31573 01 i-xxiv 1-176 r13rm 8/18/05 2:56 PM Page 21

CULTURAL CONDITIONING 21

Who Is Normal, Anyway?

Most English people think they are normal and that all others (whom they call
“foreigners”) are abnormal—that is to say, they might be all right, but they really
cannot act and think like the English, because, after all, they are foreign. You
only have to look at them, you’ll know what that means. . . .

Chauvinism
Americans think America is the biggest and the best, the newest and the richest,
and all others are a bit slow, old-fashioned, rather poor and somewhat on the
small side. They can’t call the British foreigners, so they call them limeys.
Spaniards think they are the bravest because they kill bulls, the French think
they are intellectually superior to everybody else, the Japanese are quite sure
they are superior to others, including the French. The Germans admit that they
are not as big as the Americans, as agile as the Japanese, as eloquent as the French
or as smooth as the British, but what really counts in life? Efficiency, punctuality,
Gründlichkeit (“thoroughness”), method, consistency and organization, and who
can match Germans on these counts?
There are few countries in the world where people do not believe, at the bot-
tom of their hearts, that they are the best, or the most intelligent, or at least nor-
mal. Perhaps in Europe the Italians and the Finns are the most innocent in this
regard, often being willing to criticize themselves before others, yet both still
consider themselves normal.

Normal and Abnormal

If people from each culture consider themselves normal, then the corollary is
that they consider everybody else abnormal. By this token Finns consider Ital-
ians overly emotional because they wave their arms while talking. The individu-
alistic Spaniards consider the Swiss stuffy and excessively law-abiding. Lively
Italians find Norwegians gloomy. French-influenced Vietnamese find Japanese
impassive. Most South Americans find Argentineans conceited. Germans think
Australians are undisciplined. Japanese see straight-talking Americans as rude.
We can achieve a good understanding of our foreign counterparts only if we
realize that our “cultural spectacles” are coloring our view of them. What is the
route to better understanding? To begin with, we need to examine the special
features of our own culture.