vivalarevolución wrote: ↑I doubt that you will find too many other governments or countries so concerned with the status as being the greatest and projecting that idea across the world, while being so oblivious to their glaring faults and how it might endanger our relationship with people and governments from outside our border. This sort of narcissism that seems to be an embedded part of US culture and practiced by our citizens has, in my belief, been a factor to the rise of a textbook narcissist as one of two very real options to lead our land.
You’ll find many other countries (i.e. aggregate opinions of citizens) and governments which are concerned with their own self-image and projecting a particular image to the world.
In places ruled by authoritarian / quasi-authoritarian governments, the nationalist pro-government propaganda is dramatically more in-your-face than anywhere I’ve ever seen in the US, and that includes, say, the Alamo. When I was in Azerbaijan in 2003, for example, every public building had a literal shrine to the recently dead dear leader. In conversations with Azeris, nearly every conversation was steered into two topics of primary importance, first, how Azerbaijan was the first and greatest country in the world (to me, that seemed laughable, but they were dead serious), and second, how Armenians were evil thieves who all deserved to die. If you look around the world, the story is much the same in many other countries. Though I haven’t been there, I’ve talked to plenty of friends who have, and Russia by all accounts has just as much self censorship, with more dramatic consequences for dissidents. Talking to folks in China, there is an incredible amount of semi-blind nationalism, supported by government censorship and media control. Don’t try discussing the geopolitics of the South China Sea, or Taiwan, or Tibet, or the history of Maoism. In many Islamic countries, nationalism has been partially replaced by transnational religious identity, but plenty of the most politically visible and empowered folks believe in some kind of coming Islamic power which will stand up to the west in a titanic struggle.
Some countries and groups have more of a victim complex identity. If you talk to some Israelis, you’ll hear less about how they’re the greatest world power, and more about how they’re the most righteous, beset on all sides by evil terrorist enemies. But don’t try to have a serious conversation about collective punishment, murder, illegal imprisonment, etc. of Arab civilians by the Israeli government, you won’t get anywhere.
Some countries have a self image as being more cultured, or more civilized, or more industrious, or having better taste, etc. Small countries in places like Europe where many languages are spoken within easy driving distance, (a) tend to be a bit more cosmopolitan in aggregate, and (b) have a lot more direct international experience, and (c) have much less dominant power to project around the world. In some places, the great majority of young people see themselves as world citizens, with liberal internationalist ideals, etc. But there’s plenty of condescension to go around. These folks will often either dodge questions about local immigrant minority populations, or take credit for kindness taking in those poor ungrateful wretches. Etc. Etc. Or try talking to a German about how the EU has screwed the Greeks and Spanish.
In some countries, there are enough pressing local concerns (disease, civil war, local corruption, food security, massive unemployment, etc.) that discussion doesn’t revolve around nationalist power projection onto the world stage.
Within the US, there are wide cultural differences from one part of the country to another. If you spend time living in the pacific northwest, you’ll get an entirely different set of cultural/political priorities than in the midwest, or the south, or Southern CA, or Miami, or the northeast.
There is surely a great deal of ugly nationalism, xenophobia, military triumphalism, “we’re number one, USA, USA, USA” nonsense in the US. US foreign policy of the past century has often been incredibly destructive and self-defeating, and US money props up a lot of really nasty foreign governments.
But Americans don’t have any kind of monopoly on egocentrism, “narcissism”, stupid arguments, etc. The US just happens to have more geopolitical influence at the moment, so whatever traits you find seem exaggerated compared to some tiny country that doesn’t threaten anyone.
In my personal opinion, arguments about how uniquely self centered Americans are are basically the same structurally as whatever narrow-minded narcissism they’re supposed to be analyzing/critiquing.
