American cultural characteristics?

First, look at the money. Since money has become a thing, human society rarely does not look at money. Even in China, which flaunts "purity" as a "noble" tradition, there are some common sayings such as "Money makes the mare go" and "Congratulations on making a fortune", and there are also some so-called philosophical sayings that are not so vulgar, such as "If there is a prize, there must be a brave man" and "People die for money and birds die for food". However, American society has a more thorough attitude towards money than any other society.

The second characteristic of American culture is that it tends to be attached to the trend, red and black. In American words, it is called "following the winner." . Other nations are not like this, but in some cultures, at least from the theoretical and moral point of view, people who want to be good and great should at least behave like villains who don't go with the flow, even if they can't be calm and content with poverty. But once the truth of snobbery is exposed, it will immediately become the object of abandonment. As far as personal cultivation is concerned, this moral concept seems blameless. However, as far as the whole nation is concerned, it is not wonderful. For example, if someone loses an election and his supporters don't want to be accused of being snobs, they must continue to support the losers. Therefore, although the election is over, the struggle between winners and losers has not stopped. Endless factional or partisan struggles are obviously not conducive to the peaceful transfer of power. Because Americans take it for granted to "follow the winner", once someone loses the election, it will be like a tree falling apart, its supporters will part ways, and the anger during the election will disappear immediately. It is not uncommon to turn to winners, and no one feels wrong. For example, when Bush was defeated by Reagan, Baker, the campaign manager of Bush, immediately became the director of Reagan's presidential office. Baker became Bush's foreign minister immediately after Bush was elected president in Reagan's next term. Reagan, Bush and Baker are indifferent to this trend between the two competitors, and outsiders are not snickering at Feng Dao's snobbery, but the voices of praise and envy for Baker are endless.

The third characteristic of American culture is looking forward. The foresight of Americans can be seen from the following three aspects. First, plan everything in advance. Personal life is as small as annual leave, as big as getting married two or three times in a lifetime, all of which are set early. Colleges and universities do not need to wait for applicants to graduate from high school to recruit new students. Large enterprises employ people by making economic forecasts one year or even two or three years later. From the company's business to the government's national policy, how to clean up the mess was planned at the beginning of formulation. I remember that at the beginning of the Vietnam War in the 1960s, I saw from the reference news that the relevant departments of the US government were studying how to settle the losses, and I snickered in my heart, thinking that Americans were so timid that they would lose. After coming to the United States, I realized that although the Vietnam War did end in the defeat of the United States, studying how to clean up the defeat in advance had nothing to do with timidity, but a manifestation of looking forward. Not long ago, at the request of the company, I participated in a one-week "project management" training. At the beginning of class every day, the lecturer should repeatedly emphasize several basic principles of "project management" in class. The first one is that "the project must plan how to clean up the failure from the start date", on the grounds that "the start date may be the day when it ends in failure".

The fourth characteristic of American culture is dictatorship. Whether the so-called democracy in the United States is a real democratic election is ignored. The dictatorship mentioned here does not refer to the formation process of the head of government, but to the following two points. First, since the head of government has been elected, his power is often higher than that of the head of state under the authoritarian system, and he is often "centralized" and never "collective leadership". First of all, because the leaders of all government departments are hand-picked by the president, there is no need to find a balance of power inside and outside the party. Although cabinet ministers must be approved by the National Assembly, if the National Assembly is under the control of the President's own party, the approval is purely superficial, if not, it is basically superficial. Even if it is rejected by Congress, it is easy to change a candidate who is completely satisfied with the president. In addition, many positions actually in power are not cabinet members, so Congress has no right to ask. For example, the actual power of the president's advisers, assistants and chief of staff is often above that of the minister. The president has the sole and absolute right to recall, whether it is a minister who must be approved by the National Assembly or a person who has real power outside the cabinet and has no right to ask the National Assembly. Therefore, the president has never been bound by the internal government, nor has he been worried about issuing impossible and forbidden orders. Secondly, although Congress can veto presidential decrees in theory, in practice, the decrees that the president really wants to implement are rarely vetoed. This is not only because the veto of Congress must be approved by a simple majority of the Senate and the House of Representatives, but also because the President has the veto power, and after the veto of the President, Congress needs a two-thirds majority to veto the veto of the President. There are so many people in the Senate and the House of Representatives that it is difficult to get together. A two-thirds majority is impossible. Therefore, the president has basically no concerns about being restricted by Congress. The American system claims that the executive, judicial and legislative powers are separated, but the Supreme Court judges who have the power of constitutional interpretation and judicial final judgment are not elected, but appointed by the president. It can be seen that the dean actually has great influence on the judiciary, but he does not interfere with the daily work. In addition, the president has the power of Amnesty, so if the president intends to intervene in the judiciary, it is not helpless. It can be seen that the president of the United States does hold executive power in one hand and judicial power in the other. Although his term of office is limited, how can it be called dictatorship if it is not called dictatorship during his term of office?

