Don’t forget that the US was founded by rough settlers and religious zealots puritans. Even today, a couple of centuries plus change later, these influences still persist: the frontier-cowboy’ mentality with its propensity for violence, and the fundamentalist religious lunacy russian time . Alive and well, trust me. The indomitable belief that they are the good guys and everyone else potentially a bad guy dominates the whole misperception. The American feels the need to be the biggest, the best, but simultaneously the most moral. If force must be used to enforce God’s will, then the Americans feel it is their responsibility to do it. So, beyond the money and the Big Business, what you need to remember about Americans is their ultimate sense of righteousness. And it follows naturally that if you are the ones doing God’s will, you have the obligation to weed out and punish the many enemies that lurk in the bushes everywhere. It is the basic core of fundamentalist thinking that God has spoken and anyone who disagrees is God’s enemy.. This is why, in my own brief lifetime, I have seen God’s enemies variously identified as Germans, Japanese, Russians, Cubans Koreans, Viet Namese, Iraqi, Iranians, and Afganistanians, God sure has a lot of work to do, doesn’t He? And yet the people making these divinity-inspired judgments offered did not progress beyond the 3rd grade in school блог обо всем . In my opinion, if you were to create a Book of America, the face on the cover would belong to somebody like Chuck Norris (remember him?). In other words, one step below an ape. Thus, here we are in 2017 and the Russians are still the bad guys. The stereotypes remain the same, fomented by stupid politicians and swallowed whole by a populace most of whom will ever see anything of the world beyond Disneyland and Daytona 500 stock car race.I have lived in Russia for a long time, and I know better. In fact sometimes I even forget that I am NOT Russian, that I am still American, at least according to the passport… Sometimes, after long experience, I express my views on Russian «mentality.» What do I know? I am not Russian and so my opinions are only naive opinions. Probably, most of my Russian friends simply view me as a (sometimes) kinda cool American »ëxpat» who does not follow the company line American-style. So I suppose that I stand somewhere in the middle, if reality serves. But I do know this: the American perception of Russian people is wrong, and is based on Cold War hangover garbage promoted by old-fart politicians and by a sensation-craving Western media which is often so crass and puerile as to make me vomit up not only yesterday’s breakfast but my guts and heart as well http://eric-artem.livejournal.com. That much I do know, and I am aggrieved to see that nothing has changed since Eisenhower was in office in the USA. Born in America, with any luck I will die in Russia, my cherished home, full of people I love. End of story. ====Eric Richard Le Roy===
