In Europe culture is an elite business which trickled down, but not quite. Its role has been taken over by technical, utilitarian, organizational, in other words civilizational rules. America is the only nation where mass culture is a uniquely American interpretation of civilizational rules. It is the strength and the weakness of American culture and of the Americans as a people. You have alone to look around here in Philadelphia to notice that Americans are willing to accept chaos as a result of their firmly held beliefs.
Gun control is another case of course.
Every day someone gets shot, often for the most trival of reasons and Penn is an interesting place to be at, for the shootings takes place in the streets surrounding the immediate campus. Let us not belittle American culture however, it has made it possible for Americans to avoid the ethnic wars which we witness in Bosnia and Ruanda. Of course American culture is a cultural melting pot. Two last remarks on culture. There seems to be an implicit and persistent view that culture is the product of a long organic growth and because of that is vulnerable to western disruption.