.. and related to that - given this widespread ignorance, how can they be so ready to believe their own culture is best?

- Carter Hall was born in a country freer than the US and far less paranoid

-- Modified on 5/3/2005 8:04:43 PM

How do you know we are #1?

Are you a Crystal Fascist Nazi's? We may have more bombs and army shit than anybod else, but that does not make us the best place to live. Hitler had the best war shit too for a while. So freaking what? Have you EVER been anywhere else besides the Oppressive States of America? This place is sucking more and more everyday. Get a clue.

-- Modified on 5/3/2005 10:16:19 PM

in that position causes some to not have interest in other cultures. Another factor is that the USA is an english speaking country and english, by far, is the world's dominant language.
I have some questions. You were born in another country, do you live in the USA now? For how long? If you have been in the USA a while, what has caused you to stay?

if you didn't know I was being sarcastic!  Check out my history on here, Newbie...I am not one of the "flag wavers".

I'm not convinced Americans generally are any more ignorant of other countries than any other nationality.  People who travel internationally are more knowledgeable, partly because they have an interest in other countries (otherwise they wouldn't have the impulse to travel)and therefore read and listen more about places other than home and partly because of the experience a different culture.  Even where the differences are small (UK vs. US vs. Australia) a traveller to those places notices the differences.  

I doubt the rice farmer in India has more accurate information about the U.S. than an American has about India.  

The common man, even in European countries, gets info about the U.S. from T.V. and from reports he gets from friends who have been to Disneyworld.  I've had nannies from Europe who are surprised to learn when they arrive that not all Americans are obese fat bodies.  

I agree there is an unfortunate arrogance in most Americans about their country's role in the world.  And I agree that all of us should learn more about the rest of the world.  But I am morfe concerned about the arrogance and ignorance of political decision makers than I am about those traits in the masses.

Talking in generalities is always a dangerous thing, but I do understand the point you are making.  I know a number of Americans from a variety of backgrounds, and maybe it's the spheres in which I've met them, but in general (again generalities) I find them to be openly interested in other cultures - once they are aware that they exist. I'm not sure I'd call it ignorance, so much as a lack of overt awareness.  Once it's pointed out to them, they rapidly become actively interested and questioning.

Part of this may well be that the country itself is so vast.  Many Americans don't travel beyond their own borders, and appear to have little interest in so doing.  Why bother?  They think they have the best of everything within their own homeland, and maybe that's true.

Another thing I've noticed whenever I'm in the US, is that the news tends to be extremely parochial.  If you're in, say, Florida, the news tends to relate mainly to the local region, then the State, then the country, and finally the rest of the world.  It tends to be the opposite here in the UK, and our view I think is *generally* not so introspective.  You still have a certain focus on the UK, but I'd say there is a greater and wider European and world view overall.  We can still be incredibly xenophobic, though, so I don't think that's necessarily an exclusive American prediliction.

I'm not sure that Americans believe their culture is best, more that their sense of enterprise is more competitively invasive.  And you could say that other cultures hanker for the glass bead exchange which is offered for their own riches.  Those glass beads jangle musically and glint very brightly.  

If I had to place some blame anywhere, I'd put it on American media.  Foreign culture is either erased altogether or made more bland to become more palateable to American tastes - a lot of the mainstream media seems to want to accommodate the lowest common denominator.  This is especially evident in film and television.  I'd like to think that the American public is actually more intelligent and adaptable than the American media gives them credit for.  After all, if they're capable of "getting" Monty Python, they're capable of getting anything.

And, as a final point, I think that domination of English as a world language is a happy twist of fate, in that the old order belonged to the British Empire and the new order belongs to the Americans.  If the French had succeeded in dominating the New World, things might now be different.

Aphra

Someone once gave me the reasons for the problems in this country in one phrase.  "Too much food"!  Huh, you wonder?  

Well, Americans are spoiled and when you are spoiled it can be a bit of challenge to appreciate what you have much less appreciate the cultures of others.

Not all Americans feel that way but unfortunately the ones that do tend to draw more attention because they are ignorant.

the world would have better cuisine, enjoy oral sex more, and be dressed more smartly.

And you'd probably have more bidets and fewer showers ...

Ouch, I know, a bitchy remark.  But we English have a race memory of Agincourt and Waterloo so I really can't help myself.

Aphra

it's spelled "retarded", not "retared"

also..

it's "moron", not "moran"

http://theeroticreview.com/discussion_boards/viewmsg.asp?MessageID=20652&boardID=39&page=1

I would rather be a bad speller than an asshole.

-- Modified on 5/5/2005 12:05:37 PM

What you are use to is what you think is best. Actually, most people would rather be here than where they are. That's not to say they prefer our culture. They just prefer our freedom and wealth. The most impoverished person in the USA lives better than 70% of the rest of the world.

""I just can't beleive ""

"i" before "e".....