# Why do Americans feel culturally inferior? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 2, 2008, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971 "2008-01-02T06:21:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/21 "2008-01-02T17:39:23Z")
Another important element in that link: > [@](#): > > Burgers dominate the US fast food industry, with burger fast food taking more than half of total fast food expenditure… In the UK, by contrast, the proportion of fast food expenditure accounted for by burgers was less than a quarter. This is why I was wanting a definition of ‘fast food’ - it also mentions Japanese lunchboxes, do these count as ‘culturally inferior’? ---
**Author:** ![masterofnone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@masterofnone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/masterofnone)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/22 "2008-01-02T18:02:44Z")
I think it has a lot to do with the size and diversity of the US. Many Americans never travel outside of the US, as there is no need to. We have everything we need within our country’s borders. Because of this, the only foreign things we see are the stuff that is worth importing, not the everyday crap from foreign countries. We’re comparing our average with other countries best. Those of us who have traveled realize that people are the same everywhere, and Europe’s crap is just as lowbrow as our crap. We also tend to romanticize foreign things, so we see them as better than we would if they came from here. Our size and diversity also allows us to discriminate within our borders. Yankee v.s. south, everybody else v.s. Texas and California, red states v.s. blue states, etc. There are plenty of stereotypical targets for us to badmouth other cultures within our country. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/23 "2008-01-02T18:10:40Z")
[QUOTE=masterofnone] We have everything we need within our country’s borders. [/QUOTE] [hijack] See, that attitude is alien to me. What you don’t have within your borders is, say, China. Or Thailand. Or France. As in ancient, established, historical cultures, in situ. You can’t see the Potala Palace in the US, and going to The Venetian isn’t _quite_ the same as going to Venice itself. [/hijack] Anyway, regarding our lowbrow stuff that you guys never see, I’d say that the British version of lowbrow is way, way below the quality of US lowbrow crap. The Jeremy Kyle show, for example, is trying to be Jerry Springer but actually manages to be worse. And our tabloids aren’t fakery like yours: they’re purporting to be newspapers, but done up for the mentally subnormal. I won’t put links, as they often have tits in them, but google The People newspaper, or The Sun, which is the top-selling paper in the entire country. As for the highbrow, I’d put the Manhattanites I’ve met way above Londoners for culture vulturism. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/24 "2008-01-02T18:24:21Z")
For every European that says Americans are culturally inferior there is an American who says that the US is best at everything. For some reason Americans seem to give more credence to the European idiots than we do to the American variety. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/25 "2008-01-02T18:27:43Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] [hijack] See, that attitude is alien to me. What you don’t have within your borders is, say, China. Or Thailand. Or France. As in ancient, established, historical cultures, in situ. You can’t see the Potala Palace in the US, and going to The Venetian isn’t _quite_ the same as going to Venice itself. [/hijack] [/QUOTE] You’re English? Many Americans DO visit those places. And we like borrowing themes and ideas from other cultures. But we really don’t _need_ them in that sense. There’s simply a grotesque amount of stuff within America, and really foreign places\* are very, very far away. Englishmen running off to France with us flying to Rome; in terms of distance and expense it’s not even close. Many people can’t easily afford it; it’s an exotic and rare vacation, and it’s not nearly as easy to take children. Yeah, I’d like to see some cool things in Asia, but I don’t really have to money to fly there when I like. Going to visit a national park or to the beach or to see Washington State is a big deal enough. \*Yes, Mexico and Canada are foreign. I will cheerfully acknowledge that they aren’t neary as foreign in that sense as Italy or France. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/26 "2008-01-02T18:41:11Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] [hijack] See, that attitude is alien to me. What you don’t have within your borders is, say, China. Or Thailand. Or France. As in ancient, established, historical cultures, in situ. You can’t see the Potala Palace in the US, and going to The Venetian isn’t _quite_ the same as going to Venice itself. [/hijack] [/QUOTE] I think the attitude reflects more upon climate and environment. If it’s the dead of winter and I want a beach holiday, I don’t have to go to Italy or Greece or the south of France; I just go to California or Florida. If it’s summer and I want a ski holiday, I don’t go to the Alps, I can go to the Rockies. Stretches of desert? Verdant forested hills? Vast expanses of prairie? Warm beaches? Stark rocky beaches? Tropical swamps and mosses? Frozen glaciers and tundra? Aside from bona fide rainforests\*, there isn’t much climate-wise you can’t experience within the US no matter what season. That’s not even touching cultural differences that don’t require the average citizen to learn a new language or exchange their currency. Personally, I love global travelling but I can appreciate that not every family wants to mess with it just to escape the cold over Christmas. Obviously the only place to see Rome is Rome and the only place to experience Brazil is Brazil. But for the typical vacation where you’re just looking to relax and have fun in the climate of your choice, the US pretty much has it covered. \*Does Hawaii have what’s technically rainforest? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/27 "2008-01-02T18:41:40Z")
[QUOTE=smiling bandit] Many Americans DO visit those places. And we like borrowing themes and ideas from other cultures. But we really don’t _need_ them in that sense. [/quote] Well, we don’t _need_ anything from outside our borders, either, so I don’t get what that is supposed to prove. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/28 "2008-01-02T18:58:31Z")
When you have a country that can be convinced to call them Freedom fries instead of French and to pour French wines down the sewer, you will have trouble not thinking we are suckers. I am sure Europe was wondering what that was all about. Plus we may have voted for Bush twice. ---
