Sarah Hoyt has a few thoughts on the just how weird we are in this country:
But possibly the most surprising thing in the US was … how people interacted. You could have ornaments and decorated trees in your front yard and no one stole them. This made my jaw drop, particularly since my host family’s house didn’t even have a nominal fence. (This might be gone in certain areas. At least someone stole both a cement giraffe and – months later – a cheap composite fountain from our front yard.)
And when something went wrong, say a massive snowfall, people grabbed shovels and went to the street, to shovel not just their driveway, but as much of the sidewalk as they could, and to make their area as functional as possible, before official rescue/help arrived.
This would be unheard of most other places in the world.
I’m guessing that many of us who have never ventured out of North America would struggle to understand how different this behavior his, how grounded it is in a common culture. But, she’s right, we largely have a respect for the rule of law and a desire to help others.
The whole article is good, and worth your time. Allow me to quote once more:
We have them surrounded.
Things are looking up, eh?