Thanks for mentioning this. In my travels in Eastern Europe, especially Romania, I am always amused by the image of America that everyone owns guns and "you can do what you want." Crime and adventure movies are watched frequently, which perhaps adds to the image that Americans are too ready to fight.

Visitors from Europe would do well to pick almost anywhere other than New York and Washington to visit. Not that they aren't nice places, but they aren't representative.

In response to this post of mine
http://assistantvillageidiot.blogspot.com/2006/07/why-center-isnt.html
(the second half is more germane to this discussion), I received this email:

I am a regular visitor to your site, and I have a few
comments on your post "Why the Center Isn't."

First let me say that I have lived in Germany for 20
years and my husband is German. He is an academic,
but his family is village working class.

I think you are exactly right about the bubble world
of journalists, and I would extend this to exchange
students, visiting academics, and even many business
people who spend a few years abroad. Aside from the
fact that these people tend to associate with their
career counterparts, they also meet these people in
situations where one puts his best face forward. They
meet people, but don't see them in the context of
their relatives, school friends, and neighbors. One
doesn't invite the black sheep of the family to a
dinner party for a new colleague. Nor does one invite
a guest to afternoon coffee with a group of mother's
slightly dingy friends. It's very easy to assume that
such people don't exist, that all Germans can quote
Kant and have subscriptions to the theater.

You also mentioned that what is conservative for us is
not necessarily conservative elsewhere. Previously,
when I talked to friends about women's rights, I
assumed that the US and Germany had the same starting
point. But I've come to believe that American women
had a more free, egalitarian life than Germans, even
before Betty Frieden. This may have something to do
with the strict social norms within smaller
communities. For instance, if you go to a village
here, there is one old church: Catholic or Protestant.
In America, a town of the same size might have 4 or 5.
There was a level of church control here that was
quite different. My husband attended a village grammar
school in the 50s in which the Catholics and
Protestants were in separate classes and didn't play
with one another.

I am doubtful that many journalists are aware of such
things or that throwing around words like theocracy
has a very different resonance here.

I hope these random thoughts weren't too disjointed.
Thanks for listening.

Vickie