Posted on 10/17/2013 1:45:07 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
I don’t have a clue? I’ve been to Britain, Ireland, Canada, and Mexico. My wife grew up in England. Brothers and sisters have traveled extensively. You obviously don’t know the first thing about me. You haven’t bothered to argue any points I have made. You just assume everybody should accept what the scribbler said. Now if you don’t like the U.S. or you do like the U.S., that is your privilege. I don’t care. But if you believe someone can slam my country, and I’m just supposed to accept his lies, take another guess, pal.
Throttle back there, friend. The “he” I was talking about is the Mr Manson who wrote the original article. I take no issue with anything you said.
My apologies. I was a little hot from his posting.
No offense taken, he sort of p’ed me off too.
We go to “Koreatown” in Dallas often and it looks like a combined Mercedes and Lexus dealership. If you see a Chevy or Ford it’s the tourists.
I agree with most of that. I’ve spent a lot of time in the Philippines as well as Hong Kong and Singapore, with occasional visits almost everywhere else in Asia and have seen the shanty towns, the raw sewage, and the abject poverty, but the central thrust of his argument, that many Americans seem to have an innate sense of superiority, and are astounded when they find out the rest of the world doesn’t really give a flying fluke about the US or Americans one way or another, is hard to refute.
One of the jobs I had in my past was working as a manager for an English school here in Tokyo, and dealing with spoiled rotten American kids who came here to teach was a real eye opener. Simple things like making sure they paid their rent and monthly utility bills, knew how to use bank machines, explaining to them why they really DO need to get a personal seal made, etc. almost drove me around the bend.
Their most common complaint, by far, was that nobody spoke English, even though they had accepted jobs to come to Japan to TEACH English — and, of course, that none of the signs were in English. I had more than one such teacher haughtily explain to me, “I came here to teach English, not learn Japanese.” And this was just five years ago, when most of the train station ticket vending machines and even bank ATMs had already been upgraded with English options.
As far as Japan, specifically, with literacy at 99%, even though high school is not compulsory, you can make a case they are doing a better job than America is. I don’t personally know of any kid who did not go to high school, although I am sure it is more common in the rural communities where they go straight to work on the family farm.
And as far as danger zones are concerned, I can only say that yes, they exist, but you pretty much have to go looking for them — parts of Ikebukuro or maybe Kabukicho in Shinjuku, maybe — but I’ll also make the case that anyone that is cruising that area of town at night is looking for something illegal, immoral or questionable anyhow.
Ultimately, I think the author’s point was not that any of the other places in the world were superior to the US, it was that the US is just another country in the eyes of the rest of the world, and that it is not exceptional in the spiritual sense that most Americans like to assume it is.
Oh I agree with that premise that there are those in America who feel superior and need their eyes opened and I’ve met those to whom you refer who can’t refrain - but I’ve also seen the exact same thing from people in other countries who felt denigrated or superior when they’ve visited the states or other countries and find it difficult to find good sushi in Indiana, decent chinese dumplings, as one recent article had an Englishman complaining about “good biscuits”, or the french turning up their nose at stuff...
My issue is he seems to think it’s only the American’s that are this way and that it is all of us instead of just a portion. Just felt unbalanced overall.
And I suggest you take a flying... Oh wait, FR ROE apply here. So more nicely, I suggest you read the article and my reply again. Just because a guy is a lefty does not automatically make everything he says wrong. I saw Alan Colmes on FOX get something right one time, shocked me to the core, could not believe it. But he was right.
Now instead of getting all indignant at me, let's look at your statement that 'Few Americans think they are better than people anywhere else in the world.' In your limited world this may be true, but I guarantee that this is a false assessment on your part. So if you can't get the little bits right, who cares what you say about bigger issues. Thanks for your reply, next time please employ a little critical thinking before you attack the KB.
I’ll give 6) a strong agreement. The parts of the world unhampered by EPAs and tort law run amok are doing remarkable things.
He also comes across as more than a little obsessive. Things that other people just accept apparently drive him crazy. He's also thinned-skin -- willing to get offensive and vulgar, but touchy about when people respond in kind.
I notice that we have about the same life expectancy as "the happiest place on earth," Denmark, so we must be doing something right.
And are we really that "status obsessed" and "attention seeking"? It sounds like he's comparing the "happy peasants" in the countries he visits with the people he may have gone to school with. Surely Parisians, Romans, Londoners hold their own with New Yorkers and Los Angelenos in those characteristics.
