MARK
> What is it about America that attracts so many snide, catty attacks? Do
other countries really talk about us that much? If so , I guess I should be
honored. *To be honest, we virtually never say anything good or bad about
your countries * ...
>
I have to agree with what Mark says here, and attempt to offer some
explanations of why this is, and it hearkens back to my last post concerning
cultural chasms. Much of our "arrogance" is more to me a problem we have
with making assumptions. As Mark noted, we don't spend much time dissecting
the actions of others countries and I would guess that pulic interest in US
Foreign Policy is very limited. It must be a constant source of frustration
to other countries that we don't pay much attention to anything else going
on outside of the USA.
I think much of this has to do with the size of our country and the
resources at our disposal. I live on the east coast, and could literally
drive for 3 days without pause at a high rate of speed and not get to the
other side of this country.
I cannot speak any other languages fluently but, to be frank, I don't
need to. I would hold that this is again due to the size of the US. I am
unlikely to ever need to have to speak another language on a regular basis.
If I did, I would learn it.
For the most part, we are self-sufficient. Even in the case of oil, I
would argue that if we could no longer get it from the middle east we would
either step up the drilling in Alaska or invent machinery that greatly
reduced the need for oil.
My closest neighbors for 500+ miles around me are other states, not other
countries. With that in mind, since all of what I can actually see, taste,
hear and touch is all part of the US, I assume that things must be kind of
like this in the rest of the world. Or maybe it's that the rest of the world
seems distant, even with the advent of air travel and the Internet.
wEEpy
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