The fifth characteristic of American culture is full of colonial mentality. When the United States was founded, there were 13 states that were originally British colonies, and most other states that were later incorporated into the territory of the United States through annexation and acquisition were also colonies of European powers. The history of American independence is only strange for 200 years. In the past 200 years, new immigrants have been migrating from the former sovereign state of the United States to the United States. On the whole, it is not surprising that American culture is full of colonial mentality, and it can even be taken for granted. It's just that ordinary people in China often turn a blind eye to this, so it deserves special attention. One of the most obvious aspects of American cultural colonial mentality is that all concepts related to high taste, such as nobility, elegance, elegance and luxury, have been adopted by Americans from the former European suzerain. For example, high-end clothing, furniture, automobiles, and restaurants are all competing to flaunt European style. Less obvious, but perhaps deeper is the American attachment and flattery to the British royal family. When Diana, the former British princess, died in a car accident, Zhalizi once wrote the following short article entitled "Fairy Tale World" to ridicule it:

The sixth characteristic of American culture is localism. In the preface of the first edition of this book, it is pointed out that it is not appropriate to translate "United States of America" into "United States" and thus abbreviate it into "United States" and translate "state" into "state". If China people change "United States" to "United States Federation" and "State" to "State", it will certainly help China people to understand American regionalism. In short, American nativism can be summarized as the following four points.

First of all, every state has legislative power. Because of this, there are strange phenomena in the United States, such as marriage law, traffic law, tax law and so on, which make it difficult for China people who are used to centralization to understand. Theoretically, state laws cannot conflict with the federal constitution. In fact, state laws that violate the federal constitution do not exist. Not only does it not exist, but it is still valid if it is rejected by the Federal Supreme Court without complaint, even if it violates the Federal Constitution. This shows that the local legislative power in the United States is by no means insignificant.

Second, the governments of States, cities, counties and towns are all elected by local residents, not appointed by any administrative agency or head, but only responsible to local residents and not subordinate to the federal government or any other local government. For example, the federal president is not the superior of the governor, and the length of a state is not the superior of any mayor or county magistrate within its jurisdiction. The rest and so on.

Third, local governments at all levels can have independent taxes, thus having relative financial independence.

Fourth, local governments at all levels recruit armed police to maintain law and order within their jurisdiction. The armed police recruited by local governments at all levels only obey their local governments and are not subordinate to any other police system.

The seventh characteristic of American culture is extreme individualism. In China, the family is the smallest unit, but in the United States, it continues to the individual. When children are old enough to stand on their own feet, they are separated from their parents. Parents can't expect their children to take care of them when they are old. Most people who live with their children have to pay rent and utilities for their children, just like foreigners. Couples turn against each other, and most of them will not break up because they consider the interests of young children. Although I am very much in love and incomparable love, most of my property is divided into households. When friends are invited to dinner, most of them pay for it themselves. Both family and school education emphasize the full expression and exertion of personal characteristics. Americans also talk about collective cooperation. When the company recruits people, it even pays special attention to whether the applicant can get along with others. But the status of the collective is secondary after all, and neither the government nor public opinion advocates sacrificing self-interest for the family, the collective or even the country. The education of soldiers in the army is not to die for the country, but not to make unnecessary sacrifices and save lives first.

Finally, the most surprising cultural feature is that although Americans are extremely individualistic, they also have strong patriotism. At first glance, how to avoid these two points seems puzzling. It's not hard to think about it. Lest others infringe on their own personal interests, they must be afraid that others will destroy the system and culture that protect their own personal interests. So although it is patriotic, its motivation is individualism. However, since there is a strong expression of patriotism, regardless of its motives, patriotism should be regarded as one of the characteristics of American culture. American patriotism is strong because Americans are not only afraid of others infringing on American interests, but also have a tendency to export their own culture. Probably, they think that more countries and nations are culturally Americanized, and the interests of the United States will be more secure. The involvement of Americans in the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the bombing of Yugoslavia are all concrete manifestations of this tendency.