Americas Greatest Strength

[Koga No Goshi]

I think we readily adopt new ideas etc.

....and it only takes two or three whacks from a two-by-four to get our attention!

Personally I'd say "readily" is a stretch. I would say that we have a legal framework much less friendly to encoding traditionalism into law and making traditions harder to change than many other countries, but I'd laugh at the idea that Americans embrace change quickly and eagerly.

Example of what I mean: the legal system works so slowly that some changes can slip through faster than the legal system can respond. A very obvious and readily recognized example would be the internet in general, or even more specifically, the trading of software and other intellectual property. How long were people doing classifieds and primitive versions of "Ebay" before laws caught up and said HEY you gotta report that! Or how long were people trading music before the music and record industries woke up to this business they were losing through their own failure to grab new opportunity in a timely manner? So it worked in our "favor", you could say, as far as bringing about change, that strict enough laws didn't exist to squeeze out the new directions that individuals would push the use of technology.