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North American Culture - What do you think?

@centrajapan

America is not the only country in the world that is arrogant and self absorbed. IMO, China is far worse on the 'self-righteous' scale, and the Middle East is far worse in proclaiming themselves to be the best and always right.
Maybe it seems this way for those who have very little real life contact with the US but America is at least able to point a finger at itself and recongize it's own flaws. It's a very transparent country so all it's mistakes are visible for the rest of the world to judge and comment on, unlike so many other countries that hide their mistakes and portray a false image to the world in order to look better and keep face.
 
When speaking of "North America" one has to include Canada, the US, and Mexico as those are the three countries that comprise what is known as "North America". Unfortunately many people only include the US while completely ignoring the other two countries.

Does North America have a culture in and of itself? I don't know as, outside of Mexico, many cultures and people dot the lands. As Goldiegirl pointed out there are many Scandinavians, Germans, etc in her part of the US. In the Northeastern part of the US you will find mainly Canadian-French names and communities and in New York, California, and Chicago you will find predominently communities of other countries.

In any major city of the US and Canada you will find small pockets of communities of Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, French, Italians, Muslim, Russian, etc, etc where the majority of that culture lives and where the language of that culture is predominant.

Canada and North America are basically a "melting pot" of various cultures that interact and intermix amongst each other while all speaking a common language, English, for major transactions like a drivers liscense, etc. But even that is changing.

So, is there a basic predominant so-called "North American" culture that one can call it's own? I don't think so as what is truely "North American" that is not based on another culture? Food? No. Music? No. Clothing? No. Customs? No. All are derivatives of, or a mixture of, other cultures.

Much like the Japanese do, North America "borrows" from other cultures, changes them to suit their needs of the moment (while keeping the basic ingredients) and makes it "their own". Heck, most of the popular TV shows today are based on European programs.

Besides the oft used phrase "As American as Ma and apple pie" what is truely North American in it's own right and unique only to North America? Music? Some like jazz and rockabilly maybe; American football? Maybe; but what else? I would be interested in hearing from others on this. What one, or a few, things can people point to and say, "That is North American?"

Anyway, within three years the North American Continent will be melded into one country, with one language and currency. Then it may not matter anymore to us as it will then be for our children and grand-children to decide what is North American culture. What will the answer be then? I figure it will be vastly different than what we write here.
 
I forgot the countries of the Caribbean and Greenland, besides
mentioning those of Central America (marked with a * below).

Since we're talking a geographic area, specifically a culture of that area.
I don't see how we can exclude the other countries.
(Except maybe one or two that are sometimes considered to be a part of
South America.)


Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda
Aruba
Bahamas
Barbados
*Belize
Bermuda
the British Virgin Islands
Canada
Cayman Islands
France Clipperton Island
*Costa Rica
Cuba
Dominica
the Dominican Republic
*El Salvador
Greenland
Grenada
Guadeloupe
*Guatemala
Haiti
*Honduras
Venezuela Isla Aves
Jamaica
Martinique
Mexico
Montserrat
Navassa Island
the Netherlands Antilles
*Nicaragua
*Panama
Puerto Rico
Saint Barthélemy
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Martin (France)
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
San Andrés y Providencia Department
Trinidad and Tobago
the Turks and Caicos Islands
the United States
the United States Virgin Islands

from
List of sovereign states and dependent territories in North America - Wikipedia

for dividing North America into different regions with various reasonings
Subregion - Wikipedia



Apparently "North America" is a UN subregion that consists of Canada, the US, Greenland, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, & Bermuda.
In a decade or two, unless the fascists win or we get our human made legal constructs - the corporations - under control and not allow these things free reign over the major economic decisions, the UN will have to redraw this subregion as Spanish & English will be used throughout.

MadamePapillon, in the starter post, makes a mistake and calls North America (US & Canada) a "country". It is not a country. Unless she is using a different definition of a "country" other than the one that I know which means a sovereign state.
 
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