Thursday, May 19, 2005
The Elephant Below
I'm off to the U.S. this coming long weekend. With this trip, trips past, and of course the obvious shared entertainment culture it got me to thinking about the place and it's citizenry. I think as Canadians we like to snicker at our larger neighbour to the south and there's much to guffaw about with the current commander in chief. If it's not the right wing dogma and policy to simultaneously laugh and be afraid of, it's just the bad taste in general. On my previous trip over Easter I was scanning through the radio dial and stopped on a chat show that was poking fun at gays in a stereotypical fashion. Then during a commercial break, an ad came on for a fertility clinic and the catch phrase was "a healthy baby, or your money back". I had to laugh while cringing it was so horrible. And it's probably one of the few places on earth where the irony is lost on most by the fact you can buy bullets in Walmart but not some magazine because it may hint at something sexual. It's a reverse of the 60's, make war but for gawd's sake don't have sex.
So with the awful comes some of the good? I secretly admire America in a fashion. Despite the huge cultural and socio-economic differences across the U.S. they always seem to come together as one. Don't ge me wrong, the flag-waving is hokey at times but admirable nonetheless. I also find them generally more amiable than Canadians. We seem to be more stand-offish and on guard at least in my neck of the woods which I dislike. And this morning, on Canadian radio, a commercial I've heard before but never quite really listened to comes on on my drive in for X-Copper legal services. Their catch phrase was along the lines of "guilty or not, we win or it's free". We like to think we're that much different from the U.S. but it's closer than we believe. I hope we leave the questionable moral taste and commercial health care and keep the good. Gawd willing?
I'm off to the U.S. this coming long weekend. With this trip, trips past, and of course the obvious shared entertainment culture it got me to thinking about the place and it's citizenry. I think as Canadians we like to snicker at our larger neighbour to the south and there's much to guffaw about with the current commander in chief. If it's not the right wing dogma and policy to simultaneously laugh and be afraid of, it's just the bad taste in general. On my previous trip over Easter I was scanning through the radio dial and stopped on a chat show that was poking fun at gays in a stereotypical fashion. Then during a commercial break, an ad came on for a fertility clinic and the catch phrase was "a healthy baby, or your money back". I had to laugh while cringing it was so horrible. And it's probably one of the few places on earth where the irony is lost on most by the fact you can buy bullets in Walmart but not some magazine because it may hint at something sexual. It's a reverse of the 60's, make war but for gawd's sake don't have sex.
So with the awful comes some of the good? I secretly admire America in a fashion. Despite the huge cultural and socio-economic differences across the U.S. they always seem to come together as one. Don't ge me wrong, the flag-waving is hokey at times but admirable nonetheless. I also find them generally more amiable than Canadians. We seem to be more stand-offish and on guard at least in my neck of the woods which I dislike. And this morning, on Canadian radio, a commercial I've heard before but never quite really listened to comes on on my drive in for X-Copper legal services. Their catch phrase was along the lines of "guilty or not, we win or it's free". We like to think we're that much different from the U.S. but it's closer than we believe. I hope we leave the questionable moral taste and commercial health care and keep the good. Gawd willing?
