[Moma]

(05-27-2011 09:55 AM)Luckystar Wrote:  

American culture is definitely more conservative than European culture. You get a lot of people who believe (in a set of values) but don't follow. Or follow, but don't really believe. Much of the world is like this - China, India, Middle East, many catholic countries, etc....

These are the grey areas within conservative cultures. I don't think its hypocrisy (hypocrisy arguments rarely have merit anyway) as much as it is an internal struggle that these people deal with. It's normal.

What's more important is respecting each other's freedom of choice. Which conservatives clearly have more trouble with.

I don't know if this is true. I grew up in Europe and I left because I didn't feel my creative potential was allowed to flourish with its conservativism (especially in the UK).
I won't quote other reasons why I left.

I think the differences in North America (and I will use the United States as an example since Canada is quite similar and tends to follow suit 5-10 years later) is that North America encourages expression of opinion.

I think they have the similar opinions in Europe but because expressing one's opinion is not encouraged as much, you don't get a strong idea of what people believe per se until push comes to shove.

For instance, only when I came to America did I see so many books on self help and these super gurus and all this get rich in five fast steps etc etc.

In my experience in America, it's a much more open culture. I feel it's a lot less conservative. I don't buy anything people say..because they never act on it. Maybe it's my European training but I can filter through a NA woman's drivel and get down to the meat and potatoes of what's going on very very quickly.

Values here are generally trite and easily negotiated. I'm not knocking the culture, I personally prefer it to European (so far).

However, I have not lived in America long enough to really say if I like all that materialistic stuff but let's see..