I love the perspective of those outside of America on America. Foreigners that are visiting, I will ofen ask what one thing most surprised them about America. When I'm travelling internationally (far less than I used to now) I will often ask coworkers or B&B owners to give me their quick, stereotype perception of America.
the best answer I ever got was from a B&B owner in NZ: "We think you shoot each other and sue each other. You walk around with your gun in 1 pocket and your lawyer's business card in the other." I loved that one. And I could totally see it from looking outside.
I recently visited the US for the first time in a number of years. Staying in a prosperous suburb outside of a notorious urban centre, the landscaping and air of prosperity outclassed any comparable suburb in Canada. I was also struck by the number of patrol cars and obtrusive traffic cameras, as if these politically liberal suburbs were determined to hold back the deluge from the city. Of course they aren’t bothered by their hypocrisy.
Similarly a relative of mine stayed in the suburbs of Philadelphia a few years ago. Seemed like an odd choice to me but it did seem like a really lovely place from the photos.
At the very least, the US is able to invest in its nicest spots and public spaces. Canada has simply acquired an air of dinginess and failure by comparison.
The economic statistics show that the US is outclassing the rest of the western world. I wonder how long it can last and whether these prosperous suburbs will stay immune to chaos.
I'm reminded of Robert Heinlein's great novel "Starship Troopers" (1959) in which he has the History and Moral Philosophy teacher in Chapter 8 explain how society broke down in the XXth century of the North American republic (https://a.co/d/fYyPUPW). He laments how wild youths were not taught quickly the consequences of their actions and how society became captive to the worst elements running over everyone. I see the trend continue today where students are not corrected at school, given endless second chances, fight teachers/campus aides/anyone, and then later end up killing someone once they're an adult. Then they're on death row or costing the taxpayer tens of thousands of dollars to lock them up for the rest of their lives. This line captures it well: "Suppose you merely scolded your puppy, never punished him, let him go on making messes in the house... and occasionally locked him up in an outbuilding but soon let him back into the house with a warning not to do it again. Then one day you notice that he is now a grown dog and still not housebroken — whereupon you whip out a gun and shoot him dead" (122).
In the novel, the teacher blames the social workers and the so-called "empathetic" engineers of social programs who did not believe in firm punishment. "It was too simple for them, apparently, since anybody could do it, using only the patience and firmness needed in training a puppy. I have sometimes wondered if they cherished a vested interest in disorder — but that is unlikely; adults almost always act from conscious ‘highest motives’ no matter what their behavior.'" It sure seems like many of these types love disorder and profit directly from it (see Springfield, OH).
I just finished that book on the recommendation of someone here (maybe you, Belte?) It's amazing! The actual story matches the movie and is only decent, but the surrounding backstory about the world absolutely makes it worth reading.
The police are the “hard enforcement arm” of the elite class. There are five social classes - the truly elite and influential, who can command resources, government functions, truly hold power. One percenters, banksters, top-tier officials, people that live with a different set of rules.
Then there is law enforcement, the military, mercenaries, etc, who are the physical vehicle of social control.
The third class is the intellectual class, the media, clergy, professors, writers, etc. They are the mental vehicle of social control.
Both the second and third classes are tools of the first class. Either persuade or coerce. They do not serve the people, beyond what it takes to maintain control. This is why universities spend more and more time teaching ideology and far less time teaching academics. This is also why the police, in spite of the “protect and serve” mantra often act in ways we perceive as cowardly or irrational. Some cops still haven’t gotten the message and do serve the public in very heroic ways, but they are increasingly rare, just like professors who didn’t get the message that DEI trumps everything else.
Then there is the fourth class, the vast majority of people who believe that the system is fair, get up and go to work with the expectation of being able to take care of their families, believing in the “American dream” and all that other crap. It’s the same pie in the sky peddled to people back in the day, but it works less and less these days because people have gotten so stupid and lazy that you can’t get much out of most of them. Competency is on the decline in a big way, I guess you could call it some cycle or another, something. Long and short is that most people have not been tested in their lives and have no idea how to act under adversity.
