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No I would not. A simple proof. Swedish is a Germanic language, the people are a Germanic people. Finish is a Finno-Ugric language. That's not even one of the

by bh42222 15y ago

No I would not. A simple proof. Swedish is a Germanic language, the people are a Germanic people. Finish is a Finno-Ugric language. That's not even one of the Indo-European languages! Magyar is in the same language group. In other words, despite their physical proximity over thousand of years, Finns and Swedes have maintained a huge cultural difference. And the same goes for almost any two old world neighbors. Even the ones you may think of as super similar. As big as the differences between Oregon and Mississippi are, they really ain't much compared to the differences between France and Holland, which geographically are much closer together.

jessriedel 15y ago
I'm really not that interested in language differences. Sure you can categorize this under "culture", but that's boring (Europe is more diverse, trivially) and doesn't make sense in the context of the article. More interesting differences would be political, philosophical, type of industry, standard of living, art, etc. The per capita GDP in Finland and Sweden is US$44,5000 and $47,900, respectively. For Maryland and Mississippi, it's $69,300 and $36,600. The percentage of population that has bachelor degrees or higher in Finland and Sweden is 23% and 21%. For Maryland and Mississippi it's 35% and 19%.
- bh42222 15y ago
  OK, your first paragraph is hard to comprehend. Language is "culture" but that's boring. Europe is more diverse - but trivially? Political, standard of living, industry are apparently real differences according to you? And art somehow snuck in there too, but I guess the totally of language based art, poetry, books, etc, somehow is boring? If we are going to cherry pick how we compare places, I say let's start with climate. When talking about climate clearly Mississippi and Washington state are far more different than Sweden and Finland. Only an American could completely discount language and want to talk about GDP or GNP and industry composition. Very CIA fact book page. I freely admit by GDP and standard of living all of Western Europe is less different than Mississippi and any of the "blue" states. Hell if we're going to use CIA country fact book style information to measure differences then all of the OECD countries (this includes Japan, Europe, Canada and the US) are on average less different than just the US states. Now think about that. Does it make sense to say that just the US states are more diverse then a group with includes both Japan and most of Europe? I guess if you're an American and think language is "culture" and boring then yeah that can sound right to you.
  - jessriedel 15y ago
    Yikes, calm down. > Very CIA fact book page My "CIA fact book" numbers were chosen because they're numbers, so they are objective and easy to obtain. I put "philosophy" first for a reason; that's what's important in the context of the OP articles. It's just that it's not easy to look up "average philosophical view for a country". Also, don't you agree that amount of education is extremely important to culture? >And art somehow snuck in there too, but I guess the totally of language based art, poetry, books, etc, somehow is boring? Art, poetry, books are not boring and are definitely interesting aspects of culture. (Although again, in the context of this article, serious academic art is less germane than standard of living.) But the mere fact that people use a different language is not. Yes, of course language can influence many arts, but it's ridiculous to think that language difference is a good metric for difference in art. >Europe is more diverse - but trivially? Europe is more diverse trivially when you use language differences as a metric for cultural differences. (I thought that conditional was clear from the placement of the parenthetical, but I guess not.) And it's trivial. Most countries in Europe have their own language, so obviously they are more diverse in this manner. Why would there even be a discussion? > If we are going to cherry pick how we compare places, You said "America's cultural differences are still very small compared to differences between old world neighbors" (emphasis mine) in the context of a comparison between California and New York. I interpret that to mean roughly that the smallest intra-country differences in Europe are bigger than the largest intra-state differences in the US. If I misinterpreted, let me know. > I say let's start with climate. Climate is interesting insofar as it influences culture. And yes, this is definitely part of the cause of cultural diversity in the US states, but it's probably not a great metric. I think wealth, especially in the modern era, is going to be more closely tied to culture than climate. Still, in comparing the cultures of Finland and Greece, wouldn't you agree that climate is, in fact, a better metric than language? >Hell if we're going to use CIA country fact book style information to measure differences then all of the OECD countries (this includes Japan, Europe, Canada and the US) are on average less different than just the US states. Now think about that. Does it make sense to say that just the US states are more diverse then a group with includes both Japan and most of Europe? The lack of diversity you're talking about comes from averaging, which comes from considering large population sizes of Japan/US/EU and comparing them to US states. In contrast, Maryland and Mississippi are within a factor of 2 in population to Sweden and Finland.

