maybe the same can be said of Burma). The people are unburdened by change and external influences and need only worry themselves with the timeless issues of looking after their kids, finding enough to eat and what to do when it gets dark.
It’s appealing on some naive level and would be more so if one could do away with the militarism, the distortion, the corruption and ineptitude but I still feel that the South Koreans are better off, allowing the outside world in with all its chaos, problems and uncontrollability.
If Prof. Huer wants to argue that there are problems with globalization, that’s fine, but he seems to be implying that it is only negative and that it should be stopped.
Why has a place like Bali been so much more successful at maintaining indigenous cultural traditions and mores than Korea, notwithstanding the infinitely greater penetration of American and Western “culture” generally (as measured by the presence of self-administered foreign commercial brands and companies?
I’d don’t think Korea’s has done a particularly bad job of maintaining its indigenous cultural traditions. Sure, it’s adopted a lot from the West, and the US in particular, but much if not most of what it has adopted it has Koreanized.
Bah, culture is in constant evolution. Next.
“Americanism simply promotes liberalizing individualism and self-assertion that can be devastating for a country that has no adequate infrastructure to deal with them.”
Although quite generic, he has a strong point here: if koreans are not ready to handle it, it can be overwhelming and - in a way - devastating.
Robert, think about it: you grow up receiving and following orders. Quite brainwashed to blindly follow commands. Then, you are stimulated to think by yourself. BANG! TILT! You crash. Country crashes. The guys are not ready. The boys and girls in their 20’s will be. But only in another 10-20 years.
As a bicultural person, I see both good and bad things in both Korean and American culture. The first thing I notice are commercial values. Americans on average don’t appear to work as hard, but they have more efficient systems and their management style is more conducive to honest labor. Koreans on average work harder, but more of that labor is expended in waste and Korean management style is more geared to satisfying a certain goal, but that goal is not necessarily geared to maximize efficiency and profitability.
On social values, I lean towards Korean culture. I like how there is less ambiguity in this regards with Koreans. I think there should be a median between social and commercial culture. America has a more refined commercial culture, but it’s social culture has become tattered and in some cases lost. America had better social AND commercial culture in the 40’s and 50’s when it lead the world in practically everything, but in my opinion it’s lost a lot since. Just my two cents.
Is the country crashing? If it is, I don’t see it.
Since when did the United States get the right to claim the credit for all the cultural imperialism going on in Korea? For sure, the Americans invented Protestantism, gender equality, modern education and medicine, liberal democracy, the Industrial Revolution, the empirical scientific method, the Enlightenment, the Bible and, uh, baseball, but a global worldview? C’mon, that’s stretching it a bit.
Come to think of it, what did the Americans actually invent? Ahh, the A-bomb, a useful element of American culture that I know for a fact the North Koreans are loathe to do without.
You know, they say that when people move to a different place or change cultures, the last thing to change is the food.
Judging from my lack of being able to get anything non-Korean aside from pizza with corn on it and the occasional McDonald’s (outside of the foreigner pockets of Itaewon and the military bases), Korea’s doing just fine on that count. It’s going to be a long, long time before they give up on their own culture and traditions.
I wonder how Mr. Huer feels about the Koreans who go to America to study or to live and then go back. I think that would have as much influence on the immediate family and then the community as much as CNN or Friends.
I would have to agree with Robert on this since his comments echo my own thoughts. The professor does not distinguish between the negative qualities of human nature and the direct negative influences of a foreign culture.
Consumerism — as a social trend — transcends country or culture and I believe this is what the professor is talking about. There are reports that support such an idea, for example in Laos but just how does a culture deal with such a problem? Inviting more business into a country to reduce poverty can have a negative impact upon the historical integrity of a culture but as one other commentor points out, a culture is not static and is subject to change — for good or for bad.
Should America be considered a problem when the Ministry of Culture and tourism clearly demonstrates, by its name, that there is the idea of [culture = money], that is if [tourism = money]. Perhaps the real problem is mankinds love of money rather than the love of things American.
I just find it hard to believe this is written by a trained sociologist and an actual professor. I have never met Dr. Huer or read any of his other books or articles, so I have nothing but this to go on. And this article seems incredibly poorly thought out.
Briefly:
1) I don’t think he has an accurate picture of Korea’s “social fabric” in the past.
