Braindead Brainiac
New member
I asked this question in this same category, but based on the answers I received, I fear I may not have been clear.
For my county, the United States (which I am not bashing, by the way, as I love my country and it's constitution, but no country is perfect), I notice a couple mindsets that rub me the wrong way:
1. That our cultural norms do, or should, apply to everyone; and
2. That our laws and constitution do, or should, apply to all countries.
I do not believe these 2 statements. I find them to be ignorant. My chagrin is that I witness many of my countrymen with these mindsets because they don't look outside of their culture.
Examples of this mindset include:
- Someone from the United Kingdom will get online and ask about laws, and Americans will answer according to their laws without considering that UK laws are different than US laws.
- Someone from Brazile may ask questions about societal norms in regards to teenaged dating, and Americans will flip out and answer the question as if that Brazilian were supplanted here in the US.
- Someone leaves the US, goes to Mexico, gets into trouble, then wants to scream at the Mexican authorities, "I know my rights!" without blinking an eye or ever considering that the United States Constitution that they know stopped at the border, and they are now under the authority of another government and a different set of laws and societal norms -- which does not provide, for example, the right to a speedy trial.
The assumptions do not seem to be conscious. More of a "normalcy" kind of thing, that because certain things are "normal" and "every day" for them, they don't stop and think that it's certainly not "normal" or "every day" for people outside of their culture.
So, my question is, as I have observed these mindsets, conscious or otherwise, in many of my countrymen, it caused me to wonder if this is a psychological norm and that others from other countries have noticed similar mindsets in their countrymen.
Is it just my society that seems stricken with this tunnel-vision, or is it found everywhere? Is this a mindset that is found in all countries, or are these inaccurate mindsets found in every country/nation? Do Germans, for example, get in trouble somewhere else and just expect that their German legal system followed them accross the borders, and get confused when they learn that if didn't?
I hope I have been clear to my question this time without being too wordy!
For my county, the United States (which I am not bashing, by the way, as I love my country and it's constitution, but no country is perfect), I notice a couple mindsets that rub me the wrong way:
1. That our cultural norms do, or should, apply to everyone; and
2. That our laws and constitution do, or should, apply to all countries.
I do not believe these 2 statements. I find them to be ignorant. My chagrin is that I witness many of my countrymen with these mindsets because they don't look outside of their culture.
Examples of this mindset include:
- Someone from the United Kingdom will get online and ask about laws, and Americans will answer according to their laws without considering that UK laws are different than US laws.
- Someone from Brazile may ask questions about societal norms in regards to teenaged dating, and Americans will flip out and answer the question as if that Brazilian were supplanted here in the US.
- Someone leaves the US, goes to Mexico, gets into trouble, then wants to scream at the Mexican authorities, "I know my rights!" without blinking an eye or ever considering that the United States Constitution that they know stopped at the border, and they are now under the authority of another government and a different set of laws and societal norms -- which does not provide, for example, the right to a speedy trial.
The assumptions do not seem to be conscious. More of a "normalcy" kind of thing, that because certain things are "normal" and "every day" for them, they don't stop and think that it's certainly not "normal" or "every day" for people outside of their culture.
So, my question is, as I have observed these mindsets, conscious or otherwise, in many of my countrymen, it caused me to wonder if this is a psychological norm and that others from other countries have noticed similar mindsets in their countrymen.
Is it just my society that seems stricken with this tunnel-vision, or is it found everywhere? Is this a mindset that is found in all countries, or are these inaccurate mindsets found in every country/nation? Do Germans, for example, get in trouble somewhere else and just expect that their German legal system followed them accross the borders, and get confused when they learn that if didn't?
I hope I have been clear to my question this time without being too wordy!