I agree completely that American culture deprecates innovators. Dr. Emmett Brown, the character that invents a time machine on the Back to the Future movies, was shown as a wild-haired, googly-eyed, agitated weirdo.
This is NOT actually any sort of typical of most innovators.
Most innovators are not typical of the cultures they come from: they tend to be off on the periphery. After all, most cultures still think that the Earth was assembled by some highly competent sky-creature just for humans to rule. This, despite the fact that most of the planet is covered by water, and humans are not really all that good as aquatic beings. About five minutes is all we can stay underwater for.
Most cultures are centered around ancient and illogical myths that one must discard or ignore before one engages in rational thought. The Chinese like to burn paper possessions for the dead to use in the afterlife. Christians think that Jesus is actually going to return. Jews are waiting for a Messiah. Muslims think walking around a building repeatedly actually makes God happy, and then there's all that 17 virgins for martyrs stuff.
Anyone who does not question these and other illogical beliefs is unlikely to become an innovator.
All popular cultures are like shackles that keep the mind from soaring. But American culture tends to belittle genius and any sort of nonconformity. The typical innovator is seen as a bit loony because he refuses to conform.
Thomas Edison did not think that cleanliness of body and clothing was good for him. Samuel Morse was greatly in favor of slavery, and ran for Congress from NY on a pro-slavery platform durn=ing the Civil War.
Over half of our engineers and scientists in the US were born elsewhere. It is likely that had they stayed in Iran, China, Japan, Croatia or wherever, they would have had to put up with the burdens of their cultures, but being in the US and seen as different enables them to put off such disadvantages. I am pretty sure that the huge restrictions put on the US for foreign student visas after 9-11 will greatly diminish the degree of creativity we have in the US. It will partly be replaced by Canada, which also has great universities and has not shut the door on foreign students so tightly.
