# 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:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/41 "2008-01-02T22:30:00Z")
[QUOTE=friedo] Don’t judge a group of 300 million people by what you read on a message board. [/QUOTE] Agreed. Not all Americans are not consumed by self-doubt, social guilt, and lamentational hand wringing. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/42 "2008-01-02T22:39:38Z")
Too many nots. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/43 "2008-01-02T23:34:32Z")
I’ve been wondering why so many Americans line up to be insulted by Simon Cowell or the “You are the weakest link” lady. Is it because of the accent? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/44 "2008-01-03T00:03:58Z")
I think we can assign a smidgen’s worth of blame to the War of 1812 and the [Burning of Washington](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Washington), in which the White House, the buildings housing Congress, the Treasury, and the Library of Congress, among other institutions, were lost or largely lost (some stone exterior walls survived). The White House was looted by British soldiers prior to being burned, although First Lady Dolly Madison famously saved Gilbert’s portrait of George Washington. It’s not as if the upstart young nation was possessed of any traditional notions of cultural superiority (as opposed to pride in our Revolution, democratic republic, and civic culture) or swimming in an excess of priceless heirlooms, but losing those edifices, furnishings and artworks and in particular the priceless books, documents, correspondences, and maps housed in the Library helped to seal the deal. Overnight, the USA went from cultural wasteland to _devastated_ cultural wasteland. As for Hollywood, IIRC the year 1990 or so was the point at which foreign box office decisively and permanently out-tipped the domestic take, and that realization further pushed the studios (increasing bought and resold to various corporate conglomerates increasingly driven by profit-seeking) to self-consciously appeal to that non-English-speaking audience. What translates most readily overseas? Explosions, car chases, etc. ---
**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 3, 2008, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/45 "2008-01-03T00:14:33Z")
[QUOTE=Gala Matrix Fire] I’ve been wondering why so many Americans line up to be insulted by Simon Cowell or the “You are the weakest link” lady. Is it because of the accent? [/QUOTE] They were both doing the same in the UK long before they did it in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/46 "2008-01-03T00:31:22Z")
[Malcoml McDowell] Hello, I’m a British person. [/MM] In context, this is my all time favourite _South Park_ joke. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/47 "2008-01-03T00:39:27Z")
How many Americans really feel culturally inferior? I know I don’t, and not a lot of people I know do. In fact, most of the people I know feel pretty damn superior, even those that have no right to. This is the very definition of “begging the question”, although I figure most of you won’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Comte\_de\_Mortain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/aca169/32.png) [@Le\_Comte\_de\_Mortain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Comte_de_Mortain)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/48 "2008-01-03T12:31:27Z")
[QUOTE=Bill Door] How many Americans really feel culturally inferior? I know I don’t, and not a lot of people I know do. In fact, most of the people I know feel pretty damn superior, even those that have no right to. This is the very definition of “begging the question”, although I figure most of you won’t get it. [/QUOTE] But how often is a desire to think of oneself as superior borne from a half-understood fear that one is in fact inferior? An aspect which deserves attention is the American celebration (not unique to that country) of the ordinary and the prosaic. A country in which the President is expected to and congratulated for eating a burger and washing it down with Coca Cola. Consider also the American refusal (not universal, but more widespread than in most European countries) to acknowledge its own shortcomings and admit that any other nation could really be better. An example that has recently been made all too clear to me is the almost pathological inability to see the Revolutionary leaders as anything other than pure-hearted heroes battling an evil empire, rather than bourgeois demagogues seeking a more advantageous financial settlement. I believe these phenomena to be part of the wider context that sustains the complex superiority-inferiority feelings that Americans can feel. The French and British and Dutch and Italians may argue about which of their countries is better in certain (or all) aspects, but there is not the same sense that one has in trying to convince Americans that they do not live in the promised land. The first time I visited the USA within 24 hours I had been asked to acknowledge that America had ‘saved my country’s ass’ in the war, and asked what my country would be able to do if the USA invaded it tomorrow. This not from a stereotypical hick, but actually a person who identified himself as intellectually superior to many of his countrymen by his participation in a message board dedicated to fighting ignorance. I cannot think of any other country in the world in which a visitor would be subject to such odd interrogation, and I think it is indicative of the psychological gulf between America and every other country. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/49 "2008-01-03T13:09:13Z")
[QUOTE=Le Comte de Mortain] Consider also the American refusal (not universal, but more widespread than in most European countries) to acknowledge its own shortcomings and admit that any other nation could really be better. An example that has recently been made all too clear to me is the almost pathological inability to see the Revolutionary leaders as anything other than pure-hearted heroes battling an evil empire, rather than bourgeois demagogues seeking a more advantageous financial settlement. [/QUOTE] Oh, we all do that. Our traditional history tells us how Cromwell ensured that parliament would never again be suppressed by an over-powerful monarch, paving the way for modern democracy and by the way he was a genocidal zealot but that was Ireland so forget about it. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/50 "2008-01-03T13:18:34Z")
