why are americans so incredibly full of their own self importance?

Question

don't they realise that the world is waiting for them to self distruct. i'm canadian and it scares the hell out of me being so close to them.....we walk on eggshells every day...yikes!

if you are american, do you ever get scared that your gov. wants you all to be so blinkered and brainwashed?

case in point...bluff mike's answer. let me guess......ur from little rock!!!

Answer 1

You ask a question that assumes a negative characteristic as fact. It would be like me asking my co-worker if he is still beating his wife. I don't think you can produce much evidence that Americans are anymore full of self-importance than any other country. I have a lot of anecdotal evidence from personal experience that Canadians are full of contempt for America. But I will never generalize and say "why are all Canadians so full of contempt for Americans?"

Contempt is that emotion you feel when you feel helpless and when something in your environment is out of your control. If you can't control it or interact with it as a peer, the human reaction is to assume you are superior and to denigrate. We do that as little kids when the kids down the street won' let us play with them. We say "well, I didn't want to play with you anyway ... you guys are too stupid for me anyway." Etc. I'm going to assume for now that your comments are carefully thought out. I'll try to explain the way we Americans see ourselves in the world with the expectation that you really want to hear this point of view. If instead you are just cranking off a nasty comment out of your deep contempt for America, well, you have probably already stopped reading.

I'm wondering what you think the US should be doing? Stay out of the rest of the world? No, you have the cool advantage of living in the safety of North America where no one but terrorists will ever attack you, yet you can stand there and smugly criticize us for whatever we do wrong/right or whatever. The terrorists would rather hit us but it looks like Canada has homegrown terrorists who are happy to share the fun on your side of the border.

The challenge of being an American today is that after defeating the soviet union in the cold war (an evil empire) we aren't sure we know what to do with all of those aircraft carriers and nuclear subs. Winston Churchill, if he were here to tell us, would likely encourage America to embrace its role as the sole superpower and to use its economic and military might to export peace and security. That may not win us friends everywhere ... but winning friends isn't the point. Peace and prosperity across the world are possible, we believe, without establishing a world wide empire. With those things in place, and some freedom sprouting in places like China that has been oppressed for 75 years, the world can be transformed. Rome and Great Britain accomplished a lot of good with their empires but ultimately couldn't sustain them. We only want you in Canada, our friends in Europe, the good people in Asia, and all the people everywhere else to enjoy the system of government that has transformed the globe. You see, we don't want to rule the world. We want to do business with it. Remarkable changes are happening to build a global economy in every spot where there is enough security to sustain it. All we want in Iraq is peace and stability so that we and they will have opportunities to build a better country. That will also increase the peace in the region. What vision do YOU have for the middle east? Maybe Israel should unilaterally abandaon its settlements in Gaza to help the Palestinians have their own territory ... oh wait, they just did. That didn't do one thing to help peace. It only gave the psychos amognst that crowd better places from which to launch new attacks on Israel. You have another good idea? Maybe Israel should just leave and die in the ocean. That seems to be what the terrorists want.

You see, we sort of have to make decisions. If you don't like our decisions, you can try to think what you would do differently. But in the end, the US is the only power in the world that is willing and able to export peace and security across the globe. Would you trust N. Korea to do this? If so, let's send them a few nuclear subs and aircraft carriers and let them keep world peace for a while ... let's see how it goes.

The best part is that if you don't like Pres. Bush, you can stand there and just spew out hateful and cynical contempt. If you had been in Iraq 4 years ago and proclaimed that you hated the way Saddam ruled or that his sons were wrong to rape your sister, chances are you wouldn't have lived to see him fall.

I still think our instinct is to stay here and leave everyone else alone. We love our country because it has offered us all opportunity and freedom that was unknown in human history. As nice as it is here and in Canada (you are welcome for the security, by the way), much of the undeveloped world is a hell hole. We would love to ignore it and go on raising our kids, enjoying sporting events, family time and the like, and let the middle east go on treating women like property, executing people for watching western TV or listening to western music, and ignoring the plight of the millions dying of AIDS and famine in Africa. Ignoring them is impossible. They seek to kill us, kill you, kill France, kill Germany, kill Russia, etc. Oh yeah, they also want to kill each other. The sunnis and shia are battling for control of islaam and have been for generations. I wish that were just their problem. Unfortunately, they are willing to kill innocents everywhere. Including those sitting in their offices in New York City. It takes a mentally deranged nut to think that "those yanks had it coming."

Merely having the power to wipe out every country militarily on the globe is plenty to get us criticized. We have always restrained from using the power for conquest. When we met the Red Army in Europe in 1945, we backed away and went home, then sent aid under the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe. Yep, there is that arrogant self-importance again. The Soviet Union stayed and erected an iron curtain through military control. Read your history about soviet tanks rolling into cities to stop independence movements. We had the power then to take on the soviets but didn't. Are you upset with us for that? Was that the right decision? We then engaged in a cold war for decades and the soviet union finally collapsed - pretty much when they saw us wipe out the best that the Soviet Union could give to Saddam's army. in a couple of weeks. Are you upset with us for that? We did not seize the Iraqi oil fields but fight off insurgents who are trying to destroy the oil production in Iraq. Are you uspet over that?

