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My grandmother on my father's side lived well into her eighties but never left the continental United States. She once visited California and found even it to be too foreign for her tastes. She not only had no desire to visit places outside of her native land but was afraid of foreign climes. My collegian daughter, in attempting to write something about her great-grandmum asked me: "If xenophobia is the irrational fear of foreign people, what is the name for the irrational fear of foreign places?" I don't know. And, wishing to appear all-knowing in the eyes of my only daughter, I really hate that.
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Carpal Tunnel
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fear of foreign people
I am not sure, Father. But this crosses close to another question I would also like to ask, so since the territory is similar may I be shown mercy for tagging on here?
As America wakes up to the dawn of election day for the post of de facto leader of the free world, I recall some recent comments from Richard Lister, a BBC correspondent. He remarked on the fact that of the candidates, one had only been outside of the USA three times in his life, referred to the inhabitants of Greece as ‘Greecians’, and did not know the names of the leaders of either Pakistan or India (the most populous democracy in the whole world). Many Americans do not consider this a major handicap – one third of the members of the august House of Congress do not even hold a passport.
This got me thinking about the difference in attitude engendered by island-dwelling races, and the reflection that living on a small landmass may make a society paradoxically less insular in its core attitudes.
The question: is there a word or phrase that describes insularity of attitude that might be more appropriate to a non-island dwelling people?
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old hand
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old hand
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is there a word or phrase that describes insularity of attitude that might be more appropriate to a non-island dwelling people?
I use parochial. The etymology is no more suitable than that of insular, but I think both those words have probably grown beyond their roots, and encompass a great deal more.
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Carpal Tunnel
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xenophobia - fear or hatred of strangers or foreigners or anything that is strange or foreign [W3]
the suffix xeno- can take the sense 'foreigner' or 'foreign'...
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Carpal Tunnel
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What about provincial?
-------------------------------------------------------
I'll tell you what--all these comments are really tugging on my blinders. I even got a strongly-worded message from someone in another country, as part of a general mailing to
people in the U. S., urging us to vote. All of you-all have helped me "travel" without leaving home, and I am very
grateful. It has never occurred to me to wonder whether my
congressmen have passports, or whether presidential candidates have been out of the country. Definite food for future thought, from now on. I never thought that "ordinary" (non-governing) people in other countries
would take a detailed interest in what's happening in the U.S. on this date. To me, this is just another election.
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Carpal Tunnel
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>of the candidates, one had only been outside of the USA three times in his life, referred to the inhabitants of Greece as ‘Greecians’, and did not know the names of the leaders of either Pakistan or India <
Well there are some of us, who find this really scary! My sister lives overseas, and made a point of getting set up for a mail in/absentee ballot, since this scared her. (we will let partisan politics go by and not mention the candidate)
>This got me thinking about the difference in attitude engendered by island-dwelling races, and the reflection that living on a small landmass may make a society paradoxically less insular in its core attitudes.<
I am not sure about this-- Japan has had very different attitudes to others than Great Britian.... and i don't know enough about Iceland or Cuba to speak about there attitudes.
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Carpal Tunnel
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In reply to:
I am not sure about this-- Japan has had very different attitudes to others than Great Britian.... and i don't know enough about Iceland or Cuba to speak about there attitudes.
I suppose the key is not whether the people live on a literal island but the degree of isolation from other parts of the world they experience. Britain is far nearer the Eurasian land mass than Japan and has been far more engaged with it. The United (I type Untied nearly every time and have to correct it) States has, as far as I can gather, been able to be much more isolated, since, for much of its history, the nearest countries of similar status were in Europe (Canada being more or less ignored and Mexico not very much respected).
For the rest of us, it is a fact of life that what America does affects us deeply in all sorts of ways, so of course we take an interest in what happens over there. No doubt misunderstandings and ignorance of American realities as opposed to the Hollywood picture thrives, but we can't help but have opinions on American domestic issues as well as foreign policy. So bear with us and correct us gently if we put our foot in it from time to time.
Bingley
Bingley
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In reply to:
I suppose the key is not whether the people live on a literal island but the degree of isolation from other parts of the world they experience.
I would like to add to that a rider about the effect of population size on the insularity or otherwise of island dwellers. In the Western world it is hard to get more geographically isolated than NZ, however NZers by and large are anything but insular. Although NZ is almost 25% larger geographically than Great Britain, its tiny population means that insularity is a luxury it has never been able to afford. One consequence of this hads been to overvalue the history of other parts of the world, while devaluing our own - "we're too small to count." It does mean that the hypothetical "average well-educated NZer" is very outward in his or her weltanschauung, particularly when contrasted with the inaularity already remarked upon as common in the US.
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Carpal Tunnel
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I wonder if the fact that the European population arrived comparatively close to the era of modern communications helped. When did radio and international telephones arrive in New Zealand Max? Within the lifetimes of the children of the first large influx of Europeans?
Bingley
Bingley
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In reply to:
When did radio and international telephones arrive in New Zealand Max? Within the lifetimes of the children of the first large influx of Europeans?
The major European settlement took place between 1840-1865, so when the telephone appeared it was probably in the lifetime of the grandchildren of those first settlers. NZers have always been passionate about new communication technologies, tools to overcome their isolation. Within a decade of the invention of the automatic telephone exchange, NZ had the highest proportion of phones on automatic exchanges, and today, NZ is high in the top 5 for per capita internet access.
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