The single main difference between America and Eastern Europe

There are lots of differences, of course.  Millions, probably.  The obvious one is history, in that their building and… heck… their trees – are older than our country.  That isn’t the big difference that I want to tell you about.  There are almost no black people in any of those countries (Austria, Check Republic, BudaPest).  Wait, not even sure which of those are countries versus cities.  It was a blur.  Every day on the Danube we would wake up in a new country.  Anyone, after 10 days in Eastern Europe, I saw ONE black person.  It took me a few days to notice this, and I mentioned it to our group.  My wife then elbowed me for being racist.   I said “this has nothing to do with racism.  Trust me, I prefer non whites… but look around” and everyone had to agree.  7 of us, in ten days, saw one single black. He was our Uber driver in Vienna, and was awesome.

Guns, right?  No.  not here to write about guns.  But yes, obviously that is a big difference.  People would ask me “why is America obsessed with guns?  Guns won’t protect you when the Germans come.”

But that isn’t why I write.  HERE is the biggest difference between Eastern Europe and the US.  Corporate influence over everything.  American culture is entirely run by corporations.  EVERY SINGLE aspect of our lives is dictated by that.  Our lawmakers?  They are bought and paid for by large corporations.  It’s our fault, we have created a system where they can’t govern.  Our representatives spend every waking money raising money, not governing.  Did you know to stay in the House of Representatives (the Donny Wahlberg of Govt.  You don’t want this job.  Its only 2 years.  Why bother?  Go for the Senate!  It’s a 6 year term, and that is where presidents come from)… it costs $15,000 a DAY.

A House of Representatives congressperson has to raise an average of $15K a day to stay in office.  With only a 2 year term, they are basically running for re-election every waking moment.   So, businesses pay to fund them to protect their interests.  It means they also get to write our laws. 

I just didn’t see that in Eastern Europe.  I didn’t feel that big business had that kind of hold of culture.  I think if we were here in America, you might find a McDonalds in St Stephens.

An example – when I was in the Czech Republic, we were doing a beautiful drive from Prague   to Cesky Krumlov and I saw all these billboards with nothing on them but the Czech flag on it.  Here is one of those bllboards now.  I took this pic from my cell phone.

I asked our wonderful and awesome driver why this is.  He explained it was because they used to be commercial billboards.  However, drivers found them distracting to the driving process.  They wanted to be able to keep their eyes on the road.  So, the govt gave every company 3 years to have every billboard gone.  Of course, this was done a year early.   In this part of the world, people are well trained to listen to the govt.  That’s what a few hundred years of constant occupation does to the psyche.

As for the flag?  He said “well, we had to put something there”.  I then asked ‘well, why not take down the actual billboard structure when you take down the billboard?”   I don’t remember his answer.  I mean, we drove 3 hours each way… and I was in shotgun.  So, he and I chatted literally for 6 hours.  I am a curious boy.  Here is all of us in the big Mercedes SUV heading to Cesky Krumlov together.

that is 8 folks jammed into a Mercedes 'Sprinter' type van.  I am in shotgun with that stupid grin, taking a van selfie.  If you haven't traveled much... THIS is what traveling looks like.  Your pictures show you at the Roman Colosseum.  That was less than 1% of your trip to Rome.  ALL you are actually doing is driving somewhere.  Ok, that is a whole separate rant.