LOL. Say what you want about Americans but I would say that being optimistic and confident is a huge part of their identity. Things might have simmered down in the past 2 years but it is still the land of opportunity and that's reflected through the people. Sometimes being sophisticated and embroiled in culture and mystique cause a whole lot of issues that don't really need to be there, and that's where Americans come out ahead of Euro's.
Camping, hiking, going to the beach (not all countries have a beach, or a beach you'd want to visit), fishing as a sport, crabbing, water skiing, boating, street cruising. Baseball, football, basketball, biking with the neighborhood kids. These are some of the activities we grew up doing. I never went hunting myself, but that could be added to the list. Not all uniquely American, but certainly part of American culture.
I call it like I see it, and the whole "culture" aspect is one I feel Americans get the short end of the stick from the rest of the world. I've been guilty of it myself in the past. But at my core, I look for the beauty in people and look past their shortcomings. Because to better ourselves and reach our potential, we must feed off of each other's strengths. It may be loud and obnoxious to some, but confidence is a beautiful thing.
another aspect of American Culture...craptacular food...and how it can destroy a nations health.. http://news.yahoo.com/video/health-15749655/the-fattest-place-on-earth-23708335
In general this is pretty accurate. I've travelled extensively in Europe, Latin America, ANZ, and the Middle East (I'm posting this from Israel now), and the last three especially hold true. I can't say I know much about the jeans points, as I typically stay in business hotels that don't have the "jeans-wearing" crowd there. Obesity in America is a frightening problem. On the obesity point, I was recently in Amsterdam, and remarked to my wife, "wow, you see a lot of thin men here.....you would rarely see a man over age 40 or so in the US that isn't at least moderately overweight, if not much worse." She agreed, and noted the only American men that tend to be that age and physically fit are gays. When I was there in Amsterdam, and saw a thin man, I unintentionally for a split second in my mind assumed they were gay -- it's almost become an embedded reaction to seeing such a person. Weird, but I guess that's what happens when you live in the US a long time. The other thing that I consider to be a big problem (and possibly uniquely American?) is the fact that "acting dumb" is considered socially acceptable and many times even humorous. This point is actually fairly difficult to describe, but I recently overheard a fat American middle aged man (yes, with his polo shirt tucked into his khakis) tell a hurried Israeli tour guide in a verrry slow voice that the guide "would have to wait a while because we have some slow people". The Israeli misinterpreted his comment as humor, and repeated back what the American said in an exaggerrated, slow voice. I thought the American man was going to snap the Israeli's neck (he was a small old guy), actually. You can also observe some of the "acting dumb" culture in American universities. Not to pick on any institution in particular, but I've seen it most at Texas A&M. That's got to be the only place I can imagine where it's "cool" to "take a victory lap" and not finish your degree promptly. I've also heard other Aggies boasting about how little they study and prepare for their courses, in an attempt to sound cool. It probably happens at other universities and in other countries, but I've seen much less of it abroad.
I just wanted to clarify that my last post was only half-serious, I love America . I could say similar things about Germans, I can spot them from a mile away. Unfortunately, this seems to hold true the other way around as well, I was in Madrid at the airport and some random old dude asked me in German "where ze ***** is the iberia lounge"...I told him which way to go and then asked...how did you know I speak German? He said, come on, easy to see. And I was not even wearing white socks to leather shoes .
Curious. I've never really identified myself as "Southern." I and most Texans I know think of ourselves as inherently unique. Same with Louisianans. When I think of "The South," I think of every other rebel state even though TX and LA were/are a part of it. There are plenty of similarities, sure, but I think of Texas and Louisiana on an individual level unique to the rest of "The South." I see Texas in particular as more Southwestern than anything. Anybody else?
lol -- Yes, Germans are easily identifiable abroad, as well. I can typically spot them in a few ways 1) they are physically fit (thin), but you can tell they've never lifted weights in their life (lifting is typical of the rare American fit man) so they have a small upper body (not broad shoulders/strong arms) 2) Of course their accent while speaking English is a dead giveaway. Some of their English words are distinctive, as well, although I probably only know them due to spending time working in Germany. "Hello!" instead of "excuse me" to get somebody's attention, for example. 3) The women tend to wear little to no makeup 4) Wearing jeans as part of "business casual" attire -- I saw this a lot while working in Germany and Germans working in the US. Kind of dressy jeans, but still not "business casual" as defined. 5) They get exceedingly pissy when somebody is holding up a line. You better have you money ready to pay when it's your turn, or a German will seek you out and yell at you (lol)
In terms of Texas, this differs wildly by what part of Texas you're in. If you're in Beaumont, you're likely to host/attend a crawfish boil-- a definite cajun influence. If you live West of I-35, there's a clear Southwestern influence. What separates Texas from the rest of the South is the Mexican influence in Texas. That's non-existant in the rest of the South, except for maybe a little bit around urban centers like Charlotte and Atlanta, but even there it's nothing like Texas' Mexican influence (food, culture, population, etc)
really? I've seen the opposite. Euro's, and especially Aussies don't hesitate to take a GAP year or more, or otherwise delay their plunge into the rat race. Americans often seem hesitant to take any time 'off' and consider anything over 2 weeks an extended leave....Bizarre to see students hesitant to jeopardize their work and academic 'prospects' at age 22. and fit Germans? The under 40's -- sure-- but the 40 +'s have experienced far too much good beer and food to have a waist size anywhere close to their age!
