4 ms·
It's a guess, but I think the whole living-together-on-an-island can explain a lot. Maybe in the current world with cheap airplane tickets, a tunnel to Calais,
by hollander 9y ago
It's a guess, but I think the whole living-together-on-an-island can explain a lot. Maybe in the current world with cheap airplane tickets, a tunnel to Calais, and of course the whole internet thing and globalisation, it may look like that doesn't matter. But this is in the blood, in the culture, in the history of the British. It's what I often hear at least.
Living on an island where it's difficult to escape makes it that you have to find a way to live together. That makes it more important to tolerate eachother, to live with eachother, and politeness is a way to do that. Compliance is a way of surviving if you cannot escape.
I've heard that the Dutch are the least compliant. Well maybe the source is not reliable, the source being Marina Abramovic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Abramovi%C4%87 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Abramovi%C4%87), a performance artist who worked over the world as well as in Amsterdam, and said that the Dutch were the least cooperative during her performances. I don't know if that is a compliment, but being a "Hollander" I can relate to it.
- owenversteeg 9y ago> It's a guess, but I think the whole living-together-on-an-island can explain a lot. Hmm, it might. It definitely seems like a pretty compelling argument to me at least. And I definitely agree, compliance is in the blood, culture, and history of the British. At the same time I can think of some more noncomplaint island peoples. I was in Iceland two weeks ago and that comes to mind: they seemed roughly on par with the Dutch. I think living on an island is probably one important ingredient in British compliance. At the same time I think there are a lot of different ways to end up with a compliant population, for example the Southern US seems to be more compliant than the North.