British Expatriate Network

I was just wandering this question. What makes us question more and not fall hook line and sinker to what the government tells us.

I notice here alot everytime we have a debate on a topic we always tend to look at why and what for lol.

That also comes across in the way the news media in the UK reports as well.

I think the Brits natural ability to be cynical also protects us from such garbage.

It's a cultural thing that has been around for years and although companies and politicians occasionally try to do it "the American way", the Brits do have a great way of stamping it out.

I suppose the downside is that the negativity is then applied to other, more worthy ventures but on the whole, it seems to work out ok.

Lately though, I think Britain has actually contributed more to American stupidity and taken a bite for itself - see American Idol and other "reality" bread-and-circuses type shows.

Simple.
US has Stalinist indoctrination... god, country,flag, pledge of allegiance as part of the curriculum from pre-school onwards. All of this demands deference
The nearest you get to that in the UK is Royalty. Historically people in Britain have been reluctant to criticise the Queen.
Prime Ministers and all other politicians are beneath royalty and therefore undeserving of deference.
Interestingly the British attitude to royalty has clearly changed in the last few years.
America meanwhile has gone the other way.
Weidos.

I think Jeremy Paxman put it best in his book "The English A Portait Of A People". He wrote, from what I can rememeber, "The English public and their relationship with their government is a pragmatic one, in that the public are well aware that the government serve at their pleasure and if they are unhappy with the performance of those they have elected they will just get rid of them and get someone else"

that is the jist, I think the English/British people have a different contract with their goverment than the US do. In my view the US is not so much a society as a bunch of animals being controlled a much hated, untrusted ringmaster. The UK and the rest of western europe for better or for worse are a more inclusive society where the quest to obtain as many material possessions before you die is not the prime motivator in our lives.

I wanted to post on this issue but my computer got sick and had to go to the computer hospital. They amputated it's TV card and now it's working fine. It had been one of those intermittent problems that go away in the presence of an expert diagnostician and then manifest itself when the machine gets home.

The Brits weren't always so cynical,before WW2 there was deference for royalty, and the gentry in general, and for the politicians in a large part of the country. Although the labour party had such working class stalwarts as Bevan, Bevin and Shinwell, it was still headed by Atlee, a "gent".

Going to war and having to take personal responsiblity and authority for life and death decisions started the pendulum swing towards more independance and less deference. and to view actions "our betters" more critically.

Americans, in general are on a pendulum that has been swinging in an opposite direction. Remember that the pledge was changed by Ike, when he was prez. When I started working, Americans were the most flexible and adaptive people in engineering and construction, now they are hidebound and the Europeans are better.

But don't be complacent, both pendulums will slow and then reverse direction.

:grin:

:twisted: I like that! I agree 100% that Americans are brainwashed from the beginning and don't get me started on the school curriculum.

:razz: :twisted: YOU, said it all!

Evidently it isn't just the curriculum we need to worry about.
Where we live the local school system is imbroiled in a dispute over which Pizza place supplies the school lunches :shock:
Maybe its just the unreconstructed englishman in me, but the thought of Little Wonder getting the option of pizza 5 days a week terrifies me as much as the stanlinist education. :evil: