seldear | observation of cultural differences

It occurs to me that LJing Americans are far more intensely political creatures than LJing Australians. And no, not just because 'nobody cares about Australian politics' - it's an attitude that we bring (or don't bring) to the table when discussing politics and policies.

Granted, I think I have about a dozen Aussies on my f-list, but none of them have any political party that I could tell you of - other than election time, the attitude towards politics is that it's mostly for politicians. I'd say it's not that we don't care, just that our lives and the way we view the world is more important and less earth-shattering than holding to a particular political party or believing in a political ideology.

This seems to differ vastly from your average LJing American - although I probably do many LJing non-political Americans wrong in saying so. Let's just say that almost all the political comments on my f-list come from Americans, with the exception of one or two from Europe/UK. Granted, I have alot of Americans on my f-list - apparently they breed or something? *g* - but even those who don't post politics on LJ, talk about it offline.

I'm hoping to meet with a bunch of Aussie LJers in the next few days, quite a few of whom aren't on my f-list. I doubt we'll talk politics or anything near that. Fandoms, personal things, silly stuff...but not politics or political parties.

It's an interesting difference to contemplate.