Protestant values and the spirit of rebellion

Momus:

Mediterranean cultures—and I'd include that whole tranche of peninsulas from Greece to France—tend to avoid the extremities of subcultural style, and I think it's because these tend to originate in Protestant and Post-Protestant cultures (the US, UK, Holland, Germany) and be an expression of "protest" values, a permanent "reformation". French, Portugese, Spanish, Italians, Greeks tend to be much more family-oriented and, as you say, conformist, either Catholic or Greek Orthodox culturally, Classical-Catholic rather than Romantic-Protestant.