America seems like such a backwards place sometimes

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i thought apathy and loneliness was the national emotion for scandinavians?.

Why would they be lonely?

It is true that as you travel south to north in Europe people get less emotionally expressive. That doesnt mean that they dont feel though.

I have lived in Finland, on and off for about 40 years. I grew up in Brooklyn, New York and lived there for about 40 years. I have lived in France, Germany, Israel also and known various inhabitants in each place. I could not generalize about character in each place because individuals differ so greatly. In general I have found no wide general difference amongst all these people.

In my experience the main difference are less the issues people communicate, more how they communicate, which causes those misunderstandings regarding so-called national characters. So Germans e.g. do misunderstand the polite forms of Britons often as being in strong favour, the statement "This is interesting" communicates for a German an other message than for an American, the same is to say for using the first name: it is for an American hard to believe that colleagues work together for years very close and well, even develop a kind of friendship, and still don't use their first name, etc. pp.

Americans, in general, are not apathetic about sport. And America a monster? I think not. We have been foolish and silly at times but never a monster. The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were monsters. Americans generally mean well but they do not always act wisely.

ruveyn