[Beth Curran]

Kate, I think you zeroed in on the key phrase - cultural autonomy as
compared to issues of interconnectivity, whereby actions on the part of
one world unit have the power to positively or negatively affect the
lives (as opposed to the culture) of others.  The US cultural metastasis
takes on more than a little irony in light of our catastrophic digital
divide.  I certainly hope the rest of the world wises up before they,
too, disenfranchise an entire segment of their population.

It reminds me of the issues that face my own family, which is huge (I
have 6 sibs), and contains several unique personalities (oh, really?).
The personality differences are encouraged, but nobody allows them to
interfere with the important job of making sure the family runs
smoothly, that everybody is taken care of, and that butts are kicked
when necessary.  The Jehovah's Witness bro and the freethinker sis work
together to take care of Mom, and we like each other just fine, even if
we don't pal around much and even if there is no possible chance for
common cultural ground, since he is buried in anti-intellectual sexist
crap and I have a working cerebral cortex....oh, excuse me, what was I
saying?  - Beth


-----Original Message-----
From: powderworks-admin@cs.colorado.edu
[mailto:powderworks-admin@cs.colorado.edu] On Behalf Of Kathryn Adams
Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2002 11:57 AM
To: powderworks@cs.colorado.edu
Subject: [Powderworks] LMOC: One Country or 51st State of the US?

Its always fascinating to see the differences between the rants in Oz
and 
PG ranting that goes on elsewhere, particularly the US.

When Pete rants in Australia, there seems to be a lot of declarations of

individuality and the need for cultural autonomy.  When Pete rants on
North 
American stages, he seems to wander toward internationality, harmony,
and 
universal respect sorts of themes.  The same broad brush generalities
may 
be more or less applied to Rob's comments to the press.

Now I recognize that the message gets tailored to the audience, and
there 
is a strong comfort level factor in the things they say abroad.  What
I'm 
trying to get a handle on is this:  what distinguishes the "One Country"

internationalist sentiments from "51st (52nd,53rd...) State" laments
voiced 
in Oz?  I know that some important differences lie in the areas of
consent 
and franchise versus domination and colonization.  But how are the
impulses 
toward global unity and national autonomy reconciled?

Any insights anybody?  Stories to tell that would flesh this out a bit?
It 
would be interesting to get multiple Oily data points from different
spots 
around the globe.

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