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So What's A White Boy To Do?

Started by Mesozoic Mister Nigel, November 27, 2012, 06:19:13 PM

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Mesozoic Mister Nigel

November 27, 2012, 06:19:13 PM
Today's conversation in Open Bar contained a passing comment that spurred this thought:

If your own culture is so full of bad signal that you don't actually WANT it, what do you do next? What if that's the motivation behind a lot of modern-day cultural appropriation... not "oh look, that's neat!" but "GET ME THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!"?

What the hell do you do if you find your culture of origin so repugnant that you want nothing more than to repudiate it and walk away?
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."

The Good Reverend Roger

#1
November 27, 2012, 06:23:20 PM
I ran and ran and ran allllll the way to the recruiter's office.  Didn't help, anymore than pretending that I'm something I'm not wouldn't help.  I can go grow in dreds.  I'd be a goofy-looking, vanilla-ass white boy in dreds.  I could have embraced the hip hop culture...The mind recoils in horror.  I could have decided that I'm partially descended from Native Americans.  I'd be lying, and I'd know it. 

So my only recourse was to attack the very underpinnings of my culture, while enjoying its benefits (if I tried to say I didn't benefit from this horrible thing, I'd again be lying).  Ergo, I am a Discordian.  I don't REJECT my white boy culture, any more than termites reject the joists in your house.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Juana

#2
November 27, 2012, 06:26:57 PM
I think Roger has the right of it. I mean, there's some useful stuff in there, buried deep, but not very much. Take that shit and go after the rest.
"I dispose of obsolete meat machines.  Not because I hate them (I do) and not because they deserve it (they do), but because they are in the way and those older ones don't meet emissions codes.  They emit too much.  You don't like them and I don't like them, so spare me the hysteria."

The Good Reverend Roger

#3
November 27, 2012, 06:32:15 PM
Quote from: Secret Agent GARBO on November 27, 2012, 06:26:57 PM
I think Roger has the right of it. I mean, there's some useful stuff in there, buried deep, but not very much. Take that shit and go after the rest.

Oh, there's plenty.  It's just that we stole it all, on account of being the first people to come up with mass amounts of ocean-going ships.  The reliable clock is what allowed all this, not gun powder or any of that shit.  Once we could navigate out of sight of land, the world was our fleshlight. 

So, yeah, there's LOTS of stuff, lots of ideas, all conveniently gathered in one inappropriate place, just like all the shit in the British Museum.  Thing is, we've made it AVAILABLE, and thus BORING, so everyone has to become more and more outre to get any attention.

And that's why white kids run around in Fubu clothing with dreds.  We used up all the more familiar cool, long before you were born.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Juana

#4
November 27, 2012, 06:35:16 PM
Again, there's a difference between influence and appropriation. When it comes to things like science and, like, law, I don't think can be an issue of appropriation. It's appropriation when stealing other elements of culture, because they have meaning that science and law don't.
"I dispose of obsolete meat machines.  Not because I hate them (I do) and not because they deserve it (they do), but because they are in the way and those older ones don't meet emissions codes.  They emit too much.  You don't like them and I don't like them, so spare me the hysteria."

LMNO

#5
November 27, 2012, 06:36:51 PM
Quote from: FROTISTED FUDGE CAK on November 27, 2012, 06:19:13 PM
What the hell do you do if you find your culture of origin so repugnant that you want nothing more than to repudiate it and walk away?


You say "fuck it," and you decide to do what makes you, personally, happy.

The Good Reverend Roger

#6
November 27, 2012, 06:37:55 PM
Quote from: Secret Agent GARBO on November 27, 2012, 06:35:16 PM
Again, there's a difference between influence and appropriation.

Sure.  And everything you enjoy or need is at least in one form or another appropriated.  Everything.  Even your hiking.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

The Good Reverend Roger

#7
November 27, 2012, 06:38:33 PM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on November 27, 2012, 06:36:51 PM
Quote from: FROTISTED FUDGE CAK on November 27, 2012, 06:19:13 PM
What the hell do you do if you find your culture of origin so repugnant that you want nothing more than to repudiate it and walk away?