The fourth class also includes professionals and small business owners who think they have influence or wealth, but don’t get that it is dependent on how effectively and faithfully they serve the first class. Anyone who steps out of line finds their career at an end, regardless of where they thought they were. I’ve seen plenty of small business owners who “stepped up” and got smacked down. Don’t get out of line.
Then there is the fifth class, the outlaw class. This is a real hodgepodge of people, from pure criminals and outlaws, to religious and political dissidents, people who have been forced out of the other classes, and so on. Some people also live there by choice, even being people of the other classes who don’t like the restraints or coercion they have to deal with. Free spirits, whatever. Anyone reading this probably at least is spiritually part of this class.
Looking at most things through that framework helps to make sense of a lot of what is happening these days.
I am German and I lived in the US, in Ireland, in China, in Russia and seven years in Central Asia. My experience is that the more ehnically cohesive a society is the more unwritten laws apply. There´s a common understanding of good and bad and a certain trust. The US has had to rely on the LAW as it is written down much more than any other country I´ve been in. People also have to follow the WRITTEN law more than anywhere else I´ve been to. It is (or was) a common understanding of at least the major part of society. My mother - who went thru total chaos at the end of WWII and was stateless for a few years found that aspect of the US unsufferable. I remember when time was up in the strawberry canyon swimming pool in Berkeley and everybody left on the spot. My mother of course didn´t and in Germany she would have been admonished but in Berkeley the reaction was much more severe.
The law not as a common understanding but as a glue that binds society is at the heart of the US. If you lose that all hell will break loose.
By the other society that I was in that was as diverse as the US was Russia. There the solution for the same problem was a common "religion" aka communism. Without it the USSR broke apart. Russia has returned to Orthodox religion and "traditional values" for the non christian minorities. I hope the US can return to the rule of the written law as the glue that binds her very disperse populations together. I am not hopeful though. But how knows. When I listen to Robert F. Kennedy and his to my jaded European ears hopelessly idealistic talks still I wonder: maybe the US can pull it off. There will be a terrible crisis but there´s also uniquely american idealism and who knows...
Welcome back to Los Estados Unidos, Max!
I love the perspective of those outside of America on America. Foreigners that are visiting, I will ofen ask what one thing most surprised them about America. When I'm travelling internationally (far less than I used to now) I will often ask coworkers or B&B owners to give me their quick, stereotype perception of America.
the best answer I ever got was from a B&B owner in NZ: "We think you shoot each other and sue each other. You walk around with your gun in 1 pocket and your lawyer's business card in the other." I loved that one. And I could totally see it from looking outside.
I recently visited the US for the first time in a number of years. Staying in a prosperous suburb outside of a notorious urban centre, the landscaping and air of prosperity outclassed any comparable suburb in Canada. I was also struck by the number of patrol cars and obtrusive traffic cameras, as if these politically liberal suburbs were determined to hold back the deluge from the city. Of course they aren’t bothered by their hypocrisy.
Similarly a relative of mine stayed in the suburbs of Philadelphia a few years ago. Seemed like an odd choice to me but it did seem like a really lovely place from the photos.
At the very least, the US is able to invest in its nicest spots and public spaces. Canada has simply acquired an air of dinginess and failure by comparison.
The economic statistics show that the US is outclassing the rest of the western world. I wonder how long it can last and whether these prosperous suburbs will stay immune to chaos.
I'm reminded of Robert Heinlein's great novel "Starship Troopers" (1959) in which he has the History and Moral Philosophy teacher in Chapter 8 explain how society broke down in the XXth century of the North American republic (https://a.co/d/fYyPUPW). He laments how wild youths were not taught quickly the consequences of their actions and how society became captive to the worst elements running over everyone. I see the trend continue today where students are not corrected at school, given endless second chances, fight teachers/campus aides/anyone, and then later end up killing someone once they're an adult. Then they're on death row or costing the taxpayer tens of thousands of dollars to lock them up for the rest of their lives. This line captures it well: "Suppose you merely scolded your puppy, never punished him, let him go on making messes in the house... and occasionally locked him up in an outbuilding but soon let him back into the house with a warning not to do it again. Then one day you notice that he is now a grown dog and still not housebroken — whereupon you whip out a gun and shoot him dead" (122).
