What does America look like to you?

Religious/burial mounds IIRC, and according to Wikipedia, the Mound Builder culture ran for about 5000 years (which I had no idea of), so...

 

I wonder how many of them were joking. I mean, I would totally say that, but I would be joking, although you may find it hard to tell.

 

This is what I think of when I think of America. John Mellencamp is the stereotypical american midwesterner, and all of his songs describe it fairly well. Pink Houses and Rain on the Scarecrow are pure Americana.

 

Well, they do look like baby beavers.

 

and these are baby beavers:



Pretty strong resemblance.

 

It's extremely difficult to answer this question without a political view, but maybe that's just all I see these days. What does America look like to me? This video sorta' sums it up, in a lot of ways, and still very relevant:

 

A failing state. Currently US power relies upon the dollar standard, and that has been undercut by several countries in which the US has fostered rebellion (Egypt and Libya being the most recent). It has also been undermined by stronger economies; Russia and China now trade directly in oil, avoiding the dollar standard, as does Iran.

Sir John Grubb wrote an essay entitled The Fate of Empires. He identified the life cycle of all empires, and there were certain criteria that indicated their fall; "massive disparities between rich and poor, an undisciplined and over-extended military, and a severe financial and economic crisis linked to a debasement of the currency. Great empire wealth dazzles, but beneath the surface the unbridled desire for money, power and material possessions means that principles of duty and public service are corrupted by leaders and citizens who scramble for the meagre spoils of an economic system which prioritizes the wrong things."

The biggest problem the US has currently is a fiat currency: All fiat currencies eventually revert to their intrinsic value, which is zero. This nearly happened in 2008 but it was staved off by printing more money. The inflation that should result from this was exported abroad by buying products no one needs from abroad in exchange for worthless dollars. But the reality is that the dollar is a worthless currency, that is comprised of 90% debt (due to the 10% reserve banking system). My conclusion is quite simple, the dollar standard is moribund. The dollar as a currency is moribund.

I am afraid to say that this is simple fact. There is no escaping it.

 

Completely missing the point and spirit of the thread (regardless of how pedantically I explained the intent in the OP) in order to smugly foist your sociopolitical judgement (from rather shaky ground given the state of your own country at the moment), but whatevz, bruv.

 

@SnapFandango,

Did you even read the OP that you quoted? This thread was about aesthetics, impressions of the physical landscape. This is not a place to write a diatribe on the state of American currency.

EDIT: Wrey beat me to it.

 

Wow, this Fandango guy writes more arrogantly than I do.

 

Ok, I see your complete dismissal of an interesting point. Physically, I have lived in a few countries in the Western world, and frankly it is not that much different. New York has less history, and as a result, is squarer than London, it feels newer. The building are taller on average. There is more space, and that is apparent, this feels incredibly inane.

 

If a thread topic feels inane to you, you are--maybe you didn't realize this--allowed to just not comment. Easier all around.

 

What in the holy fuck did I just read?

This is not a Bash America thread (in fact I don't like any Bash x country thread). This is a "What does America -physically- look like thread." We have a debate forum for this type of conversation (though I believe you have a few more months to go before you can post in it.)

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I am going to offer you some advice. Take a week -or better yet, two- of just looking around, reading threads, getting a real feel for this place, and its people, before you mis-step again and piss off the locals.

or

you can post more shit like this and piss people off; the choice is yours.

 

As was probably obvious, I misunderstood the intent of the thread, and gave a reasoned answer. If people then want to get uppity over said answer, I am unclear what I am supposed to say, since they seem intent on censoring via a cathartic offence. There are better ways to frame responses, but each to their own. Sorry if I sound irritable, but like I said, there are better ways to frame responses.

 

The irony in the above statement defies explanation or categorization.

 

And I was not bashing, I was stating the current economic crisis.

 

Regardless, I have hurricane shit to deal with; thus, the tone-deaf snobbery is far, far down my list of genuine priorities.

Mods, I'm closing this thread for the time being so that it doesn't present an issue for you during my climatically induced absence.