The Second American Dream

In old days the American Dream was dreamed in old Europe, when people left their home in search for freedom and a good life on the other side of the ocean. Almost every poor country has a set of songs describing the glorious future in America. And very often the dream came true. The American Dream is still a very important force in the US society. I always was impressed how people with poor education and lousy jobs were sure that they could improve their life within a reasonable time span. In old Europe people would complain – in France they would start a revolution! However, I also do not know any country where the amount of money earned or owned is used to describe the value of a person as in the USA. As a result hoards of US citizens have dollars in their eyes much like Scrooge McDonald. Certainly it helps thoughout the world if you carry a little bit of dough with you but it is not used as the primary measure to characterize a person.

Second Life is modelling this american dream world perfectly. If you can’t make real $ just make a few Linden $ and be happy.

Leadership versus Trailership

There seems to be a new common trend in the political scene in US as well as in Europe. The great days of  ‘Leaders’ like George Bush, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, Jaques Chirac or Gerhard Schröder seem to be gone. The new candidates for the top positions in politics – Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Ségolène Royal in France, Angela Merkel in Germany – seem to persue a trailership strategy:  Don’t take any position before the majority in the country has approved it. This might well work for the election. Unfortunately this method does not work if complex problems in health care, education, pensions etc have to be resolved. The majority will never agree to one solution! So far only Arnold Schwarzenegger is following the traditional leadership pattern. It will be interesting to see wether the leadership or the trailership is successfull in the long range.     

Americans are strange?

These were the words of an Italian colleague returning from a business trip from the States. Asked why he said “they don’t use phones”. This was at a time when everybody in Italy was already using his mobile phone called “telefonino” at very place and all the time and american mobile phones were brick szed and only used by very important business men. Certainly this has changed a lot but there are a lot of fascinating cultural and behavioral differences between people in US and Europe. I think both parties can learn a lot by exploring these differences.