What makes Germans so orderly?
bbc.com
bbc.com
The most clean, orderly, mindnumbingly elegant country ever.
Their literature and media, though, is a complete contrast.
Their TV shows are loud (visually), with many overlays, graphics, transitions, etc. Their print media is the poster boy for chaos. Their information density is so huge, I wonder if anyone even reads 10% of what is on the page.
edit: I guess the insane information density in their language and printed media is perhaps an outcome of obsession with conciseness.
Similar to how European and European-derived cultures adopted a very traditional clean Japanese aesthetic in rebellion against a baroque tradition.
As for Japanese print media -- there seems to be a prevailing culture of space economy. Maybe paper was expensive to get/import at one time and that had a lasting effect on how Japanese laid out printed matter. It's bled through to their web sites too, which are very dense and "busy" compared to Western web sites, in which the trend seems to be to make a statement with white space to the detriment of available space for text.
Not to mention the deranged stuff I remember watching on Japanese TV at 4am while jet lagged.
Even if military pressed for "total war" (ie civilian support as in the USA), society largely liberalized in the golden 20ies. And if you look at culture, the 20-40ies were THE golden age. (much more golden than the 60/70ies)
The Nazi party were not thought to be so authoritarian really, more a fresh new modern party solving a lot of problems. The military and some other parties were more authoritarian. Just the SA and SS were considered a problem. Before, the right and left had their own private armies also, and there were constant street fights. Nazis were softer than the military in the total war efforts. (before 33 of course, but even until 43 it was only military penalizing the famous Treachery Act, which came directly from WW1 stab-in-the-back myth). Antisemitism was extremely widespread because of the Black Friday crash.
I went a few years ago to see the Hanshin Tigers play at home. The Tigers are famous for their raucous fans, their iconic stadium, for their "curse" (involving a statue of Colonel Sanders which was seized from a KFC and thrown into a river), and for losing records.
The atmosphere was incredible. Everyone in the stadium was on their feet, chanting, the entire time the home team was at bat. Every batter had their own unique chant, which every fan seemed to know. It was total bedlam, choreographed to a T.
I've never witnessed anything like it.
http://www.hm.aitai.ne.jp/~naitonet/
(Yes, this is completely non-ironic and kept updated in 2020, it's a local pharmacy...)
For example, I remember reading an article, a few years ago, about the cup holders in Honda / Toyota cars sold in America. The author noticed a small, hinged notch, deep inside the cup holder. Initially thinking it was some loose part. But then he realized it's function is to automatically drop when the car is on an upward slope and hold the cup in place. The notch automatically retracts (due to gravity) when the car is on normal roads.
The attention to detail, at such a small level, is prevalent at every level in their society.
There is actually a lot of inefficiency, like people standing there waving batons to warn about construction sites. In other countries you'd have signs. But it's debatable if that is plain inefficiency - maybe it gives people with no other abilities something to do, which can be positive.
No argument about attention to detail and especially customer service - it feels like the Japanese wouldn't even know how to do bad customer service or a bad product. (You can find examples of both if you go looking, though.)
It's not just media, it's everything. Most horizontal surfaces in a train will be filled with colourful advertisements [0], many major city streets have bright attention-grabbing signs not only at street level but at every level of every building [1], stores will have visual noise everywhere too [2].
And it's not just visual noise either. Indoors, trains have numerous announcements, elevators tell you when the doors are opening and closing and most shops have some music playing, sometimes quiet, sometimes blaring and obnoxious. Outside it's not uncommon to see giant TV's mounted on buildings (complete with audio) or to loud music or people yelling advertisements for their store.
Though that was mostly my experience in some of the more active parts of Tokyo. Smaller cities and quieter reasons are less noisy.
[0]: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tokyo-japan-january...
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabukich%C5%8D,_Tokyo#/media/F...
[2]: https://www.maximimages.com/image/MXI25982/stock-photo-of-pe...
In the Police Guide of the Fatherland he will find set forth a list of the things the doing of which will bring to him interest and excitement. In Germany you must not hang your bed out of window. He might begin with that. By waving his bed out of window he could get into trouble before he had his breakfast. At home he might hang himself out of window, and nobody would mind much, provided he did not obstruct anybody’s ancient lights or break away and injure any passer underneath.
In Germany you must not wear fancy dress in the streets. A Highlander of my acquaintance who came to pass the winter in Dresden spent the first few days of his residence there in arguing this question with the Saxon Government. They asked him what he was doing in those clothes. He was not an amiable man. He answered, he was wearing them. They asked him why he was wearing them. He replied, to keep himself warm. They told him frankly that they did not believe him, and sent him back to his lodgings in a closed landau. The personal testimony of the English Minister was necessary to assure the authorities that the Highland garb was the customary dress of many respectable, law-abiding British subjects. They accepted the statement, as diplomatically bound, but retain their private opinion to this day. The English tourist they have grown accustomed to; but a Leicestershire gentleman, invited to hunt with some German officers, on appearing outside his hotel, was promptly marched off, horse and all, to explain his frivolity at the police court.
From "Three Men On The Bummel", the semisequel to "three men on a boat", 1914.
FDR as a youth was arrested four times in one day while in the Black Forest.
As a foreigner, it was fascinating to observe how systems in each country manifest these attributes.
From what I observed (and I could be all wrong here), Germans have "opinionated" systems where everybody understands and follows the rules, even if sometimes the system itself doesn't always make sense. Deviation is not well tolerated (except perhaps in bohemian places like Berlin -- or that's what I've been told).
The Japanese tend to have systems that assiduously accommodates humans. They drive compliance through coaxing rather than coercion. The systems tolerates, even accounts for, deviations from the norm. It's like they've thought of everything, and try to make things as convenient as possible.
