On Mon, 29 Jan 1996, Virginia I. Shafer wrote:
> USA NATIONAL CULTURE USA SUBCULTURES
> National interest became Special interest
> Integrity became Situational ethics
> Take responsibility became Demand rights
> Waste not became Want not
> Value of relationships became Value of stuff
> Wisdom became Street smarts
> Labor for future became Instant gratification
> Fact-based decisions became Image-based decisions
> Pride in workmanship became Deification of profit
> Respect the performance became Winning is everything
> Considerate became Aggressive
> Disciplined became Unrestrained
> Respect for education became Antipathy for education
> Critique became Pointing fingers
> Orientation on group became Orientation on self
> Seek a better life became Greed
I spent a year on the Robert Bosch Fellowship for Future American
Leaders in Germany. There is nothing like spending a year overseas to get
some perspective on our own culture in a macro and a micro sense. Some of
the cultural differences were magnified for me, because I have been
"living" them my entire life. I was born of a German mother and an
American father, and we spoke only German at home. Since my mother was a
full time homemaker, she pretty much defined the "culture" at home -
strongly German.
There were a few things that actually surprised me during the Fellowship
year. The were one or two of the Fellows, who at times would make off the
cuff comments about "how we do it so much better in the States." To which
I would reply: "If that is what you think, you have missed the whole
point. We did not come her to show the German how they do things *wrong*
and how we do them *right*, rather we have come her to see how other
cultures do things *differently* to get a perspective on our own culture.
There may be things we do better, **but** there are also many things they
do better." The one thing that the Japanese and the Germans simply *kill*
us on is long(er) term thinking. Their social and business systems are set
up in such a fashion that you cannot but think in the long term. For
example: 1) The majority stockholder in many of the very large German
companies are on of the three big banks in Germany. They are more
interested in the long term health of the enterprise than they are in the
short term profit they will make. In the US, this is **illegal**, and most
investors are only interested in this quarters dividends. 2) The law
governing hiring, firing and working hours are so restrictive in Germany
that firms only hire with the intention of keeping an employee for the
long term, and there is none of this "workplace competition" the way you
find it here in the States. "The person, who put in the most hours during
a workweek wins." In fact, the laws & agreements governing working hours
are so strict that the CEO of a corporation could go to *jail* for
allowing too many overtime hours without having gone through a long and
detailed review process. People don't work on the weekends in Germany
except for the shopkeepers and the lone entrepreneur PERIOD.
By the same token, I do not think that the American cultural invasion
all over the world is a good thing. The last thing I want to see is 20
McDonalds in downtown Prague, where I can order in English! If I travel
that far, I want to experience that which is typically Czech *not* that
which is typically American!
The other trend that I have noticed (I am speaking more intuitively now)
is the race to consumerism and instant gratification. I personally believe
that this is a trend, whose root cause is in the approach to sales and
marketing taken in this country. In Europe, most transactions still run on
a cash basis, and if you do not have the money, you cannot but the
product. In Europe, you can get a credit card, but they are still few and
far between. The number of stores that will even accept a credit card is
very small! I see it as a marketing ploy to get products into your hands
by offering you every kind of "financing" to get you to "take it home with
you." I can now go out a buy a new computer, and I don't even have to
begin paying for it until after next Xmas! I sometimes wonder why more
people don't question this trend. Perhaps, we have been so inundated with
"short term thinking" and "instant gratification" that we have trouble
seeing beyond that.
If I go even a step deeper, I come upon much that has been written by
people like Stephen Covey in that we are moving away from the "character
ethic" toward the "personality ethic," or even to paraphrase Rupert Murdoc
(I think) & Roger Aliles in "the medium is the message" and "you are the
medium (message)." I think this move away from the character ethic in this
country has led us to embarrassing accidents like the Challenger Disaster,
where more "managers" and "bureaucrats" were concerned about getting the
thing "off the launch pad" than were concerned about the safety of the
people inside despite the efforts of the engineers, who designed the
boosters, to stop the launch.
I'll stop philosophizing & rambling for the time being, although I could
long continue.
-- Eric N. Opp MRJ Inc. eopp@mrj.com