I'm sure I didn't change your mind. There is a lot more to being a responsible super power than meets the eye. We don't crave this position of power, we simply see it as a huge responsibility. By the way, next time there is a tsunami in the Indian Ocean, would you prefer that the US not send $millions in relief?

Your best hope for world peace, my neighbor to the north, is that we all succeed. Appeasing the terrorists won't help you. They would love to kill you right now ... just because you aren't one of them. We Americans say that our way of life in the west is better than the vision for the world that those psychos have in mind. That is our moral clarity. Call it arrogance if you want. We need ... it is worth dying for if we have to.

Answer 2

I've often wondered about that myself. I live in America, and I try to appreciate the boons of living in this country. But more and more I see so much illusions of grandeur everywhere, and narcissistic and sociopathic behavior, and how we are all so wrapped up in our own little worlds, and how devoid we are of true spirituality. It is scary, and what comes of all this we will deserve. I know there's good people here, too, however..I run into them every day. But isn't the same even in Iran and every country in the world? The whole world seems scary, now..but maybe that's what the news reporters or whoever want us to feel. Scared. Scared people are manipulated people. Be brave and don't watch the news, or listen to it. Hang out with good folks. Be a good person yourself. You'll be fine, wherever you are.

Answer 3

I feel sorry for you Canadians. I hate relatives there, so I know about how hard it is living next to the Americans and living with the Frenchies in Quebec! Unlucky... The problem is Americans get tought at school that they are the biggest and most important nation in the world and that everyone else loves America. The teachers are very selective of what they teach to their pupils.

For example, many Americans don't know they won their war of independance with vast amounts of help from the French, Spanish and Dutch, and many other things along those lines. So it's not entirely their fault that they don't learn these things. Over half of them don't even know where Britain is! This is why I think they see themselves as superior to eveyone else...

Answer 4

All the information the Americans get is biased to give them this point of view, it keeps the majority of them docile enough so the politicians can do what they want, also the belief now that Americans are the only nation that is always right & every other nation should be like them is now so widespread that to say otherwise is considered unpatriotic & almost a crime punishable by extreme measures that those who think America has done wrong keep quiet for their own safety

Answer 5

Methinks that you are listening far too much to politicians. Not only to the current politicians, in both parties, but those yet to come.

If ever needed again, Americans and Canadians will be at each others side.

Bear in mind an old saying, "If America sneezes, the rest of the world will catch pneumonia".
Think about it.
We have 300,000,000 consumers of world goods.

Peace to you and all Canada.
I have visited many times.

Answer 6

I think you mean united state individuals a/o peoples i hope that your self been a Canadian, (i assumed) you could consider your self also American which only means to my knowledge you born in the American Continent. but of course you are Canadian, as i am a Chilean(Chileno)...., and, also American because I born in the South side of the American Continent, to best answer your question I think there is where everything begins, to become a complex subject for peoples been born in a country with no name, as well that in nones land. self analysis may be the answer, in my opinion.

Answer 7

America is self obsessed? May be it is because the whole world thinks more about them than it thinks about itself. It is tough not to get narcissistic yourself if the rest of world thinks you are some sort of celebrity among nations and cultures and tribes that millions of years older than America.

Today we are more obsessed about America than we ever were, because we think just because they have more power and money they are anything different than who we are, let’s take your example you are more worried about their well being than you are about your own.


Let’s drop this American obsession, and pray that they too see the light what we want the world to see, as one thing is sure that if American perishes so will most of the world.

Just as we are spell bound by America, and everything American, even hate is a form of obsession, so is America, as it believes all that there is to the world is its own culture traditions and tribes, but then you cannot generalize Americans, they are as humans like us, and they too get lost as we do. Let find our light first so that there is more light for America to see in.

So for a change, why not make your self the center of your life? Let's heal our families, nations and personal lives first and let American deal with theirs. We have to work it out together, each one does his bit.

Answer 8

Do you ever notice that Canada has no world power, and more bears than citizens? I don't like my government, but I have very little say in the matter. I am self important not because I am an American, but because I am naturally condescending.

Answer 9

In Alberta myself....

I think they are so brainwashed at an early age to think they are better than everone else that they dont even see what danger it is they are in and dont truely understand why so much of the world hates them - infact they are brainwashed to beleive most of the world is Jealous of them and that is why they are hated.. of course they dont realize how their own government manipulates them and compeletely are in the dark as to how they are perceived

it is really sad but I dont know if they will self destruct before they have destroyed the planet or not... they way over consume too which is going to be the ultimate destruction of our planet especially if we dont control population growth

Answer 10

It's got a lot to do with the education system in the U.S. and the pressure to succeed.
A lot of them will freely admit that they know little about the rest of the world. This is because their schooling never educated them very much in world affairs. A majority of their education is geared around their own nation.
Is it any surprise?

Answer 11

Being an American I'm too close to the issue to have a reasonable answer. Maybe that's just how we were all brought up, to think we are the best. It will be our undoing.