You say "fuck it," and you decide to do what makes you, personally, happy.

I detect insufficient guilt for the actions of ancestors you've never met.  You need some ATONEMENT, boy.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Juana

#8
November 27, 2012, 06:40:06 PM
That doesn't even make sense, Roger.



Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on November 27, 2012, 06:38:33 PM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on November 27, 2012, 06:36:51 PM
Quote from: FROTISTED FUDGE CAK on November 27, 2012, 06:19:13 PM
What the hell do you do if you find your culture of origin so repugnant that you want nothing more than to repudiate it and walk away?


You say "fuck it," and you decide to do what makes you, personally, happy.

I detect insufficient guilt for the actions of ancestors you've never met.  You need some ATONEMENT, boy.
There's a difference between white guilt and respecting the wishes of other cultures.
"I dispose of obsolete meat machines.  Not because I hate them (I do) and not because they deserve it (they do), but because they are in the way and those older ones don't meet emissions codes.  They emit too much.  You don't like them and I don't like them, so spare me the hysteria."

The Good Reverend Roger

#9
November 27, 2012, 06:46:12 PM
Quote from: Secret Agent GARBO on November 27, 2012, 06:40:06 PM
That doesn't even make sense, Roger.

Which?  Without the quote function, I'm not sure which of my jabberings you might be referring to.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Junkenstein

#10
November 27, 2012, 06:49:34 PM
There is a slight problem that a culture is inherently an external thing. You are not part of a culture. Everyone else is.

The result in walking away from a culture is effectively null for the culture, the difference would be more noticeable on a culture you then choose to inhabit.


Net result - you can only change new(ly entered?) cultures?


Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

The Good Reverend Roger

#11
November 27, 2012, 06:52:39 PM
Quote from: Junkenstein on November 27, 2012, 06:49:34 PM
There is a slight problem that a culture is inherently an external thing. You are not part of a culture. Everyone else is.

You're gonna have to prove that point, Junkenstein.

QuoteThe result in walking away from a culture is effectively null for the culture, the difference would be more noticeable on a culture you then choose to inhabit.


Net result - you can only change new(ly entered?) cultures?

I reject that utterly, on account of Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and Hunter S Thompson.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Anna Mae Bollocks

#12
November 27, 2012, 06:56:00 PM
I suspect American(TM) culture isn't a culture. It's a...thing...that eats cultures. Swallows 'em and shits 'em out already shrinkwrapped and bar coded.
Scantily-Clad Inspector of Gigantic and Unnecessary Cashews, Texas Division

Don Coyote

#13
November 27, 2012, 07:01:50 PM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on November 27, 2012, 06:36:51 PM
Quote from: FROTISTED FUDGE CAK on November 27, 2012, 06:19:13 PM
What the hell do you do if you find your culture of origin so repugnant that you want nothing more than to repudiate it and walk away?


You say "fuck it," and you decide to do what makes you, personally, happy.

I think I need a poster of that.

Juana

#14
November 27, 2012, 07:05:20 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on November 27, 2012, 06:46:12 PM
Quote from: Secret Agent GARBO on November 27, 2012, 06:40:06 PM
That doesn't even make sense, Roger.

Which?  Without the quote function, I'm not sure which of my jabberings you might be referring to.
The hiking comment. It's fucking walking. Not a spirit walk or whatever, I'm not on a quest for my totem or whatever it is Cherohonkeys do, I'm walking in the goddamn woods. I'm pretty sure enjoying the outdoors is universally human.



Also, abandoning one's culture is impossible.
"I dispose of obsolete meat machines.  Not because I hate them (I do) and not because they deserve it (they do), but because they are in the way and those older ones don't meet emissions codes.  They emit too much.  You don't like them and I don't like them, so spare me the hysteria."
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