The serious truth is that I see it both ways. Yes, some peoples seem to have ingrained national habits, and are somewhat subject to their own traditions. My late friend Rocky was a firm believer in national typecasting. He gave me a lot of grief over being too "German" in my thought patterns, while loving the fact that his thinking was pure "Italian". Of course he made fun of himself over that, but I loved to remind him that his own mother came straight here from Germany, so he was more "German" than I was.
That said, I'm not sure I really believe it all that much, any more than I believe in Astrology, and I wonder if our national "habits" really go back more than two or three generations. On the one hand we talk about national characteristics and claim them when it suits us and deny them when it doesn't, but on the other hand international media of all sorts have made us look at each other's cultures and adapt them wholesale.
How many Japanese today even think about the old ways, other than to wax nostalgic just like the rest of us?
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“Never do anything you can't take back.”
—Rocky Russo
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