2) He seems to argue a culturally essentialist line that Americans “are” one way and Koreans “are” another. This ignores entirely the idea that cultural memes are not specific to time, place or people.
3) He ignores, as Robert points out, any possible good things that outside influence has brought to Korea
4) He does not define what he means by American invasion, and when it began. Would he begin in the late 1800s? Or in 1950? Or later?
5) He also discounts influence from other countries on Korea - what about the influence of Marx on early 20th century Koreans, or European literature, teaching concepts about the Enlightenment, humanism, liberalism, freedom of thought, etc? These things have also been blamed for societal ills - divorce, suicides, crime, etc - in various times and places (as has Jewish literature, but that’s another story).
6) Dr. Huer ignores the effect of western style education on Korean minds. Absent western fast food, clothing, rock music and movies, would this not be enough to corrupt the minds of young Koreans? These are arguments that were being made long ago, and that are still made by siome religious conservatives (a secular education leads to societal breakdown).
Ironically, Dr. Huer teaches at an American educational institution that, while not on Korean soil proper (it is headquartered on Yongsan garrison, which raises other interesting questions about the extent of Dr. Huer’s field work out here in ‘real’ Korea) has had Korean citizens as students. Perhaps they should all be expelled to avoid the taint of western civilization on them.
In short, I don’t believe that Dr. Huer’s article could be published in a peer-reviewed journal, and not because - as a newspaper Opinion piece - it has no footnotes or references, but because the argument is specious.
#13
“For sure, the Americans invented Protestantism”
Huh???
Globalisation is not necessecarily Americanisation.
Although I have to agree with Dr. Huer on some points.
Mangled English…”sup’, “yo” and Korean dudes fully decked out in hip hop gear basketball singlets, trouser legs rolled up.
I cringe when I see that.
America is like 3rd century BCE Macedonia. Like Macedonia, America was once considered on the periphery of their respective civilized worlds. Macedonia wasn’t Greek per say, but they were an offspring of Greek civilization and even considered “greek” later on. America wasn’t considered Western by Europe until later on also. At best, they were considered the “poor cousins” of the western world until probably the 19th century. However, it is Macedonia that spread Greek culture to the Eastern world of the world through their superior military power.
Yeah how much did the liberals pay him to say that?
Just reading his front page he’s an obvious neo-liberal.
give me STARBUCKS! give me BURGER KING! give me NIKE! give me STARCRAFT! give me HARVARD! give me VISA WAIVERS! give me..ZOMFG! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! is that US beef you are trying to give me? Why you gotta be taking over Korea’s culture of mad expensive cattle farming yo? That shit just ain’t right.
# 22,
Sh*t… that was funny.
Definitely sounds like schertzer.
I certainly hope that this guy’s academic papers have been better researched, better written, and containing of better more logical arguments than this crap.
Yes, he made a couple of good points, but that does not excuse the fact that if this piece represents his writing/thinking, then his writing/thinking is a flawed pile of dung!
Just more everything about Korea was so “pure” before the bad Americans came and that everything Western is negative and is the “fault” of the Americans- crap, crap, crap, and more crap!
@22
Yes!
The more a person lambasts Americanization of Korea, the more it is likely that he has not investigated or spent much time in small countries where English is spoken widely.
And I’m tired of imperialist talk like that of prof Huer who recognizes only the influence of his own country, USA, and ignores all the other contaminants like the “Finnish education of English” virus that the Koreans are trying to contaminate themselves with on a constant basis! Give us a credit, too!
Yeah some people aren’t getting it.
This article although written by an American, has zero to do with American culture. It has to do with the return of confucian/communism. These folks are basically blaming their own personal issues on anything foreign.
Some people cannot handle freedom and competition, ergo they blame it on the Americans seeing how they can’t just write articles about what kind of useless fucks they are.
My proof is pawi.
What looks to him like Americanization is really Japanization. Koreans are 10 times more interested in Japanese culture. What they get from the US is filtered through there.
Also people are confusing actual American influences, which I would say are limited to products as mentioned above and the natural regression of things in a capitalistic economy.
What your shoes look like or whether you like hamburgers doesn’t mean shit. If anyone here actually was integrated into Korean society the lines would be alot clearer.