My hospital cafeteria sometimes features an entree entitled “Big Bob’s Belly-Buster Fish” (an enormous slab of fried fish filet). You can get fried okra to go with it. And fried coffee. We ain’t culturally inferior to _nobody_. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/51 "2008-01-03T16:31:15Z")
[QUOTE=Le Comte de Mortain] I cannot think of any other country in the world in which a visitor would be subject to such odd interrogation, and I think it is indicative of the psychological gulf between America and every other country. [/QUOTE] Well, that was rude. But Americans frequently experience just about the same thing when they visit Europe, and some European folks will insist that the American visitor agree that their home country is inferior in every way. When I lived in Scandinavia, it happened to me quite frequently. (Some examples: I was told that American teens are less mature than European teens by about 4 years, so I was the equivalent of an 11-yo child. “Packed in cotton” was the phrase. There aren’t enough rolleyes for this one. My hostess insisted that I ate McDonald’s every day and never got a real home-cooked meal, when in fact my mom is a hippie who never allowed us to eat fast food and cooks wonderful meals all the time. Naturally, I was blamed for American policy of any kind, and still am. And people cheerfully told me that brown-eyed people are all liars.) ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Comte\_de\_Mortain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/aca169/32.png) [@Le\_Comte\_de\_Mortain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Comte_de_Mortain)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/52 "2008-01-03T16:49:00Z")
[QUOTE=dangermom] Well, that was rude. But Americans frequently experience just about the same thing when they visit Europe, and some European folks will insist that the American visitor agree that their home country is inferior in every way. When I lived in Scandinavia, it happened to me quite frequently. (Some examples: I was told that American teens are less mature than European teens by about 4 years, so I was the equivalent of an 11-yo child. “Packed in cotton” was the phrase. There aren’t enough rolleyes for this one. My hostess insisted that I ate McDonald’s every day and never got a real home-cooked meal, when in fact my mom is a hippie who never allowed us to eat fast food and cooks wonderful meals all the time. Naturally, I was blamed for American policy of any kind, and still am. And people cheerfully told me that brown-eyed people are all liars.) [/QUOTE] To be fair, they do not see daylight for six months of the year and this may affect their reasoning. ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/53 "2008-01-03T16:52:12Z")
I can’t say I feel at all culturally inferior, or culturally superior, for that matter. I think we Americans (and Canadians) put on a pretty good show. It is a little peculiar to live in a country where all of the history up to 500 years ago involves cultures that have nothing to do with my own, so that the bases for damn near everything have been imported. But we’ve accumulated a broad cultural base, and have given a fair amount back. > [@Le\_Comte\_de\_Mortain](#): > > An example that has recently been made all too clear to me is the almost pathological inability to see the Revolutionary leaders as anything other than pure-hearted heroes battling an evil empire, rather than bourgeois demagogues seeking a more advantageous financial settlement. > … > The first time I visited the USA within 24 hours I had been asked to acknowledge that America had ‘saved my country’s ass’ in the war > … > This not from a stereotypical hick Actually, I’m afraid he was kind of a stereotypical hick. I gather that this person was not talking about the American Revolution, in which France saved our ass in order to get a more advantageous financial settlement. WWII also saved our ass, not to mention making us the meanest dog in the pound, and we are indebted to Europe and Japan for starting it. Too bad that ever since we’ve had to live with a permanent standing military, and every moronic thing our leaders have come up with to do with same, but them’s the breaks. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/54 "2008-01-03T17:04:27Z")
What IS “Cultural Inferiority”? Does it mean that the USA hasn’t got artists, writers, playwrights? I doubt it…since most of the owrld’s culture is now produced here. Who reads a japanese novel? Or goes to a finnish movie? Sure, we don’t have an equivilent to the french Academy, but we got stock car racing-ain’t that just as good? ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/55 "2008-01-03T17:15:29Z")
[QUOTE=Jackmannii] We ain’t culturally inferior to _nobody_. [/QUOTE] I am! **wriggling in the muck and loving it!** ---
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/56 "2008-01-03T17:37:43Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] What IS “Cultural Inferiority”? Does it mean that the USA hasn’t got artists, writers, playwrights? I doubt it..since most of the owrld’s culture is now produced here. Who reads a japanese novel? Or goes to a finnish movie? Sure, we don’t have an equivilent to the french Academy, but we got stock car racing-ain’t that just as good? [/QUOTE] I’m sure this must be a whoosh, but just in case, I enjoy the Japanese author Murakami quite a bit. I don’t know when I last saw a Finnish movie, but many of the foreign films I’ve seen have been pretty good, probably since only the most popular make it here anyway. I’m another American who feels no cultural inferiority or superiority. The only thing I feel a lack of is a lengthy history with really old buildings, but my Korean background furnishes that in spades so it doesn’t bother me too much. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971/57 "2008-01-03T17:40:50Z")
[QUOTE=Le Comte de Mortain] To be fair, they do not see daylight for six months of the year and this may affect their reasoning. [/QUOTE] :dubious: Well, my point was that it’s extremely common. Even in sun-drenched France. (I quite liked living in the climate, actually, the darkness didn’t bother me.) Anyway, I don’t feel culturally inferior to Europeans. Actually I’m probably a bad American because I’m quite a bit better at English lit (and possibly even Russian and Scandinavian) than American. So that’s kind of pathetic. But having lived in Europe and attended school there, I’ve seen first-hand that they aren’t really any different than Americans—and their appetite for gossip rags and so on may be bigger than ours. (One thing Europeans tend to do better, though, is blue-collar work and education. We could learn something from them about that.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-feel-culturally-inferior/431971.md?page=2)