The American Coup

[James R. Coplin]

>What you have to bear in mind, though, is that non-Latin America is 
>quite different from Europe. There's a lot of cultural overlap, of 
>course, more than with for instance Japan or China, but there are 
>remarkable differences nonetheless. Could it be that this different way 
>of looking at things, the different perceptions on either side of the 
>Atlantic, are at the basis of some of this scare?

You have hit the nail on the head I think.  There is perception on both
sides of the Atlantic that we are more similar than different; this is of
course false.  The error stems from a "but we're from over there" and
"they're from over here."  There is a massive and considerable cultural
difference as well as some attitude.  American's chafe at European
patronizing attitudes and like parents rebuffed by their progeny, Europeans
see us as unruly and uneducated.  Both attitudes I think stem from a
fundamental misunderstanding of each other.  

I think part of it has to do with scale.  The US is freaking huge.  I know
you say you have seen maps etc but until you have been here, driven around
and dealt with the physical space, you can't understand.  I laugh all the
time when my European guests want to know if we can pop down to Chicago for
dinner.  A cousin from Norway was all excited that he had found a rare
motorcycle what he called a little outside Chicago.  I live in Minneapolis,
Chicago is a 8 hour drive.  The "little" outside Chicago was more like 4
hours out of Chicago making a 12 hour drive each way to get this bike.  He
gets it now. Europeans have no trouble understanding the massive variation
in the peoples of Europe, yet lump all Americans into a fairly homogenous
media construct. I have never understood this peculiarity.

James R. Coplin