These differences are obvious when comparing trains/subways in Germany and Japan.
German and Japanese cars also exhibit this difference. German cars generally have opinionated designs (the opinion of the designer trumps the opinions of the users). They're fun to drive but generally require the owners to follow a strict maintenance schedule without deviation, otherwise the car will fail prematurely.
Japanese cars on the other hand are often designed for owner negligence and can accommodate all kinds of abuse while still continuing to chug along (especially Toyotas), contributing to the notion that Japanese cars are super reliable, when in fact they're simply designed for variation.
That’s totally untrue. The systems here don’t allow for any, even the slightest, deviation. If that means crushing a life, well, that life will be crushed.
Personal anecdote: I was registered at the university and had to change my status. I had to submit a complete application (despite my data already being somewhere in their system). I was missing certified copy of my master degree. I had the original one but they wouldn’t make copies themselves (impossible to forge) because there was nothing about it in rulebook. Finally I was able the register thanks to a paper certifying I passed a master degree in another totally unrelated field! Hopefully the rulebook didn’t state that the master degree one graduated from had to do anything with the PhD one is entering! This whole story is wrong on so many level. I was lucky this time, but that’s not always the case for everyone.
One thing I've often seen in Japanese offices is the "form to the form", instructing applicants in extreme detail how to fill out the actual form, so it will be accepted on the first try.
https://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan...
It is a reason why Japan is so great as a tourist, but maybe not so much if you live there.
For example, in a shop, they will tolerate clueless customers with a (fake) smile. But if you work there, they will not tolerate the slightest deviation.
Bureaucracy I've had no experiences with except with immigration. I guess being a non-resident foreigner has advantages too. I once ran into some issues due to a mixup, but Japan immigration fixed it, told me something to the effect "next time, please be mindful of this issue and avoid doing this", and let me into the country anyway.
There is much that other countries can learn from Japan while steering clear of its faults.
The reality is quite different: Germans want others to behave in order, and as soon as you stop looking at them or they feel like not being watched, they will be the first ones to break laws and order.
But it is nice to know that marketing works.
The La Guardia perimeter rule prohibits nonstop flights to or from points beyond 1,500 miles.
All international traffic goes via JFK.
La Guardia has flights to Canada, Aruba and the Bahamas, possibly others based on its Wikipedia page.
Do you like delicious artisanal beers or aged whiskies from around the world? Tough luck, alcohol in Finland is sold only by a state monopoly that chooses only a narrow range of products to offer and with very high taxes to discourage purchase (because historically Nordic males imbibed large quanties of pure liquor).
as far as a place to raise a family, be a part of a community, general quality of life, it fits.
if it was always summer there, i'd be there no question.
That Finland is a good place to raise a family has its dark side. Every time I go back to Finland I am annoyed by children being allowed in places they wouldn't be tolerated in other countries. The fancy new Helsinki central library gives adult patrons no barriers against all the noise from the children's section.
But as for "being part of a community", there is a big problem with loneliness in Finland. There are few opportunities to truly connect with other people after uni or the army. Religious observance is extremely low in Finland now, but apparently nothing ever replaced the parish church as a hub to actually interact with your local community. Few people living in blocks know their neighbours, and many feel that it would be a faux pas to even speak to those neighbours.
(Grew up in Germany and now live since ~5 years in Switzerland)
Tegel is a nightmare. It was designed for maybe half the capacity it currently serves. Hopefully opening the BER airport will relieve some of that pressure. That they can handle such a high volume at all is remarkable. Do avoid Tegel if you can help it though.
In the other cities I've lived in, this article rings very true: you stop at crosswalks even when no cars are coming. Most people's houses are kept in immaculate order. (Exceptions of course exist.) "Deutcher pünklich heißt fünf Minuten früh sein" ("German punctuality means being five minutes early." — paraphrase of something I heard from a German friend of mine one time.)
City transit is remarkably accessible: I used to visit unfamiliar parts of cities and small towns occasionally armed with a map—an never with a phone with GPS. I never got lost. Transit maps and signage are clear and easy to understand.
I've visited Germany twice now since my two-year stay there. Each time I explore more—it's easy because of how much order there is in the transit to latch onto.
Berlin is a sort of internal exile colony for those who reject or are rejected by the German lifestyle but don’t for whatever reason want to leave Germany
There is a reason Berlin is famous for leaving work at 6 pm on a Friday, going to a club, and exiting only at 4am next Monday to go back to work.
Not saying this is good/healthy thing, but Berlin has history of being the hotspot for misfits. That is why a lot of Germans or even Europeans move here.
Problem is, Berlin isn't where the money is -- Munich is. So startups get started in Berlin and get funded in Munich?
Germany is rich and shares the wealth quite a bit with its people, the amount of suffering and existential threat is low compared to most other countries. For some people the lack of purpose, selfefficacy and the overwhelming complexity of the modern world is becoming a problem... Maybe we do need some national identity to fill that gap. Maybe around the Grundgesetz and solidarity. Either way patriotism/nationalism doesn't help there since, the "WhatsApp" idiots are happening everywhere.
Again, I think my wording has caused a misunderstanding and I do apologize.
Also,I don't know what the "whatsapp" people are.
Europe also is different than the US in terms of borders: they changed all the time. They are obviously artificial constructs.
I asked you what good does nationalism serve? Don't you see the inherent danger at all?
In Germany all the right wing/covid19 conspiracy/... Bullshit is spread in WhatsApp groups. I think it's more important than Facebook for spreading "hate over facts".
a: because it's against the law.