Shut Up And Listen 52

Border Hopping Culture
So, it’s Friday night and I’m online just posting on message boards, reading online columns, and chatting with friends. For the most part it was an ordinary night, but what made it noteworthy was the chat I had with Drew. For those of you who don’t know Drew, Drew Edwards lives in Dallas, writes the online comic Halloween Man, and reads comics. He’s also a man who loves his country, but does not follow the government blindly because of his patriotism. He’s a good guy.
	So, we’re talking about politics and Bush, and I mention that I can honestly see an Empire Of America happening in a few years. They’ll take over many of those small “terrorist” nations and the American public, for the most part, will support it. He disagreed. We often disagree. He calls me cynical, I call him naïve, and it’s loads of fun. Eventually, this discussion got to the point where he said something along the lines of “you don’t understand the American people.”
	That’s where things went crazy. 
	Next thing I know, we’re in a huge argument about how I, a non-American can understand what an American thinks and feels. I mentioned all of the American influence in Canada, but Drew contested that that doesn’t compare to living in the country. Now, if he was talking about any other country than the US, I’d agree. Hell, if it was a person from any other country than Canada or Mexico saying it, I’d agree. But not in this case.
	America’s culture thrusts itself upon Canada. I have lived with American culture as long as I can remember. It sometimes overshadows Canadian culture in Canada.
	Drew thought that when I mentioned TV and movies and shit like that, that that was where I was just getting my image of Americans. For some, yes. But we’re not talking about one or two shows. We’re talking about everything. That’s all we get for TV and movies, pretty much: American made shit. You know the headlines that top American papers? They top ours too. American politics and values influence Canada’s.
	But Drew still argued. He challenged me to name 20 things that I knew about Texas from pop culture. In his eyes, I didn’t do that well. In my eyes, he was trying to defend his position too much. Before I did it, though I did point out, as he has pointed out to me on a few occasions, Texas is not America.
	He said everything I knew was just superficial media images, which I still contend.
	He asked again about America and I said Americans are pretty much just like Canadians. Our two countries are pretty much the same, despite what many may believe. There are some differences, but they’re the same kinds of differences that change from state to state or province to province.
	When you get to the core of the people, we’re mostly alike. Seriously, talk to me or any of my American friends, and then tell me which is Canadian and which is American.
	I know America. I’ve had America taught to me my entire life, just as Americans have. Drew claims that I can’t understand America because I don’t live there, but really, he can’t understand the impact America has because he lives there. He doesn’t know how much of them is imprinted on us. 
	I’ve said before that weakness of America is that everyone knows everything about them and they know nothing about anyone else, and I think that’s the problem here. Drew doesn’t know about Canada, so he assumes Canada can’t know about America. It’s hard for him to accept it because no other culture does it to his as much as it does to others. America pitches and Canada catches.
	Ask any Canadian if they know America and they’ll tell you they do, because they do. It’s not just some arrogant 19-year old from London, Ontario thinking he knows everything. Ask any Canadian and they know America.
	And when you think about it, I’m closer to New York than Drew is.
	In the age of information and technology, anyone can be an American, not just Americans.

Happy Birthday!
Next week is the one year anniversary of this column, so to mark that special occasion, all this week I’ll be running the Best Of Shut Up And Listen: Year One. Six columns as selected by me with commentary on each, so tune in everyday (usually after 4 pm North America EST) and celebrate.
	The celebration also begins with the site’s new address, if you don’t already know it. It’s www.thechevett.tk. 
Next week, I will be taking another look at Bush, and maybe talking about some Canadian politics, too.