- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
I replied American and cool with some and not with others. British are cool. I used to party with a cat from London and had tons of fun. That was always at like 4 in the morning when the LAN in my dorm wasn't bogged down. The only people I don't get along with well are the French and various middle-eastern countries. But I have my reasons... most are entrenched in cultural differences. For instance, I find the French to have an extremely complex socio-cultural moral system. Not slamming, just observing. I find that French I have known over the years are falsely confident in themselves and judgmental (note... FRENCH fries are not FREEDOM fries... THEY ARE FRENCH FRIES! I never had any beef with them for not backing the USA in the UN. Hell, I didn't back us much either. I disliked the culture in general long before politics). And middle eastern countries I tend to clash with. India... cool. Pakistan, not cool. When I was an R.A. at college, a fellow R.A. was from Pakistan and a Halo player. I really didn't like him. Upon getting to know him, I found out why. There, there is a very big social ladder where the poor are extremely poor and the rich are very rich. Its to the point where someone here who makes 75,000 a year there has house servants to drive, make their coffee, shine their shoes... everything. I had to teach this cat how to use a coffee pot because he never had to make his own coffee. He had been in country for 3 years and never made coffee. He also had a very very poor work ethic. His friends from Pakistan were all about the same too. I have a friend in the "State Department" ; ) ; ) who hates going there because he has had Pakistanis shake his hand and then try to kill him. He worries more about his gun there than when in Iraq.
I guess its an ingrained difference. I believe in self-reliance and intelligence and wit. I make my own wine, fix my own cars/motorcycles, hunt and fish... that stuff. Not because I'm a redneck (the jury's still out on that one) but because I believe in being able to survive and take care of your own. I have no problem with the rich as long as they know how to survive without their servants and are not ashamed to get their hands dirty. Commercially Dependant, socially immersed, and ignorant people I have issues with generally. Some societies (America INCLUDED) have a tendency to promote this more than others, which is the only way I can make generalities. Of course, exceptions abound everywhere.