Greek Americans and Greek Culture

I just have to rant about this. My wife likes to listen to Aktina FM on Saturday. It's a Greek and Cypriot radio show in Greek and English in New York City. Callers call in sometimes and they invariably say, "We have an amazing culture." Sometimes, I hear a "Greek American" (an American descended from Greeks) saying, "We invented democracy," and other stupid crap. Good god, GROW UP, PEOPLE! How can these people live in the past, forever? It seems like a complete mental dead end.

It seems to me that people who want to glorify their own ancestors or history forever, whether that history is real or imagined, seem to "mature as a group" very little. Not only have I seen "Greek Americans" do this, but many, many other people do it too. It gets old, IMMEDIATELY. "Greek Americans" are simply the most visible group that does this.

You can listen to their archived shows here, if you want:
http://www.aktina.org/live.htm

We invented Democracy. Back when you used to live on trees

We are your fathers(of civilization i mean). Respect us.

Greeks are awesome!

It seems that they are just not grateful of what our awesomeness given to them. We should have just kept democracy ,mathematics, philosophy,medicine,engineering for ourselves.

But anyway we still love our children even if they are ungrateful.

Americans of all stripes tend to do this (cf. Americans of Scottish descent and their silly obsessions with clans and tartans and whatnot). Living in such a young country doesn't provide the sort of ancestral rootedness and history that some people look for, so they have to look back a bit further for it. It's pretty silly really.

shortguy said:

Americans of all stripes tend to do this (cf. Americans of Scottish descent and their silly obsessions with clans and tartans and whatnot). Living in such a young country doesn't provide the sort of ancestral rootedness and history that some people look for, so they have to look back a bit further for it. It's pretty silly really.

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I think it's pretty silly that they consider it one nation rather than a federation of states ruled by immigrants of different identities. They should fight for it's interests but is it really a nation or is it just a state ?

It is one nation that is a federation of sovereign states. One does not exclude the other. You know, much like the EU will be very soon.

EDIT: Regarding the whole hyphenated American thing, pick one. Either you are an American or you are not. IF you can't decide, go back to the other one and be divided over there.

What you're experiencing isn't all that different from Italian Americans, Polish Americans, Indian Americans, and the proud descendants of <insert your nationality here>. The fact of the matter is that some American descendants of those countries enjoy associating with a particular culture and as a consequence, they come up with a multifarious amount of excuses for justifying their opinions. The end result of this is to be able to conclude that they are justified in augmenting the importance of their second culture. Christopher Columbus was Italian, Copernicus was Polish, Marie Currie was Polish, The Indians invented the concept of zero, The Chinese sailed around the world first (not true), the Muslims saved works of antiquity (half-true, but it doesn't stop certain people from believing it entirely). In America, this has been going on for 150 years. I'm sure it's just as much in other countries.

From an outsiders' perspective, it does seem petty. And perhaps it is, but that is just something you have to deal when dealing with people who appeal to a second identity and have trouble justifying that identity in a world where they find themselves being increasingly assimilated into their first identity. And of course, there are other reasons as well. But I like to focus on second generation immigration history. That typically focuses on children of immigrants that are raised, but not necessarily born, in America. The history of first generation immigrants is a tad more difficult and comprehensive.

Greeks run the best pizza places.

Americans don't have as deep a culture and history as European and Asian countries, hence the need for these people to identify with something outside the US. I see it all the time here.

Cutlass said:

Greeks run the best pizza places.

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We invented it and not Italians.

scy12 said:

We invented it and not Italians.

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Well, the Mexicans invented the proper Pizza with Tomato sauce and stuff.

Cutlass said:

Greeks run the best pizza places.

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No way, (ex-pat) Iranians and Iraqis pwn them. They put cole-slaw on the pizza and always serve kabobs too. Ask any Swede - they have a kabob/pizza joint on every corner (at least, in Helsingborg, Lund and Malmo). Strange thing though... a 10 minute train ride to Copenhagen and no kabob stores... sup wit dat? The EU divides immigrants into specific countries according to country of origin?

You just hate them for their freedom.

Africa invented us all.

Greece is in Eastern Europe.

VRWCAgent said:

It is one nation that is a federation of sovereign states. One does not exclude the other. You know, much like the EU will be very soon.

EDIT: Regarding the whole hyphenated American thing, pick one. Either you are an American or you are not. IF you can't decide, go back to the other one and be divided over there.

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I didn't know the world was divided in black and white. I also didn't know that being American meant forgetting your ethnic heritage. Thank you for the enlightenment.

And Ecofarm is right, Iranians by far have the best pizza places. The one in my town run by Iranians has an Italian guy on the box for marketing purposes, but it's all Iranians behind the counter, and that's who I trust.

scy12 said:

It seems that they are just not grateful of what our awesomeness given to them. We should have just kept democracy ,mathematics, philosophy,medicine,engineering for ourselves.

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You see this puke? This is exactly the sort of thing I'm referring to. The fact that Greeks alive today DIDN'T invent any of those things doesn't stop them from going on and on about it forever.

If your glory days ended 2 milennia ago and you have done nothing of note since then, it is a sign you have a problem.