--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>
>
> >
>
> Nah, I was just over-reacting because I felt you were deflecting the
> point I was trying to make: that's a real knife, and that's real
> aggression under the cover of Narrenfreiheit. The point was that this
> type of strange reactions is the last thing that disappears after the
> language, the culture and the last substrate loans have gone: you see
> that and you know something old ethnic is going on under the surface.
>
>
> Torsten
>
I have trouble understanding you, it seems: to me, it sounds like you
are saying that the Dutch language, culture, and substrate loans have
gone or are disappearing. Of course that is the opposite of the
truth. I can only think then that you mean that their Scottish
language, culture, and substrate loans have gone, and their humor
represents "something old ethnic" but Scottish. But did they ever
have Scottish culture or substrate loans living in the Netherlands? I
doubt that in the modern world their Scottish mother would care very
much about preserving their Scottish language, culture, and substrate
loans, assuming that these would be Gaelic or Lowland Scots, since
English nowadays is probably not in such danger. I say this because
if she did, she probably would not have married a Dutch man and moved
to the Netherlands. And the odds are that she would have been a
native (Scottish) English speaker anyway, rather than Gaelic or
Lowland Scots.
But maybe I still haven't understood you. I don't know. When I saw
these girls I didn't pick up on all the ethnic tragedy that could be
beneath their antics, like you did. I just thought they were having
fun like girls often like to do (you know, "Girls Just Wanna Have
Fun"? OK bad joke), and that's all I was saying by my comments. So
there was no intention of deflecting your point, I wasn't really yet
aware of it. Any deflection was unintentional, it was partly due to
my lack of comprehension of your theory, and because I thought you had
already made your point and I could still make a superficial comment.
Right now, thinking about your point, I also wonder whether the girls
would be aware of what they were doing, if their humor was a coping
mechanism for the tragedy in their lives (which tragedy is hard to see
just from those Youtube clips), if this is your point. I would think
the girls would not be conscious of that, that their expressed
intention would be to have some fun, make some jokes, make people
laugh, and make people notice them - all not necessarily requiring a
special ethnic situation as you have emphasized.
Anyway, I hope you continue to believe that I was not out to ignore
you or snub you or "knife" you or anything like that. I'm not that
kind of person, I seek to understand, be happy, and make others happy.
That's all. I don't try to wound other people.
Andrew