Ulysses

This point is something that's often lost on many of the Americans I've known on international boards that touch on politics. They've been at a loss as to why non-Americans take an often critical interest in American politics. It's a combination of what you've explained here and the fact that, for various reasons, America has elbowed its way into the spotlight of the world stage. It's a nonsense to think that when you place yourself in the spotlight - and America does place itself in the spotlight - that you're only going to get applause but not boos.

It's baffling to me how many Americans can beat their chest as to being the only 'super power' in the world, a position maintained with a bewildering and alarming amount of troops and bases in outside of America, but at the same time be overly sensitive when people are unhappy with this state of affairs. It seems like there's a massive disconnect with the way many Americans see their country and how many non-Americans see it.

For example, I'm sure everyone in Europe is familiar with the internet argument that America saved everyone single-handedly in WWII, as a result made the world safe in it's self-appointed role as policeman of the world. My reality is that, and it's a reality shared by many my age, I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s fully expecting to die in a nuclear holocaust purely because of our status as 'America's runway'.

Again, I want to highlight the fact that England/Britain/UK has its faults, as does everywhere else. The point is that it's less likely to see a non-American aggrandising their country the way that Americans do. This is something that I see, rightly or wrongly, as being cultural and part of the fabric of American identity.

As I said earlier, there's nowhere in the Western World that flag waves like America does. America has a sense of Nationalism that is unknown anywhere else in the world outside of sports events. Compare it to England, where Nationalism is practically a dirty word and is often viewed with suspicion. Compare it to Britain where there's some peculiar and ill-founded divide as to which British countries are, for want of a better word, 'allowed' or 'encouraged' to promote Nationalism in tandem to 'Britishness'. Compare it to Europe where Nationalism is very often tempered with a sense of caution born out from the spectre of the past. Compare it to the Eastern World where expressions of Nationalism, whether it's from Russia, China or North Korea &c., are somehow 'wrong' or 'threatening' to the West and in particular America.

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The Fields of Mars