Quote:
Originally Posted by isaidso
We get a lot of shame about our own culture in Toronto too. If it's from Canada/US it's hillbilly crap and something we must destroy, dismiss, and hide or we'll die of embarrassment. The rush to become carbon copies of every other city in the world is a desperate attempt to be perceived as sophisticated and wordly. When we have so little regard for our own culture we end up achieving the opposite of what was intended. A society becomes culturally bankrupt when all we do is parrot what we see in Europe, Asia, etc.
I'm originally from London UK and it never ceases to amaze me how so many Canadian born people are ashamed of the domestic culture; one that most foreigners find fascinating, rich, and unique. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water! Once you destroy your culture you might never be able to resuscitate it.
I find your comments and the ones made by 'Calgarian' immensely sad. 'Cowboy' doesn't make one backward, provincial, or stuck in the past. Are Calgarians really that insecure that they think like that? I certainly don't put those 2 things together. One can be cosmopolitan and celebrate/revel in western culture at the same time. When I look at Stampede I see a modern confident global city in the making that has something unique to offer the world. Or do you just want to be some non-descript city that looks and feels like everywhere else?
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You have not been in Canada long enough if you think this is what Canadians feel about their real culture, nor long enough to recognize what that culture is. If you have been here 20, 30, 40+ years, you are blind to it all, or do not understand culture at all.
Every country has their historically misinterpreted iconography, most of which is now used by marketers (especially government tourism departments) and tends towards easy caricature. Real culture is what's actually going on, you know, by the population, that vast majority including all the cultural producing subgroups and industries. Sure, the cowboy belongs in Calgary's culture . . . but it is of very small importance and relevance.
Also, Canadians do not hate or feel shame for their culture (a few do) because they are too busy making and consuming it. Calgary doesn't need a 'Cowboy' security blanket, it doesn't need that simplistic kind of identity, and it isn't some non-descript city without it. Rather, it needs its identity to align with what it actually is - so promote the local: food, recreation, music, art, landscape, people, agriculture, buildings, urban structure, iconic things of all types and forms, and, yes also, the odd cowboy, stampede, bison, RCMP serge, etc.
As a postscript: Canadians are also tired of being told to be proud of our most obvious/trivial cultural aspects. And that is no different than the case in Berlin, Cape Town, Adelaide, Osaka, Glasgow, Paris, Moscow, Beijing, Mumbai, Cairo . . .
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