>One thing I really like about Russian culture
>is that people don't segregate themselves into
>age- or success-based groups. In the US, where
>everybody is supposed to follow a specific
>life plan (go to college, get a job, get
>a promotion, get married, work on career, have
>children, retire), people tend only to associate
>with other people in their specific age/success
>bracket.
>
>In Russia, at discotheques, you will see groups
>of friends hanging out with age ranges of 16 to
>60. Hell, I was at the birthday celebration of a
>17-year-old friend of mine the other day (I'm 32).
>That would be unthinkable in the States. For
>that matter, since we were drinking publically
>in a bar, it would probably be illegal.
>
>It's just a much more human culture.
Hey, could you elaborate on this? I'm often struck by the age/class/etc. segregation of US society, but sometimes forget it could theoretically be another way.
Also, didn't Alexander Solzhenitsyn say (when he was in the US) that the greatest crime in the US was not to use deodorant, whereas in Russia people were generally accepted as is? Or maybe somebody else said this, or it's the product of my fevered imagination, since I can't remember anything else about it.
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