Reply to S/O The obsession with class/tackiness/social standing

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[quote=Anonymous]I think this is directed at me (profile writer) so I'll answer.

It started out as a fascination with other cultures and languages. I went to a private school (despite being WC, thank goodness for scholarships) and each year we covered a new country in depth. Most of my formal education revolves around international politics.

Then I found myself having trouble fitting in to British culture and picked up a book called Watching the English, which is an explainer on UK culture written by an anthropologist. I shared some of the passages of the book with some British colleagues and they were horrified. They said the book dissected their culture as though they were pygmies.

Then it occurred to me that very little is actually understood or written about powerful cultures- there's no explicit or systematic attempt to understand us. So I started trying to view our culture as though I was one of those safari hat wearing social scientists on National Geographic, explaining the customs and patterns of their extremely foreign hosts. It turns out, it's a lot of fun to see our culture in this light. [/quote]

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