84. Crowd Etiquette

After spending time abroad another aspect of American life that I really appreciate is our sense of following established rules—especially crowd etiquette rules. We believe in taking turns and waiting our turn. We willingly wait in lines to purchase things, even when we really don’t want to wait. We pay attention at four way stops and allow whomever was first to go first. Oh, I know, this isn’t 100% true because we see our occasional road rage incidence. But if you’ve ever been to a country where pushing to the front of the grouping (because they don’t have lines) is a necessity, or where stop lights are merely suggestions, you know what I’m talking about. We, as Americans, really do believe in equity and we lay down laws and rules that are written and unwritten, spoken and unspoken and we follow those rules as best we can. And when someone doesn’t follow those rules we become incensed. That’s when we make sure things are enforced. Just another thing I love about America.