Very well

Jesus Christ. This has never been a discussion about "which country is best". It has been a "discussion" about the clash of cultures and what factors explain it. And if you think this is all about unjustified stereo-typing, then you are implicitely assuming that there is no such thing as different cultures, different mindsets, different senses of humour, different work ethics, different social structures etc. No, it's all just racism and stereo-typing...

The great thing I find about people who accuse others of being racist is that they contradict themselves. They assume that others are being intolerant, which in their opinion they are not aloud to be. So, in effect they are themselves being intolerant of others assumed intolerance...

Now, as I stated earlier, yes, I do not like the swiss and swiss culture. And I'm entitled to that opinion. I never said anyone else had to agree. BUT I decided to figure out what the differences between anglo-saxon and germanic culture boil down to, i.e. what the causes of the different mindsets are.

The answer seems to lie in socio-historical developments which involve calvinistic protestantism, bureaucracy, authoritarianism vs. anti-authoritarianism and strong uncertainty avoidance vs. weak uncertainty avoidance. These are the reasons the germans/swiss are often regarded as being cold, boring, lacking a true sense of humour etc. by people from anglo-saxon countries, and why the english/irish are regarded as being loud, crude and full of themselves etc.

Now, if you have trouble understanding these arguments then I suggest you read up on it. You can start with Max Weber ("Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft" and "Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus"; both books that are regarded as sociological classics).

For some explanations of the differences between anglo-saxon and german cultures that are hard to bridge and may cause tension (especially on "why humour doesn't travel" read:

"http://books.google.ch/books?id=SlRlGVYRBWcC&pg=PA186&lpg=PA186&dq=german+lacks+humour&source=bl&ots=xPLiDzei_F&sig=kAvY080g6senB1KZAO-N08zO7gs&hl=de&ei=YmVVSpK4PMzG_gaMiLXdAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5" (pages 185-187).

As I said, this has nothing to do with "which country is best" or any other crap like that. Nonetheless, I did find "christophe's" arguments to be the most sensible arguments I've heard so far, even though I don't quite agree (which is the whole bloody point of a discussion).

Now, since people like "Support Genève" on the other hand refuse to use actual arguments and simply revert to personal insults, I have no idea what they're doing here. And since they seem to be in the majority on this site, I will gladly leave this "discussion", since it is leading nowhere. I've said my peace. What you lot make of it is up to you.

Goodbye.

Adam 23 Jul 2009, 06:21 - Report