The Taliban of Golf?

[Jim_Kennedy]

Ed Morrissett,
When Americans got ahold of it(golf) they built some very good courses. They did not try to reinvent the wheel but followed what were tried and true principles. The early builders embraced the immigrant Scotsmen who were responsible, in no small degree, for golf flourishing in the states. These principles are still being followed and if one looks at the very best of golf in the US today, it is a worthy rival to anything being done on any continent.  

Don't confuse Americanization with Capitalism.

[Lou Duran]

Jim K-

Which are you deriding, "americanization" or capitalism?  I have a hard time empathising with those who complain about the adoption of so called "American" values, methods, customs, etc. in other countries.  These things can't be forced upon anybody unless they are willing to accept them.  MacDonalds doesn't go to Oz and demand that each household spend a % of their income at their stores.  As far as I know, playing a CCFAD is not mandatory.  They are there because a substantial portion of the population want their products and voluntarily support them.  Capitalism is hardly and American invention, and I am not sure that we have been its best practitioners.  Though far from perfect, what our system does promote  better than anywhere else is liberty and freedom.  In this sense, we are the antithesis of the Taliban.  And those who wish to deny free people their choices are their kin.  The best way to stop MacDonalds and expensive daily-fee golf is not to support them.  If you do, they'll go away, quickly.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Lou,
I derided neither. I was trying to make the point that as Americans we have mostly welcomed diversity and adapted what was good from other cultures and called it our own. We have never had it forced down our throats.
When we export our American ways we are sometimes accused of thrusting them upon other cultures. Much of the time this comes from the high speed at which we operate, and that speed is generated by the market share and cash flow needs of capitalism.
If we don't force or appear to force our ways down the throats of others, something we would never stand for, then they have the time to welcome our diversity, choose what they like and adapt it for their use.

[George Pazin]

Lou -

Prof. Sowell couldn't have said it any better.

[Richard_Goodale]

A little bit of trivia that might be of some interest.  As Lou properly states, capitalism was not invented in the US.  It could well have said to have been invented only 30 miles or so from the Old Course, in Kirkcaldy, Fife, the birthplace of Adam Smith.  The politics of Kirkcaldy (and most of Central Fife) are closer to those of pre-1990 Albania than Westminster, and a few years ago the signs at the boundaries of the toon proclaiming it as "The Birthplace of Adam Smith" were replaced by the elected council with ones proclaiming it as "The Capital of Linoluem," or something similarly true, but banal.