Indeed many Americans have not been to the uk, or outside America, they only know what their tv shows them of ridiculous characters like emily from friends, or that exaggerated cardboard cut-out english woman on the e channel. I have been to America a few times, I had a great time, it's a great country with many fine attributes and I'd love to go back, but i would say the press is anything but 'free'.
outside of America countries with more than 150 years history exist, a truer sense of liberation, education, depth etc do exist. I find Italy, France, Croatia, Germany etc have a philosophical, contemplatative, relaxed way of life on the whole, which has a lot of merit. What America has is tons of cool stuff! In the scheme of culture, the history of literature and art it is a dot, but it does have the coolest films, the coolest music (well arguably England has the most influencial bands ever) but the COOLEST stuff is American. It is shallow but very attractive. Just frustrating that intellectually so many Americans have zero awareness of their place in the world and the history of civilisation.
I attended university with some Americans, they were very good at reciting english literature, intelligent in the sense of remembering things, but in my opinion somewhat lacking in original thought. Pledging allegiance to stuff comes naturally, independent thought, contemplating outside of the box, and overall awareness of the world the us is perhaps slightly behind other cultures, the great European cultures etc. I would never say my country is the greatest, Socrates never said he was the most intelligent, but I'm pretty sure most americans think there is nothing of significance outside of US soil. There can be a 'world series' that only involves the US etc, half mad really, but certainly very COOL.