The sheer nature of capitalism is the biggest factor influencing Korean culture. However I need to point out that a culture thousands of years old does not radically change because of it.
Yes there is a collectivist mentality similar to many countries even in the western world, but Korean culture also has a much greater degree of individualism than the rest of Asia, although not as strong as the US. For example, in my family what my brother does or doesn’t do does not affect me. My uncles/aunts dont give a shit about my family, recently my uncle died of lung cancer and no one even offered money to help the family. Strangers, unlike in China, do not help each other and through my grandmother its always been like that here.
What some people are confusing is the difference between collectivism and influences of the US with the natural progression of a culture when widespread emotional abuse and repression is gone.
Japan, for example, has been a modern country for a while. It has a true collectivist society but the advent of capitalism hasn’t changed its culture.
# 22,
I’ll believe that when I see Korean girls painting their faces in that god awful Panda makeup.
japundit.com/images/kogal.jpg
Protestent Christianity??
That’s probably the WORST thing thats ever been imported into Korean culture. All that other stuff I agree with, but Christianity and it’s crappy tenants have ruined this country. What a joke.
You know what really kills me with the “cultural imperialism” police that march around every so often? It’s that America can’t properly export it’s best (and highly cultural) products to Korea, because Korea steals them.
The best products America has are movies, music and microcode (props to Neil Stephenson). Those are really the only things America does better than anyone else. Koreans almost never pay for the latter two, and only sometimes pay for the former (with a good portion of that going to Korean theater-owners).
I can’t understand how people can accuse America of foisting their culture on anyone, especially in Korea. Nobody ever writes essays about America having their culture pirated and sold on the streets for a chon won.
It bothers me to see academics lik Jon Huer get paid twice as much as I do as an elementary school teacher when I actually perform an accountable service - teaching kids to read - while he spews hutsori.
Ahh, the A-bomb. Two of them helped the US defeat the country that had occupied Korea for 35 years. As an American, let me apologize for our country declaring war on Japan and for our participation in the Korean War. Atchison got it right the first time.
The whole foreign culture = virus is an illogical analogy. A virus invades us without our consent. Local businesses voluntarily sell foreign products and consumers voluntarily buy them.
#31 yes, that the people we “evil Americans” are so intent on colonizing and destroying with our “terrible culture” are frothing at the mouth to get ahold of that “culture” and copy/steal it as much as they can is not talked about. Yes, it’s all a conspiracy by us to push this culture on them when they really don’t want it. They want to remain traditional and “pure”. Yeah, right.
The other thing that gets me is that these “pure” cultures choose to grasp onto the worst parts of western culture. They don’t want good music and movies, etc. They generally go for the bubble gum pop crap like Britney Spears and the Bon Jovi and utterly shitty Steven Seagal and Jean Claude Van Damme movies and hip hop douche bags like 50 Cent.
Korea loves the shitty, superficial, talentless culture and the bad food- McDonald’s is bad food and most Americans will tell you so.
Japan, on the other hand, seems far more with it in terms of hipness and looking for better music and movies. Hell, they know who Bob Marley is. Koreans sure don’t!
Hasn’t the German culture already ‘invaded’ the Korean society long before Americans had a chance? My aunt may be a high school graduate who runs a small sushi corner in Safeway, but she can still talk to you academically about the works of Goethe for hours. (I can’t, because I never read Goethe that extensively in American educational system, which seem to focus more on British/French lit than anything else)
Atchison = Acheson
I think one should examine just exactly what Korean culture was before any American influence on it. Its my understanding that a large percentage of the local population were slaves. Its seems american science, education, medicine and technology and even religious influencese have made a Korea a better place to live for the average Korea. Perhaps certain Korean scholars have a romanticed notion about what life was like for Koreans a century or two ago, basically it was awful. At least North Korea is not so infected with this terrible virus. It seems basic stupidity is much more dangerous in Korea than mad cow. At least is much more prevalent.
I would have blamed the French and/or the Dutch for all of the gay parades on Korean game shows these days… And the “light-footed” parody of hip-hop…
I will confess that fast-food restaurants aren’t good for teens whose parents haven’t taught them self-control…
I might leave Christianity out if that’s a list of good things. (why only Protestant Christianity, and not Catholicism anyway?)
