Earlier I was saying that Americans may seem to be loners from a population density point of view.  If we look closer, it is just the opposite.  Americans are doing more than other nations.   Americans have diverse hobbies, look at the many volunteers, the popular charity organizations, the various choirs, bands, orchestras, the many clubs, golf, baseball, succor, basket ball, hunting, fishing, or pet show, etc.   Americans seem having simple food or simple mind.  In reality, we are more efficient nation or individuals.  As people are busy with their job or hobbies, we never feel lonely.  

To enjoy being lonely, it is like a pre-retirement experience.   These days, I would try to avoid crowd, being scared of too many people.   It is hard to imagine how people survive 2 official long holidays in the billion people nation – China.  During these 2 long weekends, all people try to do the same. It has been such a human created disaster by government as the master mind.   People there do not complain as much probably because of historical reasons. Not long ago, many Chinese had one uniform, one voice, with one brain or no brain, during the Mao dynasty.  Thinkers were killed or punished in the 50’s to 70’s.

Mao dynasty still has damaging leftover to modern China.  Quite a lot of people these days still like to do very similar things.  This could be reflected by price hiking for certain consumer products, like teas, brand name alcohols, food, medical treatments, or even some newly created religions.   It is actually not too surprising, kids in schools were taught to do similar writing topics, doing PE together, a highly collective way of living, studying, and future working.   A copycat culture was thus formed.   Such a copycat culture is good for training an army or performing the impressive Olympics opening ceremony, but can be harmful for creating talented people.   Today we cheer for China’s GDP achievement during the last 3 decades, partially for its successful large scale copycat culture. The road ahead, however, may not be as bright as in the past.   A nation’s long term future must depend on creativity and the nurturing of its talents. China had its glorious days in the 30’s, 40’s for producing the brightest young people who became the backbones of China in subsequent decades, but that culture environment was destroyed in the Mao dynasty. 

I often wonder how to restore the Chinese old glorious days.  Maybe the lone American culture can help to promote more individualism.  It will abate the copycat culture and force younger generation to be more creative.   I joke with myself like this: in China we need 4 persons to get things done in playing cards; in US, we can get that done by one person.   So Americans are 4 times more efficient than the Chinese.   This is so interesting.  Lately I heard that in manufacture sector, that is actually true.   American workers were 4 times more efficient than Chinese workers on average.   The labor cost in China was about 10 times more efficient than in US.  These facts constitute the basic reason for manufacture outsourcing to Chinese factories.  As labor cost increased there in recent years, the equation will need some adjustment.

American creativity and innovations are not accidental.  They are the outcome of independent thinking and practice of the many “lone” people.   A true American is never lonely; we are busy exploring new territories.  American value still has good face value.