MasterKalif
Posts: 648
Joined: 5/24/2004
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interesting subject....both countries are interesting and good in many respects as they are bad and hypocritical in others....
Britain used to be an empire....now only the empire mentality and self-righteousness remains but no empire per se. The US is an empire that fears calling itself as such as it is something anathema since its founding days. US laws and political traditions come from British "freedoms" and traditions in many ways, decending from the creation of the Great Magna Carta which gave Britain this political balance and led to a parliamentary system. Both countries have similar cultures of political respect, pluralism, freedoms, and this idea of protecting racial and other minorities.
The differences lie also in the political system....in Britain the monarchy is the balance of it all, a symbol of unity (hence United Kingdom) and a symbol of state and traditions, which I hope never change. The US is a republican system. On the subject of Blair and Bush, Blair wants the UK to ally itself with a strong US for his own benefits, accepting a lesser role (which in my opinion is a mistake), and both are hypocrites. I still remember when General Pinochet was wrongly arrested in London in 1998, Blair came out saying how "henchmen all over the world" would fear the hand of international law, and how Britain had this "moral" and "human" foreign policy...all this stated with a straight face while inviting dictator Mugabe of Zimbabwe to Britain, and later participating in this shameful crusade of regime change in Iraq, and now adding insult to injury, not being willing to condemn Israel for its shameful bombing campaign in Lebanon.
in the cultural aspects, the British enjoy drinking tea, used to have a higher awareness of social class (nothing wrong with that), were dignified and used to believe in Queen and country....now I am not so sure after years of liberalism and other social experiments. Brits play cricket, rugby and football. Americans drink coffee, play american football, are less class concious (this depends but seems to usually be the case), used to have high morals in government but these days that has become a sham, and only linked to religious morals, not civic-laiety morals (if that makes any sense). Americans play also baseball and some soccer....while the US could do much good, it supports regimes and democracies for its own advantage and not to further democracy as many people believe, thus making them act hypocritically much like Britain.
Yet go to Boston and parts of New York, and many parts of those cities remind you of cities in Britain...Boston has similar "terrace houses" that you see in London. Names also sound familiar...etc...this is just the tip of the ice-berg, we could be here for years explaining what is different and similar between the two countries and there is much to mention. These are the most important, I think. Keep in mind, Im neither British nor American.
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RE: The US and Britain - 
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). Naturally I love watching the Test matches when England (The Old Enemy) is desperately trying to beat the Aussies in cricket... Baseball, I enjoy watching (Haven't a clue how it works but a jolly good spectator sport (usually Neets interprets the game for me)... Culturally? I grew up here when we were very british and to be fair I haven't realy forgiven the US for the trend of wearing baseball caps backwards and those ridiculas short pants which come down past the knees and make the wearer look like a reject from a refuge camp or their invading our airwaves with hiphop and rap.. All things being equal, I could happily spend equal time in both countries (even better if the US learns to drive on the propper side of the road.. 
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