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Even though I am a Europhile, I do love some of the things the U.S. has to offer that you won't find a lot of in Europe, such as more massive open spaces (This coming from an urban-lover such as me), more dramatic natural scenery, cheaper cost of living (You do get what you pay for though, both good and bad...), unique regional American accents/cultures, openly friendly personality, more emphasis on top-quality customer service, diverse landscape, multicultural society (It seems like the U.S. is more diverse overall than Europe), phenomenal colleges/universities (Even though Europe has their fair share as well), street food culture, certain holidays, music (Europe got it good too, especially the UK and Sweden), the right to defend yourself even when a criminal turns his/her back from you (Weird legal issue in the UK), etc., etc.
However, all that said, there are some things that I wish this country would pick up from Europe. Such as less reliance on automobiles, better national inter-connectivity with high speed rail, denser commercial corridors in the outer suburbs with more emphasis on the pedestrian culture, much more extensive and efficient public transportation, universal health care coverage, forgiveness of all debts in the case of bankruptcy, better integration of socio-economic and racial classes even in the most wealthiest neighborhoods and lower-income inner-city neighborhoods and it seems like most individuals do this based on real estate trends instead of voluntary self-segregation purposes (Such as Kensington and the East End in London for example), the ban of high-fructose corn syrup and some of other preservatives in our food supply, greater respect towards the environment (We are getting better at this but we can still do even better), adoption of the metric system, have our currency change include the actual numbers on them instead of just the names of the heads-of-state, include the sales tax on the original price BEFORE purchase, better public education, maybe a re-evaluation on the tipping culture here in the States, more walkable cities (Outside of most of the cities, mid-sized towns, and college towns in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and a handful of exceptions in the South and the West Coast, urban America is not very walkable and pedestrian friendly overall in comparison to urban Europe and even suburban Europe), longer vacation hours, less obsessed view over race, a more global view of what's going on in the world, arguably get more bang for your buck overall (Those high taxes in Europe seem to give you a lot in return in most cases), less obsession over firearms, and finally, a more live-and-let-live attitude towards life, a disregard for the stifling workaholic culture that's prevalent in this country (And I say this as a proud East Coaster too).
If we can adopt some, if not all, of the aforementioned things that I really like about European society, I think this country truly can be the greatest nation on earth This is all in my opinion of course.
The European cultures that I find fascinating are those of the Mediterranean (Greek, Spanish, Italian) and the east (European Russia, Poland, etc). I find Western European culture to be overrated and overpromoted here so much so that it just seems kind of bland. I much prefer the more exotic cultures and lifestyles of Asia, and not even just countries like China or Japan, but also Central (Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan), South (India, Sri Lanka) and West (Persian, Israeli) Asian cultures that are often underrepresented in the US. In Moscow, there were wonderful Georgian, Armenian and Azeri restaurants I went to that exhibited beautiful examples of West and Central Asian culture: delicious food, beautiful art and decor, nice music. The architecture is more interesting as well. I prefer seeing domes and arches, or pagodas and thatch roofs over old ugly brick anyday.
My 23andme DNA test showed that I am 100 percent European, and 98.6 percent of that is Northern European (and most of that is English/Irish). I don't apologize for being a BBC and UK afficionado - I've been fascinated with the writing, the art, the history, film, TV, etc from that corner of the world since I discovered CS Lewis at age 5. I'm an unabashed Anglophile. Not only that, but several branches of my family immigrated to the New World from Northumberland, Yorkshire, Scotland, etc. and when I visited that region, I felt like I was home in a sense.
But that doesn't negate or lessen my love and appreciation for the land of my birth and my home - the United States in general, and Texas specifically.
It's very possible to love and appreciate both cultures - and not even WANT them to be "the same." I like what's DIFFERENT about both of them.
Exactly. I went through a stage around when I was 18 (2004) in which I totally looked to Europe for practically everything except religion. I think it was mainly because of the music, which was at its worse here, and I could not get anybody to listen to MY music (most of it made in Europe) As I got older, though, and actually visited Europe, I realized that it had its ups and downs just like any other continent, and I began to appreciate my homeland more. But hey - it would be skull-numbingly boring if everywhere was the same, right?
Not all European countries are the same, for instance the UK has much more in common with other anglo countries like USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand than it does with Europe.
Most Brits don't even consider themselves to be European, they have the same political and economical system as the USA and the other anglo countries, they have the same culture and ideological beliefs as the USA and the other anglo countries, and they have the same legal system and language.
Britain (like all the anglo countries) values democracy, liberty and economic freedom more than the European Union does, and Britain believes in the anglo model of free market economies and a non protectionist economic system.
these are all things that anglo countries share that makes them very different from the socialist European Union countries.
Anglo countries have a different ideology and political belief system than the European countries.
Britain belongs to the anglo world, not Europe.
Last edited by Obi wan spaghetti; 03-22-2014 at 12:13 PM..
I can't think of anything I'd want less than for the U.S. (or any other country, in fact) be more like other countries. The uniqueness of each is what makes travel so interesting.
I think a lot of Americans nowadays (probably due to our ever-declining interest in or emphasis on learning history) have so little understanding of just how much America has been influenced by and how recently it quite strongly emulated Europe. Pretty much right up until WWII, Americans still considered Europe the center of the civilized world. All the way from the revolution through the 19th C. through the turn of the century and even right on into the twenties, Americans (and American cities) who achieved any kind of wealth or status still fashioned themselves after what they saw or thought about Europe. America was still the New Money trying to fit in with the Old Money. It wasn't until after WWII and (importantly) the emergence of the Cold War that America began to dramatically shift away from this orientation. It's just that so much of what America is and looks like and thinks about itself has been built after WWII that it is tough to really picture today.
Most europeans can speak at least three languages. I wish that was one of our national traits.
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This is all in my opinion of course.
