The American puritan thing is really weird. I work with a bunch of great guys, but most of them go to Church every Sunday. In the UK that would be seen as odd to put it mildly (Church attendance rate there is something like 6%). Then in the corporate world these same guys like nothing better than a night out ending in a strip club…watching 22 year olds take their clothes off for money. Sorry – I find that disturbing (and damn boring as well).
Politics – I agree, don’t even go there. One of my colleagues the other day started telling me how ‘measured’ he thought Israel’s response had been in Lebanon….yeah I thought, they’ve only killed a couple of thousand innocent civilians so far, but I didn’t say anything.
But the weird thing is, these are genuinely good people. They love their kids, generous – I blame the American media, which it seems to me is slightly to the right of Attila the Hun.
America is an amazing place – I just drove through Southern Colorado back to San Diego. Scenery is just stunning through monument valley, 4 corners. There are a wide variety of great people here – I practice Yoga a lot and get to meet some hippies and alternative people there, so I know the corporate world isn’t the beginning and end of this country. But there’s that puritanical streak just under the surface that is hard to deal with for a liberal European. I guess that’s why we kicked the Puirtans out in the first place (joke – sit back and wait for the blasting).
