Jeroen Percival Jesus » society http://www.jeroenpercivaljesus.com Reach out and touch fate Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:45:11 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 addenda http://www.jeroenpercivaljesus.com/46/addenda http://www.jeroenpercivaljesus.com/46/addenda#comments Wed, 09 Apr 2008 04:17:30 +0000 admin http://www.jeroenpercivaljesus.com/46/addenda

I haven’t read Jared Diamond’s Collapse, but one of the things I wonder is whether civilizations thrive according to their ability to optimize food production in some fashion and then fail as that optimization fails. I should really read that book.

]]> http://www.jeroenpercivaljesus.com/46/addenda/feed 1 Culture: Chuck Norris only Weapon of Mass Destruction in Iraq http://www.jeroenpercivaljesus.com/42/culture-chuck-norris-only-weapon-of-mass-destruction-in-iraq http://www.jeroenpercivaljesus.com/42/culture-chuck-norris-only-weapon-of-mass-destruction-in-iraq#comments Tue, 11 Mar 2008 23:00:29 +0000 jpj http://www.jeroenpercivaljesus.com/42/culture-chuck-norris-only-weapon-of-mass-destruction-in-iraq I think this is an interesting vision of how cultural diffusion starts.  Years from now, after America has (hopefully) left Iraq, the image of Chuck Norris as a heroic/cultural figure will still remain.  As well as the raw amount of Awesome that contains, it’s also an interesting way of seeing culture develop in action.

Another police trainer said Chuck Norris was a role model for the police in Falluja, which until 2007 was an al Qaeda stronghold and the scene of fierce battles with security forces.

“I’ve seen his videos, he’s a hero. He saves the city, he protects women and children and he fights crime wherever it is. We should all be like Chuck Norris,” Khaled Hussein said.

This is from a newspaper piece about US soldiers in Iraq and how the myths, legends, and ‘facts’ surrounding Chuck Norris have built over time to something that both continues Chuck Norris’ myth and makes soldiers’ experiences slightly easier through having a shared joke.

Pretty awesome.  Although the article calls him ‘Norris’ a couple of times, I always think of him as named ‘Chuck Noris’ as a single indivisible word.  I think that’s an internal artifact due to his cultural place.

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