"God Bless America"

[_tisthetruth]

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@D'yer Maker

Saying that culture was designed to help man cope with death adds absolutely nothing to the conversation. And it can hardly mean that someone’s motivations have a dubious origin because it serves that ultimate purpose.

Becker argued that the knowledge of death, not love, is the basis for a human’s “primary repression.” The issue is more complicated than you think.</p>

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The bottom line is that you’re asking people to draw conclusions about the “world-deleter” person’s motivations while you’re apparently drawing conclusions (ones that can be applied universally, no less) about the “America-deleter” person’s motivations.

That is incorrect.</p>

<p>How do you know that I was referring to the bulletin board incident when I asked those questions? As you can see, the two final questions were preceded by “How come people say ‘God Bless America’ and not 'God Bless the World”?’ Did it ever occur to you that those two questions directly referred to the first one (which would mean “ethnocentrism” is in the form of American people’s tendency to say “God bless America” rather than the motives of the person who crossed out “world”)? And I already explained why I considered that phrase ethnocentric.</p>

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In your example, the first person to alter the message vandalized a message that attempted to express good will. Maybe the second person to alter the original sign simply wanted to show solidarity against an act of vandalism. You can call that ethnocentric, too, but then every human response would fall under that umbrella, making your distinction analytically useless. Still, I now see that your goal is to resist all possible responses that are at odds with your unflappable view that ethnocentrism is working its dark magic here.

An act of vandalism is not ethnocentric, unless the message communicated by the act involves cultural bias. For example, egging a car is not ethnocentric unless your intentions are (i.e. you’re an American nativist egging Mexicans).</p>

<p>The phrase happened to be posted on a board where people were free to contribute/post/write whatever they want (it’s in a dorm). People write vulgar comments all the time, relating everything in the world to sex, poop, gayness, etc. <em>You</em> made the assumption that the person who wrote “world” (moi) committed an act of vandalism. It cannot be considered vandalism, because in writing it, I didn’t have the “willful or malicious destruction or defacement of public or private property” (m-w.com).</p>

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@hereshoping

So the OP is embarking on an ambitious plan to strip himself of all cultural bias–why am I guessing that likely only a bias against the traditions of this country will remain (such as the phrase God Bless America).

Your guess is incorrect.</p>