**Author:** ![masterofnone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@masterofnone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/masterofnone)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/29 "2008-01-02T19:15:07Z")
[QUOTE=gonzomax] When you have a country that can be convinced to call them Freedom fries instead of French and to pour French wines down the sewer, you will have trouble not thinking we are suckers. I am sure Europe was wondering what that was all about. Plus we may have voted for Bush twice. [/QUOTE] I have a hard time believing that a significant number of people did either. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/30 "2008-01-02T19:18:08Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] Well, we don’t _need_ anything from outside our borders, either, so I don’t get what that is supposed to prove. [/QUOTE] You’re not getting it: I can experience at least four or five major cultures within the U.S. of A plus a dozen ethnic cultures in various places. America is BIG in more ways than physical size. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/31 "2008-01-02T19:26:19Z")
[QUOTE=smiling bandit] You’re not getting it: I can experience at least four or five major cultures within the U.S. of A plus a dozen ethnic cultures in various places. America is BIG in more ways than physical size. [/QUOTE] And I can experience major cultures with equal ease, and a dozen ethnic cultures within a short bus ride. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/32 "2008-01-02T19:26:43Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] It’s easy to ignore what you’ve got yourself, though. My favourite random fact along these lines is that the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is older than any London orchestra. (I’ve had people who should know better simply refuse to believe it.) [/QUOTE] Also consider jazz, an undeniably American music that has a much wider audience in Europe and Japan than it does here. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/33 "2008-01-02T19:31:25Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug] Also consider jazz, an undeniably American music that has a much wider audience in Europe and Japan than it does here. [/QUOTE] Oh, absolutely! The principle reason I like the CSO thing, though, is that it catches even the most elitist snob (who wouldn’t give jazz the time of day) out. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/34 "2008-01-02T19:34:48Z")
[QUOTE=smiling bandit] You’re not getting it: I can experience at least four or five major cultures within the U.S. of A plus a dozen ethnic cultures in various places. America is BIG in more ways than physical size. [/QUOTE] It’s statements like this that convince me we are speaking an entirely different language on this subject. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/35 "2008-01-02T19:38:47Z")
I for one don’t feel culturally inferior at all. In fact, I wouldn’t be ashamed to say I feel a bit culturally superior. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/36 "2008-01-02T19:39:25Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] It’s statements like this that convince me we are speaking an entirely different language on this subject. [/QUOTE] GBS, no? ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/37 "2008-01-02T20:11:56Z")
“Cultural cringe” is by no means new. After conquering Greece politically, the Romans were, in turn, conquered by Greek culture. Embarrassed by the crude, rustic aspects of their own cultural identity, the intelligentsia (not to mention the nouveau riche) of Rome grafted Greek art, language, literature, mythology, and philosophy so thoroughly into their own lives that it often becomes difficult for the layman to separate the two. Within the city that conquered the world, the language of prestige and refinement was Greek; the architectural and sculptural styles of choice were Greek; the old faceless Roman gods were neglected in favor of Romanized Greek deities; poets, historians and philosophers rhapsodized in Greek, or in Romanized Greek forms. Even Caesar’s famous last words were, it would seem, uttered in Greek. When the St. Petersburg Conservatory opened in 1862, the professorial faculty consisted almost entirely of Germans. The derision these disciples of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, etc., felt for the cultural contributions of Russia was shared by the western-educated Russian nobility that funded the conservatory and served as its primary audience. Mortified that the culture identity of his homeland should be so lightly tossed aside by his own countrymen, composer Mili Bilakirev founded his own rival conservatory, and thus cultivated an environment that was to yield the quintessentially Russian music of Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Borodin, and heavily influenced Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky, to name a few. Even France (which many Americans regard as the world’s capital of culture – and cultural snobbery) has undergone fads and fascinations with distinctly non-French societies. Napoleon’s conquest of Egypt resulted in a renaissance of Egyptian art and architecture in Paris. Romantic painters such as David and Bouguereau evoked scenes of lost classical grandeur. Most of the great Fench operas, _Carmen_, _Les pêcheurs de perles_, _Les Troyens_, _Faust_, _Les contes d’Hoffmann_, _Roméo et Juliette_, and _Lakmé_, to name a few, are set in such exotic locales as Spain, Germany, Sri Lanka, and India rather than in France. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/38 "2008-01-02T20:43:13Z")
“Why do Americans feel culturally inferior?” Our education certainly implies it. The study of literature and the arts pretty much begins with Europe and that establishes the standards. (And pursuing that point leads us down the road of relativism.) [QUOTE=Mangetout] I’m not saying this is a good or bad thing, if it really is even a factor, but could the comparative youth (as a nation) of America be a factor? Many other nations have historical records, traditions, architecture, etc dating back thousands of years - this could (perhaps quite unreasonably) make the cultural background of places like America seem - perhaps - a bit _makeshift_ - as if they haven’t really been doing anything long enough to have properly settled into it. [/QUOTE] I think that’s a valid point. Of course, Europe has looked down on us since our very earliest days. Perhaps that’s because the people who came here were the same ones who were looked down on in Europe, such as the peasants and the bourgeoisie. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/39 "2008-01-02T20:47:41Z")
[QUOTE=Struan] More interestingly, the French revere [Clint Eastwood](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6371461.stm). [/QUOTE] And [Le Pétomane](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_394.html) was a big hit in his day. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![PastAllReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/40 "2008-01-02T22:12:58Z")
So just to disagree with the OP, it’s certainly not obvious to me that large numbers of Americans do, in fact, feel culturally inferior. Which makes answering the “why” moot pretty much. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971.md?page=3)