Are you meaning that Canadians are not so well-informed about the rest of the world as *Australians* are? I don't think Canadians are less well-informed than Americans; rather the reverse. No, that is exactly what I meant. My experience with Canada comes from first hand experience of the country, the people and your news media. This has considerable limitations; in particular it is skewed towards Western Canada. I was rather hoping that some real data was available, perhaps in the aforementioned book.
And that experience is that Canadians are woefully informed about their own country and the world at large. There was constant confusion about the political system and Canada's role in international affairs.
At the moment, this completely frustrating the "engage Canada" movement here.
But I don't think it's true that the more educated Americans are worse in that respect. The universities have long (at least since the '60s) been centres of liberalism and radicalism, of progressive thought and of analysis of what's wrong with the American system as it is. The most famous example is from this period. President Nixon made an announcement of a total backflip over Vietnam in 1971. Pollsters then charted the shift in public opinion as Americans moved to the new Party Line. This was most profound among the educated. The more educated, the more allegiance they had to the system and the more likely they were to shift their opinions to conform.
The part on family sits oddly, as George W. Bush has a nurturative rather than conservative outlook on family. The problem with this metaphor is that it can be taken literally. The first image that came to my mind was his real-life family rather than any metaphoric one.
"Compassionate" has definitely become an Orwellian term while "conservative" seems to be fast losing all meaning whatsoever, becoming, a generic American political term for "good".
I may have misunderstood "nurturative" but if it means using government intervention on a broad and grand scale to encourage certain social outcomes, then the Bush administration is indeed nurturative.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2004-10-19 04:40 pm (UTC)No, that is exactly what I meant. My experience with Canada comes from first hand experience of the country, the people and your news media. This has considerable limitations; in particular it is skewed towards Western Canada. I was rather hoping that some real data was available, perhaps in the aforementioned book.
And that experience is that Canadians are woefully informed about their own country and the world at large. There was constant confusion about the political system and Canada's role in international affairs.
At the moment, this completely frustrating the "engage Canada" movement here.
But I don't think it's true that the more educated Americans are worse in that respect. The universities have long (at least since the '60s) been centres of liberalism and radicalism, of progressive thought and of analysis of what's wrong with the American system as it is.
The most famous example is from this period. President Nixon made an announcement of a total backflip over Vietnam in 1971. Pollsters then charted the shift in public opinion as Americans moved to the new Party Line. This was most profound among the educated. The more educated, the more allegiance they had to the system and the more likely they were to shift their opinions to conform.
The part on family sits oddly, as George W. Bush has a nurturative rather than conservative outlook on family.
The problem with this metaphor is that it can be taken literally. The first image that came to my mind was his real-life family rather than any metaphoric one.
"Compassionate" has definitely become an Orwellian term while "conservative" seems to be fast losing all meaning whatsoever, becoming, a generic American political term for "good".
I may have misunderstood "nurturative" but if it means using government intervention on a broad and grand scale to encourage certain social outcomes, then the Bush administration is indeed nurturative.