That’s very, very interesting – I had never heard that. Thanks for the info. Do kids in any other country do this?
I have to say I find this totally strange. Surely they’ve encountered Australian policemen, etc?
I am glad you entitled your post “Irrational dislike of Americans”, because imo, it does seem quite irrational.
I think you’re looking from a very skewed and biased point of view. You don’t hate “American people,” but you dislike their culture and society? And then you add that no one should take it personally?
I have found our US brothers and sisters to be some of the funnest, most compassionate, generous people I have ever met. I have formed some very close friendships with a number of people from all over the states via messageboards and instant messenger. I count a number of these as such close friends that next month, I am travelling from my hometown of Sydney to the US to meet people I’ve only ever spoken to on the phone and via the internet. I am going to be part of a wedding party to a woman who i consider to be amongst the inner circle of my friends.
I am travelling to a great many places around the United States, and it has blown me away the amount of my friends who have opened their arms and houses to a person they have never met before face to face. One friend is making a 2 hour journey to pick me up from the Airport the night that I land (midnight landing) because “It’s cheaper for you and I really don’t mind.” I wonder how many Aussies would do that?
I’m an Aussie born and bred. I am paying off a unit and a new car. I want to live in a nice place. I want to be comfortable. As far as I was aware, having a place to call your own, surrounded by friends and family and happy with life in general as part of the Australian Dream?
I think this is a really good point. I’ve been thinking about this for awhile now. When you’re an American, it really does feel natural and normal for your president to be “leader of the free world”, for people to be able to find your country on a map, etc. I admit I never thought about it much, but living in Bulgaria, I get a really different point of view. Americans have an incredibly optimistic view of our national history - we tend to believe that things just get better and better (although bleeding hearts like myself have not been feeling this way of late…). Living in a place where people have a very negative view of their country has been interesting and eye-opening.
I think this is a really good point. I’ve been thinking about this for awhile now. When you’re an American, it really does feel natural and normal for your president to be “leader of the free world”, for people to be able to find your country on a map, etc. I admit I never thought about it much, but living in Bulgaria, I get a really different point of view. Americans have an incredibly optimistic view of our national history - we tend to believe that things just get better and better (although bleeding hearts like myself have not been feeling this way of late…). Living in a place where people have a very negative view of their country has been interesting and eye-opening.
People are people, and one must keep in mind what sorts of conditions others live in. There’s actually a hueristic bias that’s relevant here, but I can’t recall what it is. Anyway, I’m reminded of a bit of stand-up comedy by Eddie Murphy. He was relaying how he knew people who would have not submitted to being slaves in the pre-bellum Southern U.S. and how weak the slaves were for not standing up and getting in their Lincolns and driving away. His point being that if any of us were put in the same situation, we’d be slaves, too. Similarly, the American idiots who blame Islam for middle-eastern suicide bombings without considering that the most prolific suicide bombers* come from a largely Hindu population; even worse, that they’d sure a hell strap on some explosives and get some pre-emptive payback if they were in similar circumstances.
As for re-electing Bush…that is something I’ll never understand.
Something about the States that may interest you is the healthy culture of the Amish. Smack dab in the middle of the crass, consumeristic, imperialistic, market-fascist, money-grubbing American landscape are people who live 19th-century lives, riding their horse-drawn buggies down the roads and selling blankets and hand-crafted furniture and farming and all that sort of thing. If Americans were all we’re sometimes cracked up to be, we’d have forced modern-consumerist society down their throats quite some time ago.
*Yeah, that is worded funny. It makes me laugh.