You are right. INERTIA is the word and/or perhaps the hope that ONE day rest of the world shall give up and say: Long live America, have YOUR way 'if you wish to watch, wait and suffer...?' May be American argument had been, we go the whole hog way or NOT at all!
Regards,
Brij Bhushan Vij <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Aa Nau Bhadra Kritvo Yantu Vishwatah -Rg Veda. *****The New Calendar Rhyme***** Thirty days in July, September: April, June, November, December; All the rest have thirty-one; accepting February alone: Which hath but twenty-nine, to be (in) fine; Till leap year gives the whole week READY: Is it not time to MODIFY or change to make it perennial, Oh Daddy!
And make the calendar work with Leap Week Rule! ***** ***** ***** *****
From: "Carl Sorenson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [USMA:26468] The slow conversion of the U.S. Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2003 21:14:04 -0600
>>Why is it that the USA is the last nation on Earth to change to the metric
>>system? It can't be because the people of the USA are not capable of
making
>>this change...
>I believe that it is the hubris of great powers that makes them slow >to convert to metric.
The other day something occurred to me. The conversion of the United States
to the metric system is the first time that we have tried to convert the
hegemon, the leader. No wonder it is slow and difficult to get the change
going. Back in the 19th century, while Britain was the dominant country of
Europe, the other countries were converting one by one. In the twentieth
century, once the United States had taken Britain's place, the conversions
continued, and even the U.K. has made great progress. Now that we are the
only ones left, it is our turn and it is proving difficult.
I think that shouldn't be too much of a surprise that we still haven't come
around. After all, we are so big that we can often just do things our own
way, and we have a lot of inertia. I don't think we will avoid metric
indefinitely, of course. Metric has become the lingua franca for
measurement in scientific and international endeavors, much more than even
English is. This means that people will come across metric and use it if
they want to take part in a lot of things. I sure did before I got involved
with USMA. I think the cultural and economic influence of the rest of the
world will increase, particularly the influence of Asia because of their
sheer numbers and their long-term prospects (which I think are better than
Europe's in some ways).
A lot of times the adoption of a technology or the spread of information
follows a stretched-out "S" shape. It goes slowly at first, then there is a
long period of steady change, and then the last few bits take a while to
finish up.
Carl
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