Small Towns and Mythology
It seems small towns fit perfectly into the mythology of the USA.
Small towns speak of innocence and nature, of town hall meetings, and neighbourliness.
And the fascinating thing is that we all live our respective mythologies. And when we visit the USA, we find Americans are neighbourly, they are friendly and helpful, good humoured and intelligent, they are the perfect representatives of their own mythology.
And what I find interesting is how Australians live out our mythology. And strange as it might seem to our American cousins, we have inherited an aristocratic mythology - we love the outdoors, we are brutal in sport and manners, we are jealous egalitarians who make a sport of cutting down tall poppies.
So it is becoming plain that Americans are nice and Australians are not very nice at all. However a saving grace of Australians is that we have a deprecating sense of humour that is unfortunately lost on Americans.
And further, it seems that Americans are a kind people living in an unkind system, whereas Australians are an unkind people living in a kind system.