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  • Yeah, I've lived in a couple of countries in Europe and my fellow countrymen are the least socially aware of all and easily 30 - 40 years behind Northern Europe and Scandinavia.

    I moved back to Portugal some years ago, after 2 decades abroad, and in several things (mobility, environmental awareness, social values) it was like going back in time.

    Things are especially bad in everything to do with cars, with people still having the same mindset as back in the 80s, even young people.

    • with people still having the same mindset as back in the 80s, even young people.

      Let’s set the context to fellows aged between 18 and 35, since that’s the law in Portugal for defining young people.

      WTF is going on? There's so much access to information! I'm not talking about reading books, really. Why are we so behind on everything? I mean, our education isn’t that bad, aside from the overcrowded classrooms in the metropolitan areas. Our universities aren’t too shabby, and the curriculums are good... So what’s left for us to regain some momentum? I don’t know man, I just want to fly to Australia and stay there, to be honest.

      • It's a mix of various behavioural and social learned habits.

        Consideration for others is only direct person to person and regulated by social shame: people don't think of "the system" as being "other people", they think of it as something you take advantage of and you're a sucker (otário) if you don't, so when they're not being watched by others or standing out they'll take for themselves that which is of the fuzzy "others":

        • They'll go around the queue if they found a quiet way back or they feel not seen (people in cars generally acts as if they themselves are not seen)
        • They'll swindle the State on tax or benefits if they'll think they can get away with it.
        • They'll park their cars on sidewalks hindering or even blocking pedestrians.
        • They'll keep on crossing the traffic lights just after they turned red even though pedestrians are waiting to cross.
        • They'll not use the car blinking lights when it's merely for the benefit of others (I.e. turning right) but will when it might help them (I.e. turning left across another lane).
        • They'll leave trash on the ground in the middle of a forest.

        And more.

        Generally people will behave vastly more selfishly if they think they won't stand out but be ashmed to do so when they feel that others are judging them negatively for it (that's what I mean with "regulated by social shame")

        This kind of behaviour then translates into very low activism when it comes to things which are "of everybody" such as the Environment.

        As for other elements of the lack of prosperity in Portugal, I would say two related to the management culture in the country stand out:

        • A tendency for Nepotism, for example "a cunha". More in general choices about who does what are regulated by "who do I know" and "who do I like", not objective merit and suitability criteria. The result is that generally the best person for the job is NOT the one that gets the job, especially in positions seen as more prestigious (mainly management).
        • Very little natural tendency for being organised: people tend to do just about everything reactively, the whole time, and almost never proactively and this also applies to managers who are generally terrible at preparation and organisation resulting in lots of time wasted from "going after the wrong thing", inappropriate tools for the job, lot of empty periods were somebody is waiting for others and so on. Further, because of the lack of preparation and organisation a lot of otherwise predictable problems that could have easily been avoided if tacked earlier become full-blown fires, so people end up spending lots of time in firefighter mode - fixing problems rather than doing productive activities. All this inefficiency is then compensated with overwork, which brings its own problem since overworked people are tired people and tired people make more mistakes and have an even lower tendency to be proactive. The Portuguese tend to work long hours whilst having low productivity. All this also means that most Portuguese managers are pretty shit at the more advanced levels of management, i.e. Strategy.

        And so on.

        All these various elements are painfully visible in the behaviour of Portuguese politicians and their management of the country.

        Because this stuff are learned behaviours most people that grew up here have them and they naturally feel that "this is how people are" since in their life experience "everybody does this". From my own experience, people can learn to act differently, but when pretty much everybody around them behaves like that, they're not even aware that they're acting in specific ways which are not universal plus some of these things only yield rewards when most people are doing it and being the sole person acting in a certain way just makes one stand out or even be seen as a sucker.

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