I do think Americans have become rather whiney of late, too many "entitlements". Need to get back to the grass roots ideals of doing things on our own and not haveing government babysit us.

Agreed as to the difference, though I am not so sure France does it all that much better. In the past they used to be able to just hide it better than in the U.S., where everything seems to be made a media event.

American multi-culturalism is too passive because it is hog-tied by overly emotional people that refuse to allow a separate secular life for anyone. The principal of secularism is a theory which seems to continues failing here despite all efforts to abide and respect it.

Well, thats prolly more to do with people not being able to stand other people. Honestly, family reunions can be a PIA and thats with people closely related to us. Can you imagine how it is with people who are different culturally and ethnically?

Here's a strange thing..it might be hotwired into us for somereason. The guy who created the TV show Babylon 5 did an exsperiment with his extras through one season. He had noticed that extras made up as Narns would hang out with other "Narns". It was the same with the Menbari, the Drasi and on down the line.

So he would swap people out, he would take someone who had been "Menbari" for months and make them up as a "Narn". That now newly made up "Narn", immediately went to hang out with other Narns, this despite the fact they didn't know any "narn" and all thier friends were Menbari. He couldn't explain this behavior, but found it interesting.

Group dynamic studies would tend to verify what that Babylon 5 experiment showed, though not quite as pronounced. One thing that enhanced his results is that actors who work on similar roles or together in scenes, as these did, tend to socialize on set with the same people they are with in the scenes. This skewed his results, but the underlying assumption is valid.

Humans are more comfortable with those they perceive to be most like themselves, whether it be visual, language or mannerisms. There are anomallies (like myself) whose curiosity or attraction to the unknown override that basic response, but even then the response still happens, we just suppress it.

What do you mean by this?

I'm decades behind stuff just in the US, let alone anywhere else.