So you’ve done a poll, and most Americans said they were better than everybody else in the world? Tell me another one. Most of the scribbler’s statements were matters of opinion. A number of them, like the American health care system being 37th best in the world, are leftist falsehoods. But some ignoramuses believe them. Face it...you’re blinded by anti-American prejudice just as much as those horrible Americans you think you know so much about. But actually know so little. Good day sir.
We are all hostage to our own prejudices. The trick is to recognize this so you can adjust your viewpoint accordingly. Good luck with this on on your part.
Good post. I’ve been around, and...
There is this pervasive “global” expectation that Americans heading abroad need to be gracious and understanding of the countries and cultures they visit, to be good ambassadors, to set good examples, to accept that “when in Rome...” blah blah blah.
However, notice that there is ALSO the pervasive “global” expectation that Americans IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY need to be gracious and understanding of the cultural cr@p that is foisted upon them by visitors and interlopers, to be good non-judgmental citizens tolerant of imported weirdness and abomination, to bend over backwards for the ferners, to accept that all cultures are deserving of respect, blah blah blah.
Americans at home and abroad are expected to be above the fray, to put up with all manner of idiocy, insult, and injury. Sure seems to me like the “rest of the world” is the one who sees Americans as a people on a higher plain of existence and discipline than those in their own finger-wagging cultures. If noone really hates us or cares about us, then they wouldn’t sit as self-anointed etiquette and thought-process managers.
Americans are the “white males” of the world... we are just expected to shut up and take it while idiots rant and rave at us. And generally we do, because for all of our own “issues”, we are still light years ahead in maturity than the perpetually offended Victimvilles of the planet.
The author is just another whine-about-America type. Dime-a-dozen.
While I agree with a most of what say your government’s of many years seem to love throwing money at a problem especially in Democrat areas and you are not collecting the taxes dues from so many illegal immigrant workers - debt is your major problem no matter how it got there and I am seriously sad to say it maybe your undoing. You are correct that the same people in Europe that you rescued and rebuilt for would spit in a conservative American’s face. Sadly that attitude is being spread into England and Australia via your CNN media and via Reuters.
"As Americans, we have this naïve assumption that people all over the world are struggling and way behind us. They’re not. Sweden and South Korea have more advanced high speed internet networks. Japan has the most advanced trains and transportation systems. Norwegians make more money. The biggest and most advanced plane in the world is flown out of Singapore. The tallest buildings in the world are now in Dubai and Shanghai. Meanwhile, the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world."
Sweden and South Korea have more advanced high speed internet networks. -- True, but not too many decades ago neither country had much of an information structure to begin with, much less a telephone system dating back to the days of the original Bell telephone system. Certainly not South Korea. It's easy to be #1 at something copycatting it for the first time if you're not supporting the evolution of a telephone system that dates to the 1920s that was invented here in the USA. Starting from scratch is always easiest.
Japan has the most advanced trains and transportation systems. -- True, but unless you live in the Northeastern seaboard of the USA you'll probably never ride a train in your life, nor need to. Nobody in the USA has needed to ride a train from Kansas City to Albequerque since 1946. Where I live, trains haul minerals and heavy equipment, period. If I need to travel a long distance, I use SouthWest Airlines. In Europe, I actually was very impressed at The Netherlands' railway system until I realized that all of Holland was about the size of the San Francisco Bay Area. At the same time, it sure was amusing to meet Dutch people who proudly acted like some town only 14 miles away required some long journey by train and that they'd never been near that town in their lives. I'd met Dutch relatives in Amsterdam who'd said they'd never before traveled south to the Gelderland that borders Germany on the Rhine. That's like living in West Los Angeles and pretending that you've never driven on the Pomona Freeway. Please. I could pave over The Netherlands entirely with the asphalt from the LA freeway system. The whole country would look like one big airport runway when I was done.
Norwegians make more money. -- Norway has a population of only 5 million people and funds every bit of its social welfare system with money to burn because they own the North Sea oilfields that serve a national GDP of a half trillion dollars per year. Again: Five million people, half a trillion dollars. Nice trick if you can swing it. Too bad for the author's point that they're the exception to the rest of the EU nations who aren't sitting on an ocean of oil.
The biggest and most advanced plane in the world is flown out of Singapore. -- It's a French airplane. The French just wanted to be biggest at something.
The tallest buildings in the world are now in Dubai and Shanghai -- Congratulations. This is a measure of something important to the author, I guess.
Meanwhile, the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world. -- Yes. Now let me think what peculiarity there is about the United States that Singapore, Holland, South Korea, Norway, Sweden, Dubai, and Shanghai don't share with America...
Good response!!
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