Jon Huer is just another leftist hack (of the Haney/Shorrock type) who will always have an eager audience in South Korea that doesn’t care to, or cannot, critically examine what he says.
#22 - exactly.
#14 - I’ve had pizza with corn on it in Italy on more than one occasion, it’s not Korean thing.
UMUC doesn’t pay that well. But the teachers do get commissary privileges. Can play the slots too - now that the Koreans have been banned yet again…for a while.
But if you do get bothered by pay you ought not be a teacher.
Spot on. But in Korea people don’t have the choice - or so they’re apt to believe. The universe conspires in ways beyond their comprehension or will, sweeping them up and tossing them around from trend to latest trend - inevitably foreign in origin and introduced by the rich.
It’s kjunior high. Forever.
UMUC doesn’t pay that well. But the teachers do get commissary privileges. Can play the slots too - now that the Koreans have been banned yet again…for a while.
But if you do get bothered by pay you ought not be a teacher.
Spot on. But in Korea people don’t have the choice - or so they’re apt to believe. The universe conspires in ways beyond their comprehension or will, sweeping them up and tossing them around from trend to latest trend - inevitably foreign in origin and introduced by the rich.
It’s junior high. Forever.
Huer wrote:
But who is watching America’s cultural invasion ― through TV, movies, songs, fast food, mangled English, moral-political-social practices and policies that are highly liberalizing and radicalizing and so on…
Koreans are, apparently. The so-called ‘Korean Wave’ of cultural export crashes daily upon the shores of nations throughout Asia, and people from Malang to Marrakesh are now entertained by Korean music, television and film, instead of finding culturally native forms of entertainment to occupy their time. Korean restaurants, karaoke establishments and jjimjilbangs (and their, ahem, employees) are to found throughout the world, and provide all manner of Korean-style services to customers, no matter how sensitive or delicate the nature of the native cultural environments in which they operate. And Korea’s own network of commercial and military satellites take positions above us all over the planet, maintaining a constant supply of Korean culture while simultaneously providing militarily and economically strategic data back to the Korea cultural center.
Like others here, I believe that cultures are either dynamic and changing or else lose their relevancy. Huer fails to recognize this, and he further fails to recognize that this dynamism and change comes out of challenge from external ideas as well as internal ones. Huer seems not to understand that an anachronistic culture cannot exist outside the museum.
It’s ironic that Huer, who cannot understand what it is to be a cultural anachronism, is himself tethered to the Yongsan base, and while complaining that American culture acts as a harmful virus, is arguably a ‘Patient Zero’ who is part of the process of ‘infection’.
That is, if you don’t include Protestant Christianity, notions of gender equality, concepts of social egalitarianism and political liberalism, modern education and medicine, a global worldview, and new forms of arts and media that — among other things — have created the basis of contemporary Korean pop culture and the Korean Wave.
We all know American conservatives don’t believe in this.
Sperwer says:
Why has a place like Bali been so much more successful at maintaining indigenous cultural traditions and mores than Korea, notwithstanding the infinitely greater penetration of American and Western “culture” generally (as measured by the presence of self-administered foreign commercial brands and companies?
Don’t swallow the tourist brochures.If one took a closer look at Bali’s maintenance of its indigenous cultural traditions one would find that many have been developed for the tourism market and the culture propagated for reasons other than the culture itself.
I believe the US provides the best example of maintenance of traditional culture, where else in the 21st century do native people still believe in guns, god and inches?
How to be a popular whitey in Korea (with Koreans).
1. Love Kimchi
2. Abstain from sex with local women
3. Provide free English lessons
4. Agree Dokdo belongs to Korea
5. Bash the United States, the more emotional and illogical your arguement the better.
How to be a loser and tool.
See 1-5 above
It’s a little late now for a career change. The one big perk of my job, summer vacation, is just three weeks away.
Ha, good list Austin.
Let me try to add:
6. Bash Japan
7. Take up a traditional instrument or pastime, or wear Hanbok.
8. Speak Korean
9. Read Korean books, and learn things about Korea. This makes the whitey look like a real toady.
10. Start to see one’s home country from a more impartial viewpoint, and not respond in a reactionary manner when valid criticism is leveled at it. This is really what makes Issac’s eyes light up and dance around like a string puppet.
