On Mon, 12 Apr 2004, N P Childs wrote:
> We're ever so nice, and, yes we are a liberal-capitalist state with all
> that implies, but we don't execute the young, the retarded or anyone
> actually, guns are much more regulated than they are in the U.S. (as they
> are in Japan and the U.K.) and as far as I know our rates of violent crime
> are lower than the U.S.
>
> Are we an anomaly?
>
> PC
>
I guess what I mean is the kind of highly formalized ritual of respect you see in Southern children. Most of the Canadians I've met aren't nice in the Southern-child-calls-adults-sir way; they're happy to mouth off about their supposed betters, they prefer honesty to tact, they're willing to challenge authority. I prefer you guys myself, but Canada pretty much fits in with what I meant about regimes of formal politeness being prevalent in brutal societies.
Miles