Then why is USA culture altogether so awful--barbaric even!
Because it is a practising democratic capitalist Nation idolising the God of money..

It matters not what your believe,but how you treat your fellow man.The concept of god is just an expression of man's ego.

Only insecure,shallow people need a god to fill the void of their ignorance.When you've struggled long and hard enough,the nature of your being will be revealed.

The US is and always has been a travesty of what the founding fathers so eloquently aspired to; the separation of church and state is a formal ideal abused in practice there. This can only be attributed as a prevailing flaw of its popular democracy; originary "idealism" is never realised in reality or en masse, and so serves as imprimatur for "inspirational hypocrisy". Constitutional hypocrisy, at its advent, was modest (like the worm in the bud) and even rationalisable, but the incongruence of idealism and realism has carved American history and is today all-consuming and rank. Enlightenment ideals were often brilliantly conceived in the laboratory-conditions of the mind, but they've never been translated into consistent government policy and never given the mosaic of popular bigotries a moment's pause.
The juxtaposition: constitutional separation of church and state/religious infiltration and influence at all levels of administration, will only ever perpetuate inspirational hypocrisy. Washington and Jefferson and co were sufficiently intoxicated by their vision and in a position to thumb their noses at temptation in those comparatively innocent days. But like everything else in the modern world, leadership means compromise every step of the way, is dragged down by beaurocracy, and is corrupted by a solicitous materialism the founding fathers could never have contemplated.
So while I agree with separation of church and state in principle, I can't see how it can ever be realised in practice. Certainly it would not cure the far more sinister ills that afflict us all.
cont..

..cont

In any case, how can a popular democracy in a country that "has the highest proportion of religiously observant people of any developed country", be administered free of religious influence when such influence "is" the electorate? Or when those influences are rampant within and without government? Moreover, in a country where the "eligible" leadership class, at the individual level, is obsessed with the accumulation of wealth, power and its own egotistical influence, rather than the Enlightenment ideals the nation is "foundered" upon? How conceivably can anybody rise above the general morass? Or rise at all without selling his/her soul along the way, when money is such a factor within campaigns? Indeed it's absurd to think that any individual or cohort resilient enough would be "permitted" to bring genuine reform, ideological or substantial.
Separation of church and state in the current system, however its legislated, would only go on, like the other cherished ideals in the US, as ceremonial observances and inspirational hypocrisy.
And Australia is no better.

Dear Squeers,

I am mainly agree with your post. The next essay on this subject will deal with the fact that the ideals have not been realised from the beginning. I will cite prejudice, slavery and genocide.

We can consider the questions of why the ideals haven't been realised and whether it is possible to realise them.

Ho Hum, "It is often said that the USA is the most religious of countries, especially in the West.
Then why is USA culture altogether so awful--barbaric even!"

I'd like to suggest a couple of answers to that question;
Firstly, there are one million registered religious organisations in the US...that's something like one in every 270 people. Personally, I like to think of it as one million registered tax-dodges, for as registered religions, they are also regarded as charities and therefore tax exempt. A good business for the charismatic.

Secondly, and less cynically, despite the prolfic excesses in pornography, violence et al on their media, their media IS entertainment. There is a very large and consequently very strong Christian under-current through Middle America, often referred to as the Bible Belt. Sex and violence sells to the more liberally-minded West and East Coasts of the US, and to the international markets, but not to their Bible Belt.

Deep down, America is an very conservative country, and what is exported in their "cultural" entertainment, is not necessarily reflective of the whole. They export what sells. And we buy it. But the two shouldn't be confused.

Thirdly, the American government is profoundly influenced by the Industrial Military Complex, thus trillions of dollars are directed towards it each year, and other large business interests pertaining to resources, as well as export markets. Business is amoral, and especially the business of empires and State. But this is government, and again, not a reflection of the remaining 270 million people, other than their impotance to change the status quo.