Tolerance

I wonder, sometimes, about when two culturally different groups interact closely, whether it reinforces or counteracts cultural prejudices. The conventional wisom is that experience and education are they key to tolerance. But there are countless examples ofthe opposite happening. American media culture seeping into the Muslim world being one obvious, if rather blunt example. But that's not really people, that's commerce and money. Perhaps better examples are the classic struggles of new immigrant communities. But then again, the American notion of the cure to those ills is greater integration and less isolation.
The immediate example that presents itself is certain travelers in Southeast Asia. Travelers being loud, insensitive and dismissive of the "tourist servant class" and on the flipside, the locals developing a very colored view of the foreign visitors. Also just thinking of some of my experiences here. Little stupid things that you find yourself judging. Like, why do almost none of the Thais read? Much of the time, the folks who work in guesthouses have nothing to do, and they sit around watching TV or napping. That's my cultural background, finding it morally superior to read than to watch TV, That a tradition of intellectual engagement is more valuable than one of seeking passive entertainment. Funny to hear from an American, I'm sure.

That's my idea of a negative cultureal exchange. Like the little boy I wrote about some time ago, sitting with his dad, watching my friends and I dance well past dawn, well-caned, waiting for the party to end so they could pick up the litter of the beach. They see us as degenerates who never work. We see them as our servants. Post-colonial colonialism. Unequally-matched economies. What to do? Thats globalization. We want the cheap products and labor, they want the economic development. Sigh.