Korea has been stifilingly influenced by other countries cultures for the last couple thousand years. Telling american culture to back off and try to retain the “old” korean culture is basically just saying retain the chinese or japanese influenced cultures. It was said culture is in constant evolution. The people are going to decide which culture is influencing their own at the time. When the govt does it you get things like north korea.
I wonder how many Koreans (or Korea-loving expats) realize how much of what we know as modern Korea has been developed out of American influence. Marmot lists a few - but seriously, do people not understand that any notion of Korea today would not exist without American influence?
~Christianity (which is plenty without mentioning the whole Japan-independence thing that came with that) coming in through missionaries from the states.
~Early Korean-Americans going back to Korea and leading the independence movement (google “Dosan” and “Ahn Chang Ho”).
~The influence that the US military has had over the past fifty years in developing Korean culture, let alone being part of the virus that destroys it.
The list could go on and on. I understand Huer’s point that there are bigger things to worry about than mad cow, but he backs it up by spouting the most pointlessly inane and uninformed commentary.
my comments aren’t getting posted?
Oh boy, I’ve been waiting for some one to ask this for years! You can basically sum it up by looking around you and listing every single thing you see. It doesn’t matter where you are, unless you’re in Gongbokgeung or something.
Here’s an abbreviated list. I bolded the ones especially important to Korea:
Bifocal glasses, Refrigerator, Coffee pot, Reaping machine, Sewing machine, Threashing machine, Revolver, Combine harvester, Power Tools, Paint in a Tube, Anesthesia, Mechanical refrigerator, Cylinder printing press, Safety pin, Elevator brakes, Burglar alarm, Oil well, Wateer Tower, Repeating rifle, Modern lock, Roller skates, Typewriter, Motorcycle, Barbed wire, Toilet paper, Pneumatic subway, Dental drill, Blue Jeans, Telephone, Light bulb, Cash Register, Hearing Aid, Maxim Gun, Electric fan, Electric iron, Skyscraper, Coca-Cola, Records, Cameras, Revolving doors, Escalators, Ferris Wheel, Tractor, Zipper, Cotton Candy, Air conditioner, Airplanes, Crayons, Windshield wipers, Popsicle, Tea Bags, Band Aid, Masking Tape, Bubble Gum, Frozen food, Scotch Tape, Chocolate Chip cookies, Radio Astronomy, Parking Meter, Chair Lift, Photocopier, Nylon, Defibrilator, Microwave Oven, Mobile Phones, Polaroid cameras, Disposable diaper, Nuclear submarine, Polio vaccine, Integrated circuit, Oral contraceptive, Laser, Operating System, Minicomputer, Optical fiber, Calculator, Barcodes, Space Shuttle, Artificial heart, Internet, Graphical User Interface, Hubble telescope, Stem cell lines
another third-rate acamagician spewing his marxist tripe-all the while denigrating koreans acting on their freedom of choice.
bravo, numbnut.
Dingdong says:
I’m not relying on the tourist brochures, but 20 years of visiting there. And while it’s true that some aspects of Balinese culture have been deliberately modified in response to the tourist influx, the striking thing is the extent to which the evolved traditional culture is a pervasive and integral aspect of everyday Balinese life - as distinct from the relative paucity of mummified cultural artifacts in Korea, e.g., Korea House fan dances.
Wow, mateofmiguel, that’s quite a list. You must be mighty proud. Did you get that list off of wikipedia or have you been carrying it around for years waiting for someone like me?
We should probably take this elsewhere, but a quick look around where I am now has an LCD display, I’m using the World Wide Web to access the Hole, there’s an alphanumeric keyboard (and Windows not Linux), a pile of paper, some keys, some Polo mints, a mouse (tick), a plastic Coca-Cola bottle (that contains water), a bunch of books, only one of which was written by an American (Michio Kaku), a pile of coins and a calendar. Let’s not forget I’m also sitting on a chair at a desk.
I’ll let you decide which ones of those you think are American inventions. My office perhaps isn’t the most technologically advanced place in the world but it’s hardly Gyeongbokgung. My desk happens not to have a telephone on it, but despite what Craig Ferguson might tell you, Bell was not an American citizen when he received his patent.
