The biggest Trans-Atlantic dividing point? The Audacity of Hope. It is something that is pretty hard to quantify or prove, but to a first-time non-native visitor to New York, it is visceral.Americans are optimistic, much more so, than their curmudgeonly British cousins, who in comparison, are the masters of cynicism. I am generalising of course, but like most stereotypes, it comes from somewhere.
Americans respectively "can do", "will do", "pumped", "psyched", or "feel good" at the most trivial of happenings, and at the most inauspicious of occasions.
Each morning, the curb side fruit-seller, the lobby security guard, the train conductor all wish me "a GREAT day" - in Britain, such a phrase would be considered an ironic sleight.
Speaking on the phone, with cold-calling salespeople, inquire positively about how we're feeling (reserved Britons, typically having a crap day, would never intrude in to the bitter truth).
The Mail man on my desk declares each morning, as he deposits post in our empty reception "mail, ON THE DESK" in a cheery way only Santa UK might be allowed, on December 25th. I could give more anecdotes.
The press is more positive, whilst the economy has been pretty messy of late, the US Media - without being panglossian - hasn't resorted to doomesday type reportage evinced in British papers like the Jeremiah "Daily Mail" and "Daily Express" (admittedly these are the two extremes). Even if the US was totally wrecked, or it worked in alliteration, it would not get away with the terrible glib headline "broken Britain" that so many talk about the UK.
Talk to Americans about the economy, the view is dim, but there is great faith in the ability of the market to eventually sort itself out. I saw an interview recently (on BBC) with a recently laid-off New Yorker and the remarkable thing was his cheeriness.
Talk to Americans about their future plans, they are positive and upbeat. The weather may be wet, but tomorrow promises to be better. Adverts from Alzheimers to Home Insurance to Obama hail "HOPE". The average American is therefore, from what relatively little I have seen, closer to Ned Flanders than Homer Simpson.
An interesting dividing point is American regard for their home town. It is a truth universally acknowledged that someone from Britain must come from a self-described "Sh*t hole": be it Swindon, Luton, Bradford, Cumbernauld, Buxton or Tunbridge-Wells. Books on GB's "50 Most Crap Towns" fly-off the shelves in to Christmas stockings and get re-printed every Yuletide. Americans, meanwhile, from Mississippi to Minnesota, Springfield Ill to Springfield Mass, beam positively about their cute home town. Some are more honest, but there are fewer complaints.
Okay, out of 300 Million people, there are a few people drinking out of half-empty glasses. Not all live the easy-wealthy lives that promote a belief a feeling of optimism. People who live in New York and are able to wake each morning to the sight of the Empire State are understandably more inclined to be upbeat. The difference is there.
The reason for hope? Americans are a nation of immigrants. Their population have inherited a culture from the self-selective adventurous people from whom they are descended. For many of these new generations seeking the American Dream, it is already half realised and spurred on by the knowledge that the present is better than the recent past and that improvements in life quality can continue.
Optimism and hope are not always a good thing however: misanthropy sometimes goes a long way. Americans often seem naive to European eyes, because optimism provokes people ot ask fewer questions about people's motivations. To British people, American positive-thinking and hope sometimes seem superficial and in-sincere. Why do Britons hate Americans? Well, when they sometimes do, largely because they are a different culture. Worse, because they speak the same language, they assume that they ARE the same culture, when they're not: as Oscar Wilde said I think "two peoples separated by a common language". Faced with American brashness, Britons are repelled and take Schadenfreude at their failures.
So, neither is perfect.
Obama's election campaign evocation of "Hope" and "Change We Can Believe In" would generally not work so well in more cynical Britain. (Well, emptyish words worked for Tony Blair in Britain, but maybe I can call that an exception to the rule.) In 2009, that would never happen.
Good or bad, optimism is something that I will miss when I leave America but I will try and ship some of it back to the Sceptered Isle!
Americans respectively "can do", "will do", "pumped", "psyched", or "feel good" at the most trivial of happenings, and at the most inauspicious of occasions.
Each morning, the curb side fruit-seller, the lobby security guard, the train conductor all wish me "a GREAT day" - in Britain, such a phrase would be considered an ironic sleight.
Speaking on the phone, with cold-calling salespeople, inquire positively about how we're feeling (reserved Britons, typically having a crap day, would never intrude in to the bitter truth).
The Mail man on my desk declares each morning, as he deposits post in our empty reception "mail, ON THE DESK" in a cheery way only Santa UK might be allowed, on December 25th. I could give more anecdotes.
The press is more positive, whilst the economy has been pretty messy of late, the US Media - without being panglossian - hasn't resorted to doomesday type reportage evinced in British papers like the Jeremiah "Daily Mail" and "Daily Express" (admittedly these are the two extremes). Even if the US was totally wrecked, or it worked in alliteration, it would not get away with the terrible glib headline "broken Britain" that so many talk about the UK.
Talk to Americans about the economy, the view is dim, but there is great faith in the ability of the market to eventually sort itself out. I saw an interview recently (on BBC) with a recently laid-off New Yorker and the remarkable thing was his cheeriness.
Talk to Americans about their future plans, they are positive and upbeat. The weather may be wet, but tomorrow promises to be better. Adverts from Alzheimers to Home Insurance to Obama hail "HOPE". The average American is therefore, from what relatively little I have seen, closer to Ned Flanders than Homer Simpson.
An interesting dividing point is American regard for their home town. It is a truth universally acknowledged that someone from Britain must come from a self-described "Sh*t hole": be it Swindon, Luton, Bradford, Cumbernauld, Buxton or Tunbridge-Wells. Books on GB's "50 Most Crap Towns" fly-off the shelves in to Christmas stockings and get re-printed every Yuletide. Americans, meanwhile, from Mississippi to Minnesota, Springfield Ill to Springfield Mass, beam positively about their cute home town. Some are more honest, but there are fewer complaints.
Okay, out of 300 Million people, there are a few people drinking out of half-empty glasses. Not all live the easy-wealthy lives that promote a belief a feeling of optimism. People who live in New York and are able to wake each morning to the sight of the Empire State are understandably more inclined to be upbeat. The difference is there.
The reason for hope? Americans are a nation of immigrants. Their population have inherited a culture from the self-selective adventurous people from whom they are descended. For many of these new generations seeking the American Dream, it is already half realised and spurred on by the knowledge that the present is better than the recent past and that improvements in life quality can continue.
Optimism and hope are not always a good thing however: misanthropy sometimes goes a long way. Americans often seem naive to European eyes, because optimism provokes people ot ask fewer questions about people's motivations. To British people, American positive-thinking and hope sometimes seem superficial and in-sincere. Why do Britons hate Americans? Well, when they sometimes do, largely because they are a different culture. Worse, because they speak the same language, they assume that they ARE the same culture, when they're not: as Oscar Wilde said I think "two peoples separated by a common language". Faced with American brashness, Britons are repelled and take Schadenfreude at their failures.
So, neither is perfect.
Obama's election campaign evocation of "Hope" and "Change We Can Believe In" would generally not work so well in more cynical Britain. (Well, emptyish words worked for Tony Blair in Britain, but maybe I can call that an exception to the rule.) In 2009, that would never happen.
Good or bad, optimism is something that I will miss when I leave America but I will try and ship some of it back to the Sceptered Isle!
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