X-Message-Number: 4160
From:  (David Stodolsky)
Subject: Brit-Think, Ameri-Think
Date: Thu, 6 Apr 95 14:06:13 +0200 (CET DST)

"Most Americans, who aren't very impressed by the external world,
tend to regard themselves of masters of their fate. Sure, fate send
things our way, but we don't have to accept them. There's no excuse,
save laziness, for being beaten. If you're sick, it's your own fault,
though death, admittedly, still poses a problem; It's the one stroke
of fate we haven't yet figured out how to cope with, which is probably 
part of the reason many Americans hate to talk about death. In her book 
Brit-Think, Ameri-Think (1987), the veteran America watcher, Jane Walmsley, 
notes that the single most important thing to know about Americans
- the attitude which truly distinguishes them from the British, and
explains much superficially odd behavior - is that Americans think
that death is optional."

Source unknown (from a slide presented during a lecture at the
Dept. of Oral Surgery, Univ. of Copenhagen on April 5, 1995,
"Better communication and effective teaching in the mult-cultural classroom"
by Prof. Peter Berthold, USA)


David S. Stodolsky, PhD,  Euromath Center,  University of Copenhagen
Universitetsparken 5, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark. 
 Tel.: +45 38 33 03 30. Fax: +45 38 33 88 80. (C)


Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=4160