From: poser@vxdsyc.desy.de (Till Poser)
Subject: Is there such a beast as the average USAian?
Reply-To: Poser@vxdsyc.desy.de
Organization: Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, Experiment ZEUS bei HERA
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 22:03:35 GMT

In article <1992Aug11.174559.3376@desire.wright.edu>, 
demon@desire.wright.edu (Stupendous Man) writes:

|>In article <1992Aug11.160435.2142@dscomsf.desy.de>, 
|>poser@vxdsyc.desy.de (Till Poser) writes:
|>> Stupendous Man writes:

|>> |>	You're talking in circles.  It's ok to stereotype USAians but not
|>> |>Euros?
|>> 
|>> It is relatively useless to stereotype Euros as Euros since there ain't no
|>> sech animal. 
|>
|>	But what we're (Holly and I, at least) trying to say is that there
|>isn't such an animal as "USonian", either.

This is true only if You inflate the differences between the inhabitants of
various parts of Your nation. Now, while I grant that there is a sizable 
portion of the population which will not move very far from their place
of birth during their lifetime, the mobility of the average US citizen is
very high.

Item: You, the average US professional, move almose twice as often during
      Your professional carreer, sometimes moving thousands of km in the 
      process, as Your European counterpart.

Item: You, the citizen of the USA, have exposure to a cornucopia of media, 
      which are nearly identical all over the US. I grant that there are
      media for special ethnicities, but the principle holds.

Item: You can move anywhere in the US and have the same basic language,
      underlying cultural assumptions and commercial background.

Item: Wherever You go, the legal system and political system is identical,
      granting local minor variations.

Now, all of this conspires to create a people which might retain a certain
cultural diversity depending on the point of origin, but are largely, if not
cosmopolitan, then US-politan, i.e. "Merkin".

If You examine these points, I submit that they can be transferred, with
suitable modifications, to the FRG (just to use another largely federalistic
country), if only en miniature. There too, we have, to our eyes, large
differences between denizens of different parts and these differences have
their roots lost in the mist of time. But the above points serve only to 
bring home the fact, that after all is said and done, there is such a thing 
as a German commonality.

Sorry, but my statements hold.

|>> If You must, trot out Your stereotypes about Huns, Brits, Micks,
|>> Eytees, Polacks, Frogs, what have You. But while there might be subtle 
|>> cultural differences between Californians and Texans, these are comparable
|>> to the differences between, for instance Bavarians and Berliners, that is,
|>> minute and on the whole neglegible, when viewed from afar. To a frog there 
|>> might be vast differences within the population of his pond, but it's all 
|>> the same to the stork. Different ponds, however, breed different amphibians.
|>
|>	I think the typical New Englander, Midwesterner, Southerner, West
|>Coaster, etc. exhibit enough differences to be culturally distinct.

As I've tried to show, these differences are only important in the framework
of the US citizen hirself. For the outside observer, the common divider is
large enough to include all of the above into one definition, while certainly
granting enough leeway for minor local variations.

But You raise an interesting point here. As far as I can make it out, the
cultural riftlines are not so much along geographical boundaries than along
ethnical, or possibly more important, along economic lines. I've heard
theories that the urban Afroamericans, to name an example, have formed a
distictly diverging cultural basis, up to and including a rapidly evolving
Creole as a cultural focus. 

This raises the possibility of a much more worrying cultural fragmentation,
i.e. a horizontal fragmentation rather than a geographical one, of the US.

Any comments?

|>Brett

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