In the novel, the teacher blames the social workers and the so-called "empathetic" engineers of social programs who did not believe in firm punishment. "It was too simple for them, apparently, since anybody could do it, using only the patience and firmness needed in training a puppy. I have sometimes wondered if they cherished a vested interest in disorder — but that is unlikely; adults almost always act from conscious ‘highest motives’ no matter what their behavior.'" It sure seems like many of these types love disorder and profit directly from it (see Springfield, OH).
I just finished that book on the recommendation of someone here (maybe you, Belte?) It's amazing! The actual story matches the movie and is only decent, but the surrounding backstory about the world absolutely makes it worth reading.
The police are the “hard enforcement arm” of the elite class. There are five social classes - the truly elite and influential, who can command resources, government functions, truly hold power. One percenters, banksters, top-tier officials, people that live with a different set of rules.
Then there is law enforcement, the military, mercenaries, etc, who are the physical vehicle of social control.
The third class is the intellectual class, the media, clergy, professors, writers, etc. They are the mental vehicle of social control.
Both the second and third classes are tools of the first class. Either persuade or coerce. They do not serve the people, beyond what it takes to maintain control. This is why universities spend more and more time teaching ideology and far less time teaching academics. This is also why the police, in spite of the “protect and serve” mantra often act in ways we perceive as cowardly or irrational. Some cops still haven’t gotten the message and do serve the public in very heroic ways, but they are increasingly rare, just like professors who didn’t get the message that DEI trumps everything else.
Then there is the fourth class, the vast majority of people who believe that the system is fair, get up and go to work with the expectation of being able to take care of their families, believing in the “American dream” and all that other crap. It’s the same pie in the sky peddled to people back in the day, but it works less and less these days because people have gotten so stupid and lazy that you can’t get much out of most of them. Competency is on the decline in a big way, I guess you could call it some cycle or another, something. Long and short is that most people have not been tested in their lives and have no idea how to act under adversity.
The fourth class also includes professionals and small business owners who think they have influence or wealth, but don’t get that it is dependent on how effectively and faithfully they serve the first class. Anyone who steps out of line finds their career at an end, regardless of where they thought they were. I’ve seen plenty of small business owners who “stepped up” and got smacked down. Don’t get out of line.
Then there is the fifth class, the outlaw class. This is a real hodgepodge of people, from pure criminals and outlaws, to religious and political dissidents, people who have been forced out of the other classes, and so on. Some people also live there by choice, even being people of the other classes who don’t like the restraints or coercion they have to deal with. Free spirits, whatever. Anyone reading this probably at least is spiritually part of this class.
Looking at most things through that framework helps to make sense of a lot of what is happening these days.
Europeans watch Hollywood films and TV news, and they convince themselves they have a deep understanding of US culture. But mostly they do not.
I am German and I lived in the US, in Ireland, in China, in Russia and seven years in Central Asia. My experience is that the more ehnically cohesive a society is the more unwritten laws apply. There´s a common understanding of good and bad and a certain trust. The US has had to rely on the LAW as it is written down much more than any other country I´ve been in. People also have to follow the WRITTEN law more than anywhere else I´ve been to. It is (or was) a common understanding of at least the major part of society. My mother - who went thru total chaos at the end of WWII and was stateless for a few years found that aspect of the US unsufferable. I remember when time was up in the strawberry canyon swimming pool in Berkeley and everybody left on the spot. My mother of course didn´t and in Germany she would have been admonished but in Berkeley the reaction was much more severe.
The law not as a common understanding but as a glue that binds society is at the heart of the US. If you lose that all hell will break loose.
By the other society that I was in that was as diverse as the US was Russia. There the solution for the same problem was a common "religion" aka communism. Without it the USSR broke apart. Russia has returned to Orthodox religion and "traditional values" for the non christian minorities. I hope the US can return to the rule of the written law as the glue that binds her very disperse populations together. I am not hopeful though. But how knows. When I listen to Robert F. Kennedy and his to my jaded European ears hopelessly idealistic talks still I wonder: maybe the US can pull it off. There will be a terrible crisis but there´s also uniquely american idealism and who knows...