I’m not denying that American citizens and people in the United States haven’t invented a lot of really important stuff, I’m just pointing out that it’s a bit ironic for some to claim they provided the Koreans with a global worldview. Wittingly or not, I think you’re just proving my point.
By the way, when you went through your list bolding inventions particularly useful to Koreans, how did you decide on revolving doors not tractors, tea bags not frozen food, photocopiers not microwave ovens?
Eujin, I wondered the same, particularly, what it is about the ‘modern lock’ (what exactly is that, btw) that’s of special importance to Koreans.
I’d advise against doing that, unless your intent is to depress the locals.
I’ve have a couple of foreign friends who play the kayagum quite well, and inevitably the Koreans were saddened and shamed that the foreigner embraced something most Koreans don’t give a second glance.
@57, I take a stab at it. I guess a decent lock is important in places where there’s no police force.
I don’t hav to decide, I can just do a quick Google search. (Incidentally, Google is based in the US.)
The LCD display was invented by Russ Cook under a research grant by the US government. A keyboard is modeled after a typewriter, which is already on the above list. Those keys fit modern tumbler locks, which are also already on the above list. Windows was invented by Microsoft in the US. Plastic soda bottles were made by Nathaniel Wyeth, American, in 1967. The Hole is a blog which was invented by Jim Howard of Missouri, US.
World Wide Web was proposed by two guys working at CERN, a European organization. Polo mints were made by an English company.
desks, chairs, books, coins, and calendars were invented before America was a country.
And I bolded the things I see a lot on a daily basis in Korea. For instance, I go through revolving doors almost every day. Elevators are standard fare. And airplanes are the only way to get off this isolated peninsula. Whenever I’ve been out of Seoul I have not seen tractors, just endless tiny little rice paddies that look like they can only be cared for by hand. Also I see a lot of plastic greenhouses, also too small to fit tractors into. I assumed there was not a lot of tractor-based farming in these parts. Maybe I should have bolded microwave ovens, but a lot of the houses I’ve been to don’t have them, just a stove.
Man, this post took a lot of effort. This is why Americans don’t usually brag, it just takes WAY too much time!
mateomiguel:
This is a silly argument. You could come up with a list of important inventions a lot longer than everything that is mentioned here with respect to each of, for example, Germany, the United Kingdom or Italy.
But aside from that, so what that the US has invented a lot? Big deal - it’s a huge country with enough resources to fund research. The US is a country of just over 300 million people. Take the equivalent number in Europe (e.g., 300 million Europeans, which might include, for example, Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Hungary and others) and see what they have invented. Their list of important inventions will at least match that of the US.
Then remove from the list of American inventors those US citizens which were foreign born and foreign trained. That is legitimate - or do you think that if you are born in Seattle and trained at Harvard University and then take a grant to work in a lab in Singapore, you become a “Singaporean” inventor if during your tenure in Singapore you invent something big?
If you then consider what conditions the foreign inventors had to work under - wars on their turf, horrible conditions in countries like the Soviet Union (which has also invented a great deal), in comparison to the cushy conditions in the US, the non-US achievements become even more impressive.
Then consider how much the US pool of inventors has benefitted from political circumstances in Europe in the last century alone - German fascism, which has driven top Jewish scientists to the US, and Soviet Communism, which forced many accomplished East European scientists to flee their countries. Those people would not have left had it not been for extreme circumstances in their countries. America is to be commended for taking them, but it is hardly a great achievement as such just to be there, and be lucky enough not to have powerful, threatening neighbours who are in a position to wage war on you, which is a problem most European countries have historically faced.
Does that mean that the US achievements are not impressive? No, it doesn’t, of course they are impressive, but so what? It is a rich country with lots of people (i.e. huge pool of potential scientists and enough resources to finance the research) which faces no external threats, so logically, it will generate a lot of good scientists and attract good scientists from abroad, who will end up being labelled “American”.
So America is a rich country of 300 million people with no threatening neighbors that fosters a great environment for escape which appeals to the best minds of our generation, who go there to escape the pain, suffering, and instability of their home countries, but so what?
SOOOO, America in fact invented more than the A bomb, and is in fact a great contributor to the 20th, and now, 21st, centuries. This is my point.
By the way, trying to dismiss the reasons why America is a great nation by listing them doesn’t actually work. Your post actually brags about the US more than mine do!
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