Reply to Why do Americans love dogs so much?

Forum Index » Pets

Reply to "Why do Americans love dogs so much?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]I've read this thread and thought about it a lot, and I think I've figured it out.

It's not about loving dogs. As many posters have pointed out. People love dogs all over the world. Dogs are inherently lovable (not to everyone, but to many, many humans).

It's about Americaness. American individuality makes American dog owners more selfish and annoying than dog owners in other places.

In France, yes, people love their dogs. They bring them everywhere and also there are negative externalities from the dogs -- plenty of dog$hit on the street, dog hair in markets, etc. If you hate dogs, this is quite annoying. If you are indifferent to dogs, it might also be annoying, except...

In France they also take care of people, not just dogs. They have a government pension for retirees. They have free and heavily subsidized childcare, plus families who have kids get money from the government for their kids. They have generous unemployment for people who have lost jobs, and job retraining programs for people whose industries go obsolete. In France, there is a cultural imperative to care for people, so the fact that people ALSO care for dogs is not so annoying. (Yes, yes, I'm gliding over aspects of French government and society that aren't so great -- the racism, anti-immigrant stance, the misogyny built into their marital laws and culture, the high taxes and incredibly opaque administrative nonsense that everything requires -- I'm not a Francophile, but on balance, French people are more socialist than Americans, who are more individualist).

In America, we have very little collectivism. It's me, me, me. And when Americans love their dogs, it's my dog, my dog, my dog. This is why in the US, dogs and children are bizarrely pitted against each other for resources like public parks (why??? this is very weird -- there should be public spaces for children and people with dogs). This is why dog owners defy rules about not having dogs in certain places (in France these rules simply do not exist, it's a different set up entirely), and also why people get so angry at dog owners for doing it. It's an individualist culture where we are all pitted agains one another for the same resources. Dog owners are hostile in trying to claim some of those resources for their dogs, and people are hostile in return because when a dog is given a resource, it often means someone else loses a resources.

Many American problems can be traced back to a culture that values the individual over the group. Even the individual dog over the community.

Ok, you can all call me a Marxist idiot now! Enjoy![/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics