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That piece resonated with me. In the spirit of Alexis de Tocqueville (Democracy in America), sometimes it takes a fascinated outsider to draw a properly nuance
by tc 17y ago
That piece resonated with me. In the spirit of Alexis de Tocqueville (Democracy in America), sometimes it takes a fascinated outsider to draw a properly nuanced picture of what it really means to be an American.
- Semiapies 17y agoI think the opposite - it strikes me as much more an insight into the ideals of English culture than anything about the US. Particularly the stereotypical assumption that you can understand a vast country by living for a while in Charleston and the District of Columbia. :) To be fair, it's from the POV of someone who's managed to spend eight years in a society without learning how to tell a joke to a stranger, but there's a reason why they say, "Americans think 100 years is a long time, and the English think 100 miles is a long way."
- tc 17y agoHe does reveal quite a bit about his own biases, but he walked away with the realization that the things he would criticize most about America are also what make America possible.