Reading & Discussion

“The Riddle of America – why Americans are so different”

In his book “Rätsel Amerika – warum Amerikaner ganz anders sind” (The Riddle of America – why Americans are so different), the Cologne author and philosopher Dr. Werner Peters has managed to create an unusual perspective fed by historical sources and recent developments, from which he describes the feelings and intellectual state of a nation that is still young: It is the view of a cosmopolitan citizen with a diverse education, who knows the USA through long stays there for work and study.

“Don’t listen!” he advises those attending the reading at the Cologne Mediapark who wish to confirm and nourish their prejudices against America in the future. Peters had something other to report from the USA than what the average European with his multitude of prejudices associates with America, namely, social coldness, superficiality, a striving for hegemony, and moral fundamentalism.

“In terms of America, why do we always succumb to this almost Pavlovian reflex of rejection and prejudice?” the author Peters asks, demanding the same “unbiased ethnological curiosity that we allow, for example, for the Far East or Latin America. With his questions Peters reversed the classical pattern of such program events and challenged the audience with his questions. The guests gratefully accepted the opportunity for discussion and the debate was lively.

Werner Peters has been familiar with American politics for decades: As the first German participant of an exchange program with the U.S.  Congress he worked together with Dick Cheney in 1968/69, who would later become the Vice-President of the U.S. Since that time he has maintained contacts with the political scene in the U.S. and drawn on these experiences in his role as political advisor in Germany.