Culture matters 2: FATE AND DESTINY

The outlook on fate and destiny is a very interesting topic to examine, for it reveals a lot about people. Sure, it would also be fascinating to explore how people came to those opinions, but that would go back too far, since in America this way of thinking starts with the Puritans and in Austria probably even earlier. Interesting as this might be, it would be too time consuming to go deeper into that, so I’ll concentrate, again, on comparing and contrasting the American and the Austrian point of view.

Americans are quite optimistic about the future. They think they have every opportunity to become as successful as they want. It’s the, for America so characteristic, from rags-to-rich dream I’m talking about. The general opinion is that unsuccessful people only have themselves to blame. The motto of the Americans is undoubtedly “Where there’s a will there’s a way”. In short, the site obviously comes to the same conclusion as the book “Gig”, in which people talk about their jobs. Many of them didn’t like what they were doing, so they just changed their jobs or even moved until they felt comfortable with the way they lived.

In Austria that’s absolutely different. People seem to be more serene here when it comes to changing their future. They don’t think everyone can do everything they want. Mind you, they wouldn’t tell a child explicitly that they can’t become everything, but they would certainly not encourage them if they dreamed about becoming famous, rich or anything. If Austrians are unsuccessful, though they have tried, the public opinion would be “Why…He/She is probably not meant for that…”. Actually, it doesn’t even matter a lot how hard they tried. Imagine for example an unemployed Austrian, who doesn’t get a job in or near his hometown. It’s very unlikely that this person would move in order to get hired. Our motto is more like “Do kau ma hoit nix doa…”

In comparison to the topic “age” I’ve already covered, there’s a great difference between the American and Austrian attitude towards fate and destiny. Americans are obviously more active in changing their future, although that certainly differs from region to region too. Just think of the first page of Bill Bryson’s book “The lost Continent”, where he writes about his hometown:

“When you come from Des Moines you either accept the fact without question and settle with a local girl named Bobbi and get a job at the firestone factory and live there for ever and ever, or you spend your adolescence moaning at length about what a dump it is and how you can’t wait to get out, and then you settle down with a local girl named Bobbi and get a job at the firestone factory and live there for ever and ever.”