by bh42222 15y ago

jessriedel 15y ago

I'm really not that interested in language differences. Sure you can categorize this under "culture", but that's boring (Europe is more diverse, trivially) and doesn't make sense in the context of the article. More interesting differences would be political, philosophical, type of industry, standard of living, art, etc. The per capita GDP in Finland and Sweden is US$44,5000 and $47,900, respectively. For Maryland and Mississippi, it's $69,300 and $36,600. The percentage of population that has bachelor degrees or higher in Finland and Sweden is 23% and 21%. For Maryland and Mississippi it's 35% and 19%.

bh42222 15y ago
OK, your first paragraph is hard to comprehend. Language is "culture" but that's boring. Europe is more diverse - but trivially? Political, standard of living, industry are apparently real differences according to you? And art somehow snuck in there too, but I guess the totally of language based art, poetry, books, etc, somehow is boring? If we are going to cherry pick how we compare places, I say let's start with climate. When talking about climate clearly Mississippi and Washington state are far more different than Sweden and Finland. Only an American could completely discount language and want to talk about GDP or GNP and industry composition. Very CIA fact book page. I freely admit by GDP and standard of living all of Western Europe is less different than Mississippi and any of the "blue" states. Hell if we're going to use CIA country fact book style information to measure differences then all of the OECD countries (this includes Japan, Europe, Canada and the US) are on average less different than just the US states. Now think about that. Does it make sense to say that just the US states are more diverse then a group with includes both Japan and most of Europe? I guess if you're an American and think language is "culture" and boring then yeah that can sound right to you.
- jessriedel 15y ago
  Yikes, calm down. > Very CIA fact book page My "CIA fact book" numbers were chosen because they're numbers, so they are objective and easy to obtain. I put "philosophy" first for a reason; that's what's important in the context of the OP articles. It's just that it's not easy to look up "average philosophical view for a country". Also, don't you agree that amount of education is extremely important to culture? >And art somehow snuck in there too, but I guess the totally of language based art, poetry, books, etc, somehow is boring? Art, poetry, books are not boring and are definitely interesting aspects of culture. (Although again, in the context of this article, serious academic art is less germane than standard of living.) But the mere fact that people use a different language is not. Yes, of course language can influence many arts, but it's ridiculous to think that language difference is a good metric for difference in art. >Europe is more diverse - but trivially? Europe is more diverse trivially when you use language differences as a metric for cultural differences. (I thought that conditional was clear from the placement of the parenthetical, but I guess not.) And it's trivial. Most countries in Europe have their own language, so obviously they are more diverse in this manner. Why would there even be a discussion? > If we are going to cherry pick how we compare places, You said "America's cultural differences are still very small compared to differences between old world neighbors" (emphasis mine) in the context of a comparison between California and New York. I interpret that to mean roughly that the smallest intra-country differences in Europe are bigger than the largest intra-state differences in the US. If I misinterpreted, let me know. > I say let's start with climate. Climate is interesting insofar as it influences culture. And yes, this is definitely part of the cause of cultural diversity in the US states, but it's probably not a great metric. I think wealth, especially in the modern era, is going to be more closely tied to culture than climate. Still, in comparing the cultures of Finland and Greece, wouldn't you agree that climate is, in fact, a better metric than language? >Hell if we're going to use CIA country fact book style information to measure differences then all of the OECD countries (this includes Japan, Europe, Canada and the US) are on average less different than just the US states. Now think about that. Does it make sense to say that just the US states are more diverse then a group with includes both Japan and most of Europe? The lack of diversity you're talking about comes from averaging, which comes from considering large population sizes of Japan/US/EU and comparing them to US states. In contrast, Maryland and Mississippi are within a factor of 2 in population to Sweden and Finland.