Oh, boy howdy is this true. IOW, are we really more tolerant, or just more apathetic? Sometimes I truly envy the way Americans get all het up about whatever political change is in the offing.
It happens occasionally; remember free trade? But in general, I would say the -type- of apathy that exists in Canada exists regardless of whether your Right or Left or Centrist; i.e. if it's apathy, no single group is good at herding their constituents.
Yes, my tongue is slightly in my cheek here, but.
Mostly, making rules takes time & responsibility; I still think we're lazy but because we have a clearer idea of what change entails, we make the 'changes' that already essentially exist (gay marriage, marijuana) within the social culture. Which is to say -- gay marriage didn't exist in a legal form, but it certainly did in every other way, and granting legal rights to a lifestyle that was already extant wasn't going to cause enormous amounts of social effort or repair. Marijuana? Harder, but sort of the same.
I think the "none of your business" culture is also stronger here. There are more things you just don't talk about if you're any kind of polite or well-socialized.
I remember reading an interview in which Douglas Adams asked with some curiosity why exactly it was that North Americans found his stand as an atheist so incredibly fascinating. When asked if it didn't cause him grief among his non-atheist friends, he more or less answered, "Why would it ever come up? They know, I know, we have other things to talk about it."
There was also another site -- about stupid fights someone had had with his girlfriend of many years (I'm sorry, I don't remember the link) which had a longish rant titled What is it with you North Americans and Marriage???. It seems that North Americans emailed him in some number, urging him to marry the girl; he could not understand why, since no one he knew, parents included, cared one way or the other; marriage was just government paper, and also no one else's business. Europeans seemed to understand this.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2004-11-07 12:19 pm (UTC)It happens occasionally; remember free trade? But in general, I would say the -type- of apathy that exists in Canada exists regardless of whether your Right or Left or Centrist; i.e. if it's apathy, no single group is good at herding their constituents.
Yes, my tongue is slightly in my cheek here, but.
Mostly, making rules takes time & responsibility; I still think we're lazy but because we have a clearer idea of what change entails, we make the 'changes' that already essentially exist (gay marriage, marijuana) within the social culture. Which is to say -- gay marriage didn't exist in a legal form, but it certainly did in every other way, and granting legal rights to a lifestyle that was already extant wasn't going to cause enormous amounts of social effort or repair. Marijuana? Harder, but sort of the same.
I think the "none of your business" culture is also stronger here. There are more things you just don't talk about if you're any kind of polite or well-socialized.
I remember reading an interview in which Douglas Adams asked with some curiosity why exactly it was that North Americans found his stand as an atheist so incredibly fascinating. When asked if it didn't cause him grief among his non-atheist friends, he more or less answered, "Why would it ever come up? They know, I know, we have other things to talk about it."
There was also another site -- about stupid fights someone had had with his girlfriend of many years (I'm sorry, I don't remember the link) which had a longish rant titled What is it with you North Americans and Marriage???. It seems that North Americans emailed him in some number, urging him to marry the girl; he could not understand why, since no one he knew, parents included, cared one way or the other; marriage was just government paper, and also no one else's business. Europeans seemed to understand this.