World's Cultural Capital

[MattyBoy]

Hollywood.

[Sten Sture]

In case no one else has mentioned it... I hate LA.

The issue I think has to do with pop-culture vs counter-culture.

San Fransiscans see themselves as too intellectual for pop-culture and think that the LA strip mall parking lot culture is a cancer. While I concur, I still voted for LA. New York is the capital of the world, but LA is the global americana that we all have decided to make culture.

[Pandemoniak]

Come on, seriously, a bunch of highways is cool, but dont call it a high place of culture... NY or London, ok, but not LA this is just ridiculous...
I guess the people who voted for LA goes to much to the mall...

[orange]

no American city has enough history (time wise) to be a cultural capital.

Take every European City up there. They're at least 5 times as old.

[Boris Godunov]

Longevity doesn't equate to culture, orange. If so, all of these places would lose to the ruins of Thebes, Troy or Babylon.

Exherting cultural influence in the here and now has nothing to do with what happened in that city centuries ago.

[orange]

Thebes, Troy, and Babylon are all deceased...Paris Rome London Istanbul Moscow and others have a much longer history and are still HUGE urban centres

And for God's sake Jerusalem. 3 Votes? That place ****s more culture than Chicago or Los Angeles has ever produced!

[Boris Godunov]

Depends, as many have said, how you define culture. Do you really think that much of the world today is influenced culturally by what comes out of Jerusalem?

[Ned]

Originally posted by MRT144
since i live at the northern tip of silicon valley, i will agree, it is pretty barren of any culture. in fact i hate most of silicon valley except for downtown palo alto and menlo park. Mostly because every commercial center in SV is a strip mall and is no different from any other strip mall.

as for san francisco, its one of the most culturally diverse yet culturally unified places on the planet...

as for you ned, if you ever get a package via UPS ive probably touched it.

True, SV is booring. What it does is create technology that changes the world.

[MattyBoy]

Come on, seriously, a bunch of highways is cool, but dont call it a high place of culture... NY or London, ok, but not LA this is just ridiculous...
I guess the people who voted for LA goes to much to the mall...

I specified "Hollywood" not because I have ever been to a mall there or anywhere else, but because I watch movies and TV and it influences me whether I like it or not. I think the same is true for most of us.

I also believe in TV as the most influential medium in our lives today.

[Mr. President]

The answer is obviously Melbourne.

[orange]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
Depends, as many have said, how you define culture. Do you really think that much of the world today is influenced culturally by what comes out of Jerusalem?

Two major world religions and the possibility of a 3rd world war?

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by orange
Two major world religions

IIRC, Jerusalem hasn't sparked a major religion in well over 1000 years. Not exactly cutting edge, is it?

and the possibility of a 3rd world war?

Geopolitics != Culture. Were that the case, Washington, DC should be the culture capital of the world, since it is the place that has more influence over that than any other.

[orange]

Jerusalem is the birthplace (or at least, most important centre) of two major world religions and influenced another over 2000 years ago and STILL remains an important city to this day. That's only one argument for it.

What I meant by the possibility of a 3rd world war is that the city is so important, and so literally divided amongst peoples, that it and the land around it are so important as to potentially spark a giant war, and fuel 50 years of ongoing warfare.

If that, along with the buildings and historical centres of Jerusalem aren't enough to put it above NYC Chicago or LA in your mind, than I'd like to know what these cities could possibly have that make them better choices.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by orange
Jerusalem is the birthplace (or at least, most important centre) of two major world religions and influenced another over 2000 years ago and STILL remains an important city to this day. That's only one argument for it.

What I meant by the possibility of a 3rd world war is that the city is so important, and so literally divided amongst peoples, that it and the land around it are so important as to potentially spark a giant war, and fuel 50 years of ongoing warfare.

If that, along with the buildings and historical centres of Jerusalem aren't enough to put it above NYC Chicago or LA in your mind, than I'd like to know what these cities could possibly have that make them better choices.

I will grant you that Jerusalem is the most important religious center in the world, absolutely. Rome would be a distant 2nd.

However, that is still small potatoes for modern culture generation. I already gave my points for NY earlier, and I stand by those.

Until Jerusalem actually starts that 3rd world war, what goes on there isn't really having much impact on the daily lives of people around the world. What happens in NYC, London, Paris, LA, etc. is stuff that spreads quickly around the world, whether it be artistic movements, music, theater, movies, television, fashion, literature, etc. Jerusalem wouldn't even be in my top ten of cultural centers.

Historical city? Absolutely. Religious center? Tops. Geopolitical importance? Pretty damn near the top.

Cultural influence? Nope.

[GePap]

Its obvious that I think that NYC city is the world cultural capitol, for all the reasons I and Boris have made clear-
What astonishes me is that Paris has so many while London lags so far behind. The only city that comes close to NY in culture today is London; Paris and all other EU cities are distant when it comes to creating the ideas that spread worldwide, and most American cities are just as far behind if not more.

On Jerusalem: it is a relegious center, thats it. It is that that gives it any geopolitical importance, and honestly, it has less than Tel Aviv, and far far less than many cities elsewhere. people really put things out of perspective: Geopolitically speaking, the most important state in the Levant are Turkey (people, location, water), Iran(location, oil, people), Egypt (location, people), Iraq(oil), and Saudi Arabia(oil). If Israel and Lebanon and Syria were wiped off the face of the earth tommorrow, it would not influence the world economy, or the world balance of power much, not for the EU, the US, Russia, China, or India, the states or group of states with the majortiy of land, people, wealth, and nukes. Jerusalem is a 'sentimenta favorite', but its really not that important anymore-it reahced it geopolitical height back in 1099ad.