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Originally posted by theking
The USA has thousands of museums and art galleries.
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.. if you like monster truck museums
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It is extraordinarily culturally rich.
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.. if you're a white trash anthropologist
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We have our own culture and this is reflected in our museums and in our art.
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.. almost all of which are borrowed from Europe
Whats lacking is history. The USA is only 200 years old, of course its not going to have the culture of some country thats been around in one form or another for 2000 years. Its as silly to criticize the US for not having the cultural history of France as it is to pretend that ithe culture is there when its not.
To put it another way, you can't have a Micheangelo without his environment.. a place where diverse elements of Christianity, Greek culture, and the Roman Empire were melded by the Catholic Church over the millenia to produce its enormous body of artwork and liturgical music.
What pisses some Euro's off is the perception that Americans as a whole actually seem to revel in their general lack of cultural sophistication. And its true to a certain degree. Where else in the world can you insult someone by calling them an academic, an "elite", a highbrow, a pointy head, or any of the other cultural or intellectual monikers frequently used as perjoratives by angry Americans?