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1.  

   Mascot job

   

   dorpus, Feb 20th, 2003 @ 8:58am

   
   

   If Australians are serious about wanting to create a silicon valley, they'd hire a marine drill sergeant type to kick their butts and make them take life seriously. Australia is a lot like California of the 1960s, when California used to be a mostly white, lazy place of beach bums and pot smoking hippies. Now, of course, it's a cut-throat pressure cooker where only overachieving yuppies and desperate immigrants survive. Australians will have to learn more hard lessons of life before they take life seriously; for now, they're still just spoiled little America bashers.
   
   
   
   
   

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2.  

   Re: Mascot job

   

   Mike (profile), Feb 20th, 2003 @ 9:02am

   
   

   Hey dorpus, would it be possible for me to (just once) post something about another country or culture, and not have you stereotype and trash them?

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3.  

   Re: Mascot job

   

   dorpus, Feb 20th, 2003 @ 9:07am

   
   

   Well I think it's constructive criticism. There are reasons why they need to catch up. They have prettier scenery than CA (for now) because they're not as crowded as we are yet. Having a more homogeneous population than CA (for now), they have a more genteel culture of Anglo civility, but it's also led to a less competitive, more smug culture.
   
   

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4.  

   No Subject Given

   

   Chris, Feb 20th, 2003 @ 10:42am

   
   

   I'm not sure "less competitive" is really a bad thing. Anyway, any country that produced Kasey Chambers can't be all bad :)

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5.  

   Re: No Subject Given

   

   dorpus, Feb 20th, 2003 @ 8:21pm

   
   

   There are pros and cons to competitiveness. We seem to be more competitive than other Western nations, though we are not the most competitive culture in the world either. East Asian cultures have more extreme competition where people more overtly judge each other based on education, income, height, etc. Such cultures produce more engineers and businessmen, but it also leads to a more cruel culture where there is little sympathy for the downtrodden.
   
   In the USA, we have institutions of charity and social work to help the downtrodden. Such notions are alien to East Asian cultures; in East Asia, Buddhist temples are places where people pay money to pray for better test scores, better salaries, better marriage prospects.
   
   

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