RE: Cross Culture question : The monotony of the American suburbs - My hometown
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Interesting post. I also think those sterile safe neighborhoods seem to breed fear of the unknown. The lack of change, the lack of diversity, it all makes people weary of anything new or seemingly foreign.
I think it is changing however in the US. In 1990 only 5% of the US population had passports compared to 42% now. While this is still about half the level of European countries, it does represent a big leap and hopefully a generational change as to how Americans see the rest of the world.
The US has had some major emperor has no clothes moments this past year with regard to the myth of American exceptionalism; that must have an effect on how they see the world. Although the fallout of all that is yet to be seen.
I travel a lot (as one could probably tell from my profile); and for me the more I have traveled the more I have realized that quality of life has very little to do with material possessions and more to do with experiences and relationships. Suburbia in my mind is designed to minimise new experiences and new relationships.
Yeah, I'm sure it has changed in some subtle ways. My hometown was very international but most of them came from countries where things were hard and they came over either to protect their wealth or to escape oppression or poverty so they all want to fit in and be as American as possible. They all tell us how shitty their home country was and so it reinforces the idea that the rest of the world is a shithole which as you know is not true.
I feel like the suburbs could be paradise, they just like diversity, open-mindedness and movement and so for me they usually feel like a place to rot. It could change though! I'll see what I can do