A few years ago, I took some heat from more politically-correct friends (btw: I normally hate the term "politically correct", but couldn't think of a better description here) because any time I heard international music on college radio stations I referred to it as "third world music." It was implied that by me using the term "third world" I was being racist. Which wasn't my intention - I simply would rather hear loud, sweaty rock 'n' roll from America's heartland than hear whatever's being made in Outer Mongolia these days.
I was also told that using the phrase was Cold War phrasing. Which makes sense, as I am a child of the Cold War. So in trying to remake the world in my own image, I'm thinking from now on we should have two worlds. The World That Matters will be made up of the Big Six hockey-playing countries. The Rest Of The World will be all the other countries.
So The World That Matters is:
1) USA
2) Canada
3) Finland
4) Russia
5) Sweden
6) The Czech Republic
I love having these countries in my world. Obviously, the USA should be included because I live here and rarely leave it. Plus it's the greatest country ever. Canada deserves inclusion because it for all intents and purposes invented hockey and hockey is its national pastime and first love. Finland belongs because the Finns are the Chosen People. Sweden and Russia deserve inclusion as natural rivals of the Americans (Russians) and Finns (Swedes and Russians.) And the Czech Republic belongs because it brought us the Czech forecheck.
Finally,