National character

[Morrus]

You may have maps, but that doesn't mean everyone USES them. (For the record, the ones I was talking to were Belgians...and no, they hadn't actually looked at their maps' scales.)

Do you know those Belgians well? They sound.... special! I do so apologise if they are friends or family.

I feel bad now.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Nah, they were just some dudes I knew in college, and not that well. Well, more accurately, I knew one, and the other was his younger brother coming for a visit.

 

[billd91]

"Unamerican" is a word I see a lot on social media, at least weekly. How many countries have "un-[nationality]" as an insult? I've never heard anyone use the phrase "un-British", I don't think. Do the French say "un-French"? The Russians? The Japanese? Is a national character a common thing?

As I see it, the whole Un-American comment isn't really about not fitting any national character. It's about fitting national ideals. As an amalgam of highly diverse immigrants, American culture is really weird and patchy. I don't think there's any single national character and studies have pointed out a number of distinct broad "nations" within the US, some highly informed by particular immigrant groups, others not so much. But, theoretically, we're bound together by the ideas that established the US as expressed by the founders. The Un-American comment is usually thrown out because someone thinks the target has failed to uphold or is running counter to those ideals.

 

[MechaPilot]

A very good question that the answer to will, of course, be coloured by the background of the person who answers. To me our traditional character would be summed up by the following:

- a nation of consiliators born of diplomacy, not rebellion.
- who don't jump to rash conclusions, but rather think important things through
- who will stand with our friends
- who won't start a fight but, by God, will bloody well help finish one
- who won't stand idle while our neighbour suffers hunger or illness

Or you could say that we have a plodding nature that tends to be hidebound by tradition, over innovation. Not quite true given our technological contributions, but not necessarily too far off either.

I feel fairly certain that Tim Horton's has been omitted from that list somewhere.

 

[MechaPilot]

That surprises me. I've heard it literally thousands of times. Always by Americans; which leads me to suspect it was coined by an American. Most every American I know has said it at some point. I'm sure I could Google it and find out in about 3 seconds.

I'm also an American, and I've also never heard that before. Maybe its use is regional.


I do want to point out though that while most Americans do not travel more than 200 miles to work, we do tend to have relatives a significant distance away that we may travel to for holidays and special occasions. For instance, I live in Michigan, and my relatives are in Kentucky, California, and even 175 miles away within the same state.

 

[MechaPilot]

"Unamerican" is a word I see a lot on social media, at least weekly. How many countries have "un-[nationality]" as an insult? I've never heard anyone use the phrase "un-British", I don't think. Do the French say "un-French"? The Russians? The Japanese? Is a national character a common thing?

I think it's important when considering the term "Un-American" to consider that there is a precedent in the U.S. for labelling activity as American or Un-American. To be specific, look at senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Committee on Unamerican Activities, which was intended originally to catch people with Nazi ties but evolved to catch communists and communist sympathizers. It also dug up dirt on a lot of people and ruined plenty of lives by outing people's sexuality and getting them blackballed in their industries.

Many elder Americans may have notions of what is and is not American that were influenced, at least in part, by the Committee.

 

[1of3]

I think the notion of having superior values in your own community, had been common throughout history.

Don't stick to the official name of the nation. Germans for example will usually appeal to European or Western values, although the of course mean German.

 

[gamerprinter]

The travel radius for most people is identical in most Western countries. Nobody drives 200 miles to work, or to watch a movie, or to do any of the things people do.

Lots of people in my home town (which is 90 miles from Chicago) work in Chicago where the pay is better, but locally home rent/purchase is way cheaper (20%). I couldn't do it (180 miles round trip 5 days a week), but many people I know, do, even my Dad did for a while.

 

[Ryujin]

I feel fairly certain that Tim Horton's has been omitted from that list somewhere.

Do you include air and water when enumerating your national character?

 

[Morrus]

Lots of people in my home town (which is 90 miles from Chicago) work in Chicago where the pay is better, but locally home rent/purchase is way cheaper (20%). I couldn't do it (180 miles round trip 5 days a week), but many people I know, do, even my Dad did for a while.

Yeah, I'm about 90 miles from London, and I know loads of people who commute there every day without a second thought.