[jaakkeli]

Now, everyone has noticed how half the people on this forum whine about Americans, how they're totally dependent on the car and addicted to pointless luxuries... and then all these pompous self-righteous Europeans keep announcing that the Americans will elect a new Hitler when PO takes that away.

So, while reading about totally different things, I ran into this old article about Americans and Europeans. I'll remove the references that would give the time and place away. Try figuring out where the quotes are from when you're reading and you'll be amused:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')lthough any other country could accept the loss of private automobiles, the people of the United States cannot. It had become part of daily life. Every fourth American owns a car. The United States is a large country with widely separated cities. That alone made Americans dependent on the automobile. Particularly in the Middle West and the West, farmers are dependent on cars. Millions of trucks supply the big cities with food. Suddenly the United States faces a revolutionary change in its transportation system. The transportation problems are to be solved by greater dependence on the railroads, yet in recent years the number of locomotives and freight cars has sunk as the number of cars rose.

The first thing to watch is how Americans who had a car for enjoyment will react to giving up the cars that they formerly did not think they could live without.

Since they live on a rich continent, they believe they have particular privileges and deserve all of life's advantages. That makes giving things up hard for them, even things we Europeans view as luxuries that we can do without. Given their wealth, they made things as easy as possible for themselves. They were proud of their superiority to Europe in this regard, in contrast to their intellectual and cultural dependence on Europe. They did not understand how much they clung to superficialities.

Americans who believed that they would never even know a war was going on now have to start thinking like Europeans. They will have to pay taxes like we do.

[Ebyss]

Wow, 1942!

I think the "superior Europeans" thing is still BS though, we're rapidly turning Europe into lots of mini-Americas.. who is more foolish, the fool ro the fool who follows him? We're supposed to have the "culture, intellect and historical wherewithal" to prevent ourselves from falling into the same trap as America, and instead we're blindly following her... Unfortunately, we're not so smart over here anymore.

[jaakkeli]

Damn, I should've posted that to the psychology forum! I forgot that it exists.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ebyss', 'W')ow, 1942!

I think the "superior Europeans" thing is still BS though, we're rapidly turning Europe into lots of mini-Americas.. who is more foolish, the fool ro the fool who follows him?

[Kingcoal]

The American lifestyle is constantly analyzed under a microscope, often from within America. Americans constantly hear this criticism and react to it. Admittedly, for the past four years, Americans have not seemed to care, but I see it as an anomaly.

In contrast, most every other country does not have this constant critique. This tends to produce buffoonery and arrogance among their less sophisticated citizens. We hear from a lot of those people here.

The open, no holds bared debate is a great strength in America. Since GWB, that debate has been unfortunately squelched. Looking beyond GWB, hopefully the debate can go on so that we may improve ourselves as we’ve always done.

[johnmarkos]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kingcoal', 'A')dmittedly, for the past four years, Americans have not seemed to care, but I see it as an anomaly.

[NeoPeasant]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kingcoal', 'T')he American lifestyle is constantly analyzed under a microscope, often from within America. Americans constantly hear this criticism and react to it. Admittedly, for the past four years, Americans have not seemed to care, but I see it as an anomaly.

[aldente]

Jaakeelis post is stunning. Of course it is a nuisence to point fingers from one side of the ocean to the other, after all, European nations combined consume more oil than the often quoted US of A. And as many dumb sheep there might be grazing around in America, there for sure is an equivalent number to be counted in Europe!