Basically my point, yes. I was curious as to OP's assertion of Texans as Southerners. It's technically correct, but....eh, not really. What I've seen, too. Last time I was in Spain I arrived mid-afternoon. You'd think the whole damn country had shut down for siesta. And the French have been rioting over increasing the hourly work week and the retirement age. The French seem to love a good old-fashioned economic riot. And I've met many fat Germans, fat Italians, fat Brits, etc. The Brits eat like we do and the Germans and Italians love their starches, and beer and wine, respectively. Not that Americans don't need to cut back on the crap we eat or anything...
Believe it or not, there's no paper. This is something I'm genuinely interested about on a personal level. Anyway, for me, I was born from an immigrant family, so obviously my identity is a bit more muddled than the American that has lineage here in this country. Having tried my entire life to retain the culture and identity of the old country, I usually have a hard time identifying myself as American although I wholeheartedly acknowledge that there are aspects of my personality that are and perhaps always will be "American." Living the majority of my life in California, I've adopted a more liberal outlook on politics in general, and most of my friends are white liberals, and have become largely accustomed to a very informal perspective of the American culture. Being a Generation Y'er, most of my friends are born from baby boomer parents that lived through the 60's and 70's. While other kids at school were listening to backstreet boys, n'sync, britney spears, my friends and I were listening to The Beatles, Floyd, S&G, and so on, and I loved it. To this day I'm obsessed with the counter-culture and American folk/folk rock music, one of my favorite bands being CSNY. Of course, living in California, I took up pot in high school, experimented with some psychedelics, took up wearing flannel from a younge age (and if I may be supremely petty for a moment... I was wearing flannel before it became fashionable! My choice was influenced from having listened to a lot of Nirvana and grunge in general in middle school), growing my hair out, and as we speak I haven't shaved in almost half a year. All this is influenced by the remnants of the hippie culture here in California, peddled by both drugs, history, and the parents of my friends, that I've been able to grasp on to just to get a mild taste of what it might have even been like back in those days. I'd say one of the most notable cultural aspects of my life is that I don't drive. I live in L.A., and I take public transport everywhere. Call it a personal conviction/rebellion, I guess. It is inconvenient sometimes, but I carpool with friends whenever they're going my direction. When it comes to taking care of things, I'm very direct and to-the-point, which is pretty American. I also love punctuality, and hate people who aren't considerate towards other people's time, which is also born out of the American capitalist culture (I don't work in an office or anything, though). I have the usual optimism and confidence when it comes to handling problems and tough situations, like Ronny mentioned above. I think these are the personality traits that are difficult to elide when wanting to assimilate into another culture, because the peeve of lateness and circular rhetoric will always stick.
You're right, Texas is a bit of a regional gray area for a number of both cultural and historical reasons. I simply lumped it as "Southern" for convenience's sake and to make an example. I think the entire country has a hard time figuring out if Texas is Southwestern or Southern, or if it's just its own entity. I think people don't prefer the latter because it kind of feeds into the "Texas is its own" mentality, but Texans indulge in that perspective anyway.
IMO- American culture is the essence of 'Personality Ethic'. There have been two dominant theories of achieving success in the literature of the past 200 years, the personality ethic and the character ethic. The personality ethic has been in the forefront since World War I. Previously, the character ethic was dominant. According to the character ethic, it is most important to focus on integrating the principles of effective living into one's character. This may be a long-term process, but working on the character, including an effective view of the world, is getting at the root from which behavior flows and so is fundamental. The character ethic sees individual development as a long-term process bearing results according to the law of the harvest. According to the personality ethic, there are skills and techniques one may learn and a public image, personality and attitudes one may develop that result in success. The problem is, eventually we may be discovered as insincere and shallow. These ideas may be helpful when they flow naturally from a good character and the right motives, but they are secondary. A paradigm is a model, theory or explanation of something else. It is the "lens" of our preconceived notions through which we view the world. If our paradigm is not close to reality, our attitudes, behaviors and responses will not be effective or appropriate. We will be as lost as a person trying to function in Chicago with a map of New York. We can only accomplish quantum improvement in our lives if we accomplish a paradigm shift resulting in a more accurate and effective view of the world. Some paradigm shifts may be fast (a blinding flash of the obvious), some are more slow (a change in character).
yeah I disagree. I see 'southwestern' as being new mexico, colorado, arizona. In my mind the border of the western front of 'the south' is houston and with san antonio being the beginning of the west. I am talking more in terms of terrain but also mentality. As you get out of the green of houston and the swampy hot ,and get towards san antonio kerrville, it starts getting dusty,rockier. I don't think of dusty sandy as being the south The south to me is parts of TX,LA,MS,AL,TN,KY,VA(southern),NC,SC GA. Dallas,arkansas, oklahoma I consider that it's own subset of what I consider the southern part of the midwest. With the st louis,chicago,wisconsin,indiana rounding out the rest of the north of the midwest Also whats the difference between birmingham,atlanta, memphis and houston in terms of the look of the place and the culture? Not much except that maybe Houston having more of an international immigrant presence.. So maybe a little more curry and shwarma and a little less bbq but still the same.
It's partly ideological and partly cultural for why I hunt, mainly a mix of the American conservation movement and shikaar. I don't kill for sport, and I eat what I shoot. There's this rhapsodic state one enters during the hunt... akin to the sublime. That probably is the underlying reason why so many are passionate about it. Ironically, almost all the left-wing people I know are far more disconnected with nature then some of my conservative friends.
