posted on Feb, 8 2005 @ 06:48 AM
From where I stand (Australia) it seems to me that the United States is very intense...everything seems greater, more hype, everyting is to a greater
extent than anywhere else in the world.
Another observation that I have made are some of the little idiosyncracies that the US has, subtle differences like the death penalty for desertion
(during wartime), minors on death row, not signing the Kyoto protocol, legal bugging of UN diplomats, etc, that sometimes make the US seem more like a
corrupt/third world nation than a progressive democratic society.
Another major difference that I have noticed with the United States is the militaristic mentality of your government throughout your history, the way
in which the US has always regarded states who adhere to an unfavaourable or antithetical dogma to be hostile and to not just be indifferent to them.
There are clearly defined periods of "Wartime" & "Peactime", something of which is completely foreign to most Australians. There seems to have
always been a constant threat posed against the US, and much of the governments' energy is focused on vanquishing this threat and demonising the
poeple/nation(s) behind it.
I'm not sure how accurate my observations are as I have never actually been to America, but this is my view from over here.