In writing this blog I'm bound to attribute a lot of things to Americans that don't really apply to all Americans - indeed I've probably done it already. I don't mean stereotypes, which I hope to avoid, but the danger of generalising from the people I have encountered to those I haven't. Because they aren't all the same. Far from it.
Take, for example, the classic stereotype that American service is excellent, but insincere. I believe there are places - though I haven't personally visited them - like Los Angeles and Southern California generally that this is true. Visitors to those places have the stereotype reinforced each time they go.
I can personally attest, though, that neither part of the stereotype applies in heartland Pennsylvania. Here the service can be good or bad, but either way it is generally very sincere. They're good, salt of the earth types, and I just don't think they have any time for putting on a show. Even in New York City, where service generally depends on how much you're willing to fork over, I have many times experienced spontaneous and sincere offers of help - the hotel doorman who hails you a cab, or the theatre usher who offers to take your photo.
The point is that attitudes vary widely in the US and it is a point I didn't really appreciate before I came here. Of course I didn't think Americans were all cookie cutter duplicates. But I didn't appreciate that their differences from one another might outweigh their similarities. I'm still not sure exactly how diverse they are, but it is a lot more than I expected.
The differences cut across each other. There are geographical differences, ethnic and racial differences, language differences, religious differences, educational differences and who knows what other kinds of social differences. There are individual idiosyncrasies, too, but if you look carefully you can identify characteristics that are common among, say, New Yorkers, or rural Pennsylvanians or urban Jews. Take the whole nation, though, and it is a lot harder to pin down those commonalities.
I'm not sure why this is. Individualism is a virtue here, but is that a cause or an effect? It is a documented fact that before independence the thirteen colonies that made up the fledgling United States (pop quiz, can you name them?) had more to do with the mother country than with each other, so even in the beginning this country was diverse. More recent immigration from far-flung parts of the world was no doubt another contributor. And when the land itself varies so much, from snow-capped mountains to vast plains to deserts to forests to swamps, you would expect the people to vary to match. Enough of my half-baked theories, though.
The upshot of all this is that it is hard to generalise from the Americans I meet to Americans in general, and I ask you, gentle reader, to keep that in mind. When you see me boldly state that Americans do this or think that, always attach a footnote in your head reading "at least the Americans I have encountered". And if, by chance, you happen to be one of those Americans I haven't encountered, feel free to correct me where I stray from the truth.
Don't save the sceptical treatment just for me, though. Do it whenever you hear a weary traveller report on their experiences. I remember in New Zealand often listening on the radio to talking heads just returned from LA or, rarely, New York or further afield, reporting on the attitudes or behaviour of the American people. Now I know just how suspect those reports were.
Mind you, that hasn't stopped me from doing pretty much the same thing in this blog. Just consider yourself warned.
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