American vs. British Alternative/Rock

So... my roommate's mad into Angels and Airwaves. And so I listen to it like 5 times a day too. (He doesn't use headphones.) It made me realized that I personally like Brit rock a lot better. The difference is that American bands/singers like to raise their voices by a pitch or so (think Blink 182), while Brit singers drag their voices (think Stereophonics, Oasis, Coldplay).

Supplemental excerpt. Rearranged.

You are not your bank account
You are not the clothes you wear
You are not the contents of your wallet
You are not your bowel cancer
You are not your grande latte
You are not the car you drive
You are not your fucking khaki's

I say let me never be complete
I say may I never be content
I say deliver me from Swedish furniture
I say deliver me from clever arts
I say deliver me from clear skin and perfect teeth
I say you have to give up
I say evolve, and let the chips fall where they may

You have to realize that someday you will die
Until you know that, you are useless
You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake
You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else
We are all part of the same compost heap
We are the all singing, all dancing, crap of the world

This is your life, this is your life, this is your life, this is your life
And it and it's ending one-minute at a time
The things you own end up owning you
It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything

-Tyler Durden

"This is your life" by Dust Brothers. Rearranged to form a somewhat coherent flow.

Simplicity in Sophistication

So lately I've been thinking that college kids aren't sophisticated enough. Should university not be a time where people "grow up" and become "adults"? Everyone is still stuck in a high school mentality, making campus nothing more than a giant high school. Materialism exists at its peak, so does social acceptance. These two needs then come together to form a product of congruency. All this, in the country that is based on individualism.

On the other hand, I find that people who have come to understand this - and choose not to participate - seek only the simple things in life. Nature, friendship, happiness, understanding of the world/mind/cultures. They do not seek to be popular, nor to get inebriated on a regular basis. Is it necessary to be sophisticated to appreciate simple things? (This is treading on the need for duality. I'm sure "simple" and "sophisticated" are both relative terms, and I really do not want to start talking about duality and the necessity for poles to exist in order for them to be "poles".)

For the farmers, peasants, less fortunate/educated people in the rest of the world, they do enjoy the simple things. Friendship, toys, family, food, having a good time in general and not wasting their days away. I doubt they are "sophisticated" in a sense that they enjoy wine, discuss why a BMW is better than an Audi, where's the best wood-fired oven pizzeria in town (or even the world.) Why is that? Perhaps ignorance is bliss, but for some part, I also believe it is because they do not choose to participate in the hustle and bustle of the world that's spinning out of control.