you kind of remind me of the General in The Last Samurai who called those warior poets "savages"
I actually thought the same thing. I also thought "The Last Samurai" gave interesting insight into how Buddhist cultures are structured differently than Western cultures. Same for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
Anyway, don't be too hard on Neo. He was educated at St. John's College in Annapolis, which is a small but elite liberal arts college with a curriculum centered around "the classics," by which they mean European classics. Nothing farther East than Greece and Russia, not even China, not even Japan, not even India, not even "Gilgamesh."
sjca.edu
Many American conservatives get huffy when you try to get them to study Asian, African and Latin American culture, history, science, and literature, and use the term "multicultural" as if it were a bad thing. They start with the "multiculti" rant and the "homely women with hairy armpits and poorly designed clothing" rant.
In contrast, many American liberals feel the same way about Western culture, history, science and literature, and start the "but what about the buffalo and the blankets infected with smallpox?" rant. |
