American suburbs, built up with one-story houses, look more like parks than residential areas: flat lawns, spreading trees – and no fences. And this is in a country where private property, personal boundaries and other privacy requirements are sacredly honored. Perhaps the whole point is that the external fences for the Americans are replaced by invisible barriers: traditions, rules and laws. We talk about this and other reasons for our unusual openness. It so happened that modern moral standards in the United States are largely based on long-standing religious traditions brought by the first settlers from across the ocean. The urban environment in America is very reminiscent of England and Northern Europe: Protestant norms imply living in communities where it is not customary to stand out, put oneself above others and isolate oneself from neighbors. Of course, today Americans do not adhere to these unwritten rules in everything, but the habit of living without fences has firmly entered their life. However, there is an exception – low fences still exist, but not in front of the facades of houses, but in the backyard, where, in fact, all personal life takes place, clothes are dried, children splash in the pool, vegetables ripen and barbecues are fried. What surprised an American in Russian supermarkets: 4 important nuances.
1. Protestant Ethics
2. Rules for everyone
Despite the fact that the house and the land around it are privately owned, each owner is subject to the general requirements in force in a particular area – and, by the way, signs the relevant documents that formulate the rules for maintaining the house and the local area. Everything is regulated: the color of the facade, mowing the lawn, cleaning the leaves, planting flower beds and vegetable gardens, keeping animals and installing structures – gazebos, children's houses, fences. All these norms are adopted by the residents of the district at general meetings and are observed as strictly as the laws: if you violate them, you will have to deal with the police, judges and fines, so it would not even occur to any of the law-abiding citizens to enclose the territory without permission. If the fence is really necessary – for example, the house is located on a cliff or near a busy highway – you will have to apply for permission from the local authorities and justify your request. In such cases, the municipality allows you to install a light fence, but not a solid fence.
3. Smart Savings
Building a fence made of wood, metal or stone is not only difficult, but also expensive. Rational Americans are not ready to throw away money to install a dubious structure, because the appearance of a fence is perceived as a manifestation of bad taste, a violation of unwritten rules and disrespect for neighbors. And who wants to spoil relations with others, especially at their own expense? With regard to security, conscientious taxpayers trust the authorities to take care of it, relying entirely on the inviolability of laws protecting private property. 10 features of our mentality that seem strange to Americans.
