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| why is the US not Metric |
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| KL27x:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_cringe Pertinent historical context? The OP started this thread with: --- Quote ---whats the attraction to the use of old imperial measurement in the US? here in Australia everything is Metric, like most of the world. why is the US system of measurement the odd one out? --- End quote --- Maybe a more interesting question is what made Australia so uniquely willing among the english-speaking world to so thoroughly sever its continuity of perception, history, and culture in order to forge ahead in a brave new world that may include things like "kilometerage." (Mileage; not officially a word, yet, per Merriam. Apparently it sounds cooler in French, where it is legit. "Kilometrage.") :-// We've got 1. Australian sports viewers/commentators do not have much use for communicating distances. 2. Trade partners mostly China and metric EU 3. "Cultural cringe" causing an under-valuation/appreciation of its own culture and history. 4. Timing of decimal currency change. |
| bsfeechannel:
--- Quote from: KL27x on December 18, 2019, 03:18:06 am ---Maybe a more interesting question is what made Australia so uniquely willing among the english-speaking world to so thoroughly sever its continuity of perception, history, and culture in order to forge ahead in a brave new world that may include things like "kilometerage." (Mileage). :-// --- End quote --- Maybe because Australia realized that the English-speaking world is part of the earth. And the earth is metric. |
| vk6zgo:
--- Quote from: KL27x on December 18, 2019, 03:42:09 am ---https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_cringe Pertinent historical context? The OP started this thread with: --- Quote ---whats the attraction to the use of old imperial measurement in the US? here in Australia everything is Metric, like most of the world. why is the US system of measurement the odd one out? --- End quote --- --- End quote --- And you seem to deadset upon turning it into an "Australia Bashing" thread. --- Quote --- Maybe a more interesting question is what made Australia so uniquely willing among the english-speaking world to so thoroughly sever its continuity of perception, history, and culture in order to forge ahead in a brave new world that may include things like "kilometerage." (Mileage; not officially a word, yet, per Merriam. Apparently it sounds cooler in French, where it is legit. "Kilometrage.") :-// --- End quote --- "Mileage"is defined in various online dictionaries as:- (1) The distance you have travelled, measured in miles (2)The number of miles a vehicle can tavel on one gallon of fuel. (3) The mileage in a particular course of action is its usefulness in getting you want you want. (1) Is covered in its definition, by the perfectly good word "travelled", & was already rare in 1974. (2)Is the same thing as "fuel economy", which had pretty much replaced it by 1974. ( "Mileage" is a Brit/US thing!) (3)Is a figure of speech of much the same order as "In for a penny, in for a Pound", or "Give 'em an inch & they'll take a mile". Nobody has ever been prosecuted (or persecuted) for using Imperial measures in everyday speech, as they come under the same category as quite redundant measures like "leagues".(or to a lesser extent, fathoms) Do Shakespearean actors in the USA declaim whilst performing in "The Tempest":- "Full thirty feet thy Father lies, his bones are coral made!"? Of course not, so why do you assume Australians would be stupid enough to ban all reference to non-Metric measures? You have somehow assumed, because we changed to Metric that we live in some sort of Totalitarian State where the Imperial measures have become "non-words". If I wanted to, & was persuasive enough, I could organise a group of people to march down the road yelling " Inch!, Inch!, Inch!, Foot!,Foot!, Foot!, Yard!, Yard!, Yard!, Mile!, Mile!, Mile!, Furlong! Rod! Pole!, Perch!, & as long as we were well behaved, didn't hinder traffic, or get into unseemly physical confrontations with the public or police, we could go home & sleep soundly in our beds, knowing the Metrication Death squads are not coming for us! As for "kilometrage", I had no idea it is a real thing, as I have never heard it used, either by Australians or others, but there you go, it is real:- https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/mileage-kilometrage.2580919/ --- Quote --- We've got 1. Australian sports viewers/commentators do not have much use for communicating distances. --- End quote --- I might have to amend my comments on this, as around the goals in AFL, is a semicircle 50m in diameter. Once you have passed that line, you are in your "forward 50". Some players can kick goals from "outside" the 50 metre line, but it isn't common. A commentator may point out that he/she is outside the "50 metre line", or if they are inside, they are "about 40m or maybe about 10metres " or whatever away from goal. "About" is pretty much the degree of accuracy required in commentary. --- Quote --- 2. Trade partners mostly China and metric EU --- End quote --- Plus the USA, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia & others. --- Quote --- 3. "Cultural cringe" causing an under-valuation/appreciation of its own culture and history. --- End quote --- There always have been "Artificial Poms", " Artificial Yanks", " Eurosnobs", etc. Unfortunately, they have an influence upon the Media, out of all proportion to their actual numbers. Most Australians have sufficient confidence in their identity for it not to be shaken by the loss of Inches, Feet, Yards, Miles, etc, which if anything are a reminder of being dominated by the British Empire. --- Quote --- 4. Timing of decimal currency change. --- End quote --- Coincidence. [/quote] |
| KL27x:
--- Quote ---And you seem to deadset upon turning it into an "Australia Bashing" thread. --- End quote --- Well, the America bashing seems to be gone, now. :-DD You seem deadset to make my words into what you want to hear. In what way am I bashing Australia? :-// I'm trying to understand the context. I am curious what 1960's Australia was like. Australia IS unique among english speaking countries in its success of metrication. If trying to learn about Australian history is "bashing" to you, perhaps cultural cringe is still present in Australia? --- Quote ---There always have been "Artificial Poms", " Artificial Yanks", " Eurosnobs", etc. Unfortunately, they have an influence upon the Media, out of all proportion to their actual numbers. --- End quote --- This is not what cultural cringe even means. I beg you to read the wikipedia about "cultural cringe" all the way beginning to end. But this time assume that I am an ethic immigrant citizen of America. Assume I am of a race that is belittled and stereotyped by American media, daily. Assume that if I go to a 5 star restaurant in my own city with a group of only my own color, that we will stand there watching white America getting seated ahead of us for 40 minutes, even though we have a reservation. And that should we make the mistake of bearing the humiliation rather than leaving with some dignity, the servers will utilize their 5 star training to charge us $300 a head for the pleasure of enduring further not-so-subtle barbs and denigration. Cultural cringe is not limited to media. That said, American media has been bad to just about every other country other than britain. I don't know how much you see of it, but Crocodile Dundee and Steve Irwin ain't half bad, compared to how we portray many other people. I think by today, Australia has been granted "full citizenship" by this point. I mean being rich and white and having a cool accent, I don't think Australia can be victimized by American Hollywood that long. Perhaps in the 60's it was different, though. I might have more curiosity and connection to this idea of "cultural cringe" than you. Let's say as this ethnic immigrant that being exposed to American culture and schools and media caused me to be embarrassed and to undervalue my own heritage and culture. And maybe that is also the fault of my parents, who made effort to NOT expose me to their culture and even their language; in belief this will help me to "get ahead." (When in fact this only further limits my value and opportunies). I see analogy in Australia totally erasing its old ways of measurement. So maybe you will see I am not bashing Australia when I am curious about this phenomenon in Australia in the 60s. Australia/New Zealand are the only post-metricated countries where even the old people pretty much completely switched to metric in every way of daily life. I have a lot more feelings on this about cultural cringe and America and my ideas of slavery as it has always existed in advanced societies since centuries before Christ. And how it continues today; it's just way more sophisticated and sinister. But that is getting off topic. ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; I think kilometerage is a thing because of car rentals that charge by the kilometer. Or taxis/uber. If they use the word mileage somewhere on the contract, then it might cause confusion (real or people just being cheapass, by saying they wrote "milage," so I will pay for by the miles, not the kilometers). But it's a real word in Italian and in Spanish, too. ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; --- Quote ---If I wanted to, & was persuasive enough, I could organise a group of people to march down the road yelling " Inch!, Inch!, Inch!, Foot!,Foot!, Foot!, Yard!, Yard!, Yard!, Mile!, Mile!, Mile!, Furlong! Rod! Pole!, Perch!, & as long as we were well behaved, didn't hinder traffic, or get into unseemly physical confrontations with the public or police, we could go home & sleep soundly in our beds, knowing the Metrication Death squads are not coming for us! --- End quote --- This is nothing to do with language, daily life, culture, sporting history/records. Cultural cringe is about destroying historical buildings, denigration of your own art and achievements, eagerness to disconnect with your own history. This is curious to me. I think metrication was more complex than Australians being smarter than UK, Canada, America. Because by IQ and education level, is not that different. And here is the strawman that gets raised, over and over. You already told us that even in your schooling in Australia, 60 years ago, you learned inches, feet, and miles, only. But here are those rods, perches, poles, and furlongs that you bring up when it is convenient. Why not have a serious discussion? What are you afraid of? Also, during Australia's metrication, it WAS illegal to sell a tape measure with inches on it. It was made illegal to print oz's in addition to metric on food packaging. If you were doing this, I suppose the Bureau of Metrication would confiscate and destroy these things, then levy a fine. If you think this would go over in America, you don't know America. The politician to even mention this is going to kill his career. ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; In my curiosity/investigation, I discovered some other things I was not aware. During the penal-colonization of Australia, at one point Britain had 222 capital crimes. Most of which were for property crimes. We think that Saudi Arabia is crazy for cutting off your hands for stealing. At one point, stealing a rabbit was a capital crime in Britain. In fact, any theft greater than 5 shillings was a capital offence. Symptom of a sick and dying empire? Source of cheap labor? So at least during this period of penal-colonization, one might imagine that many of the criminals did something far less odious to earn their sentence. Early on, many of them were worked and lashed to death in Australia, and laws were eventually made to limit the number of convicts to 70 per "owner" and to limit the number of lashings allowed per day. |
| SilverSolder:
^We've got to be a little careful about applying modern standards to historic situations... Consider that the Salem Witch Trials were not all that long ago... hopefully unthinkable today! |
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