STUDY: Americans No Longer Think America Is So Special

According to the survey "In 2002, 60 percent of Americans agreed with the statement."Our people are not perfect, but our culture is superior to others.""

Maybe part of the reason for the changes in belief is that people are more aware of what's going on in the rest of the world. Sweden has better sex education, Japan takes better care of its elderly and its people live longer, Canada has less pollution than the US, Finland has one of the best education systems in the world.......while the US has sky high unemployment, drug problems, drop out problems, portable meth factories, obesity problems, health care problems, political fissures, and debt problems.....not to mention we no longer have the best baseball team or the best sportsmen/women in the world.

Just as I would never consider myself superior, in any way, to another person, I'd not consider our culture/country superior (in a general sense) to any other country or culture. Are Americans superior to Chinese or Saudis because we eat with knives and forks but they eat with chopsticks or with their fingers? Or is Sweden a superior country because it outlaws spanking while hitting a child is still legal in all 50 states? We still execute criminals but the EU doesn't....are we less superior than them, or are we more superior to the Chinese because we kill execute fewer criminals and only for heinous crimes while they execute merely for being corrupt?

Is what Donna and Philip Berber do any less superior to what Melinda and Bill Gates do....only because their coffers are a fraction of what the Gates' donate? Or is the Gates Foundation superior because they take a different view/approach to improve peoples' lives?

Was the US a more superior country back on Aug 6/9, 1945 than it is today.....or perhaps more superior at the time of the Bopal disaster in the early 80's? How many of our parents probably viewed the decline of American superiority when they saw their children protesting the Vietnam War or when the Beatles made their appearance on Ed Sullivan or the civil rights riots in the 60's.....and yet, I look back on those days as times that America should be most proud of its accomplishments/culture.


We came to live in Thailand because the Thai lifestyle (especially in the countryside) is more suitable to our way of living......เศรษฐกิจพอเพียง and all that........but I'd never delude myself into thinking that America is no longer a good place to live....and Thailand somehow is a better place. I'm all for waving the flag and thumping my chest, but when I do, it's never with the idea that the US is superior to another country. Why would anyone want to escape the American or British political systems and come to Thailand? For my wife and I Thailand is a great place to live....but that doesn't mean we're not cognizant of the incredible problems that infect the DNA of this country.

Ultimately, there are ups and downs in all countries....and while the US is having its fair share these days, so are many others. Any care for some nuclear management ala Japan style? Or fiscal management ala EU style? Or environmental or social unrest problems ala China?

From time to time I read someone's post on why he's so glad to be out of the hell-hole-of-a-country that he originated from (usually the US or the UK). That always strikes me as delusional......to think that somehow living in Thailand with its problems of pollution, corruption, political divisions, education, or care for its handicapped is a good way to escape from the problems back in one's home country.

If back in the 80's a pollster asked me whether I agreed with the statement "Our people are not perfect, but our culture is superior to others", I would probably have thumped my chest and said, "Of course!". But today (probably the last 20 years), I'd probably not agree that American culture is superior. I like to think that my answers would simply be a reflection of being a wiser person today than 30 years ago.....and no reflection of a decline in American culture or passion for my home country.

Pretty well sums it up . Add to that the propensity of us all as we grow older to forget the bad and only remember the good from our past then maybe things today are not really much worse , just different .

Demographics change with time. A survey in nearly any country taken 20 years ago would have a somewhat different sampling of citizens than it would today. The further you go back in time, the more pronounced the difference would be. As cross-cultural movement increases around the world, attitudes, perception, aspirations and sense of history change. It is neither right nor wrong, good nor bad, it is simply a reflection of experiences of the group being surveyed. In many countries, there is an ever increasing number of people who have been citizens of that country for one generation or less.

Well put Parrot!

I think the USA is a great country,though in decline,which is the eventual nature of all great Empires throughout History!

Parrot, good post.