Melting Pot

[_subgenius]

I saw a bit about making stew where someone asked why the cook was putting so many vegetables in the pot. To which the reply was - "the more the merrier, all are welcome". Which inspired a thought or 2 about the difference between a stew pot and a melting pot.

It is this difference that is critical, if not vital, to the success of America.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

We're more like fusion cuisine.

- Doc

[_The CCC]

I had a few college professors that claimed we're more like a mixed salad.

[_subgenius]

I think you guys missed the point - the whole melting pot metaphor is because the idea is that a heterogeneous society (salad, stew, etc.) becomes more homogeneous (assimilation, emulsified, etc).
Fusion is certainly a more contemporary term but it is synonymous with 'melting together'.

Point being, several components come together and lose their distinction in order to form a more perfect union - a whole that is greater than its parts.

This "melting pot" idea was best (and first) noted in 1782 by J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur:

"What then is the American, this new man? - leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He becomes an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world."

It seems that some people take exception with this notion of what must be left behind...

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Fusion cuisine.

- Doc

[_The CCC]

Here in California we have a vibrant state of every group of people there is under the banner of American. So I can have an English Breakfast, and Chinese lunch, and a Mexican dinner all in the same day. I like it.

[_Chap]

I think the important point is whether everybody gets melted, so that the idea of what 'an American' is changes with each wave of new immigrants (it certainly did when the Irish and the Jews came), or whether the idea is that it is only new arrivals who get melted down, and are then recast into the mould of a 'real American' as conceived by someone in the 18th century, whatever that may be.

[_Analytics]

A couple of weeks ago, Bill Maher ripped liberals big-time on this (or something at least related):

http://ew.com/tv/2017/01/28/bill-maher- ... ure-trump/

“Democrats have gone from the party that protects people to the party that protects feelings. From, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you,’ to, ‘You owe me an apology,'” Maher said on Friday night’s Real Time With Bill Maher. “Republicans apologize for nothing, Democrats for everything. Can’t we find a balance?”

Maher noted how conservatives dominated elections last year while, he felt, liberals were focused on smaller issues — like a tweet Steve Martin sent in the wake of Carrie Fisher’s death.

“When I was a young man, Carrie Fisher was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. She turned out to be witty and bright as well,” Martin wrote in a contentious tweet that he later deleted.

“How could you Steve? We thought we knew you, but this? You noted her appearance first, and then that she was witty and bright. You’re a monster,” Maher said on Friday. “Liberals do this all the time: they get offended for people who themselves would not be offended. You know that whole controversy about the name Washington Redskins? They did a survey: nine out of 10 actual Indians don’t give a sh–.”...

Maher also highlighted other celebrity apologies, including Hilary Duff and Chris Hemsworth (who each dressed as Native Americans at costume parties) and Justin Timberlake (who was accused of cultural appropriation after sending a tweet praising actor Jesse Williams’ BET Awards speech).

“Life knows no sin greater than the one he was accused of doing, which is cultural appropriation,” Maher said of Timberlake. “That’s the idea that white people shouldn’t adopt things from other ethnic groups. How dare you mix and match culture to make something new. Where do you think you are? Some kind of melting pot?”

[_just me]

God, I hate Maher.

[_subgenius]

Here in California we have a vibrant state of every group of people there is under the banner of American. So I can have an English Breakfast, and Chinese lunch, and a Mexican dinner all in the same day. I like it.

how predictable, a point of view centered on thee...and what meal do you bring to the table?