#1: Portion sizes
Indeed, food portions in Europe are usually smaller (although I've read a British journalist describing Central European portions as large once). This is true especially for fast food; you get smaller portions for the same money, so that in some countries McDonald's isn't even considered cheap! In combination with #6 (everything being designed around cars), this is surely one of the main reasons that Europeans are slimmer than Americans: lack of opportunity. Very few Europeans actually have an opportunity to just hop into a car, drive to a nearby store with a drive-through (and therefore not burn any calories with walking) and purchase large quantities of unhealthy food and drink for a reasonable price.
Recently, a couple of American students that visited our university (in Ljubljana, Slovenia) remarked that everybody is thin and that candy is strangely expensive (compared to the US). And I've read somewhere on the internet that some American parents often pacify their whining or unruly children with food (often candy). Of course, if candy is expensive, parents will think twice before doing that, and so the children won't develop a bad habit.
#2: Flags everywhere
It's true that Americans very likely love their country more than people elsewhere love theirs. But I think there's another factor at play here that also contributes to this difference. The fact is that in many countries around the world, and in almost all European countries (not counting pocket states) a flag does not just signify citizenship, it is also a symbol of an ethnic group. Likewise, European countries are generally understood to be ethnic nation states (or whichever term you prefer, the point is that the country in question is thought of as the homeland of a certain ethnic group; for example, the Czech Republic is understood to be a country of (belonging to) the Czechs, a more or less well defined ethnic group, and not of anyone else, even if they move there) while the US is understood to be a "proposition nation" (a nation that is not limited to any single ethnic group but is founded on some common principles or ideals, such as the Constitution).
One's citizenship in Europe (or in some other parts of the world, East and Southeast Asia spring to mind) is therefore more often than not strongly connected to one's ancestry and can be, as you can probably imagine, quite a volatile subject. And since blood ties are often stronger than ideals or ideologies, the US has always needed to encourage patriotism to unite their vastly diverse masses of people and keep them together in peace.
Whereas, to get back to the flag issue, the American flag signifies belief in certain ideas and pride in some common achievements, the flag of a European country signifies something far more deep-lying and exclusive. It is therefore considered bad taste by many Europeans to excessively display a national flag; to give you a comparison, it would be like a tall basketball player going around taunting short men about their height.
Long story short: it's not just because Americans are more proud or patriotic, it's also because their patriotism has a more uniting function and is therefore not considered controversial.ž
#16: Loud and friendly
The Americans on visit here were genuinely surprised when strangers in our city (pop. 272,000, with a fairly low population density) wouldn't talk to them. I think this plays well into the observations that Alexis de Tocqueville made about the high level of trust that Americans have towards their fellow citizens (even complete stranger). This was probably made possible by strong common morals and values, influenced by Protestantism. In some other parts of the world, people still don't trust anyone they're not related to, or are friends with, because they cannot be sure if they have good motives. (It's not so bad in Europe, but people still don't feel the need to be particularly friendly to strangers, or at least they don't feel the need to initiate any friendly contact with them.)
|