Are You Dumber than an American?

[whathehell]

125. "Stupid and self-centered"?

"At first it made her angry to hear this"

Gee.. I can't can't imagine WHY, especially since they were attending the "local universities", it seems, in her own country.

Were it me, after blasting them for unmitigated rudeness mos likely underscored by jealousy, I'd ask them why they chose to attend our

schools if we were so "dumb"? Duh.

"Stupid and self-centered" my ass. When civilized people TRULY feel superior to others, they're more inclined to


treat them with kindness and concern. It's only when people secretly envy that country for something they HAVE, that

their country does NOT, that they engage in this sort of "bullying". I mean, really, can you imagine the outrage and cries of


"ugly American" we'd hear were we to go to their countries and insult them to THEIR faces like this? .

I don't know how many years ago your wife experienced these jerks, and I know many will balk at my "jealousy"

theory as being part of the reason, but it's true, in my opinion. Oh, yes, they'll regale you with the superiority of their health and

social systems, and to a large extent, they're right, but, (and here's the big "but&quot one thing they do NOT have anymore is power,

and as much as they'll deny it, they resent and envy us for it.

In fact, the more "undeserving" they can convince themselves we are of it, the angrier it makes them,

and so the more anxious they are to "put us in our place"

Again, Europeans don't generally denigrate nations they really view as "inferior", especially not with the persistence the've

shown toward us Instead, they're inclined to a more "humanistic" approach to them and

if we were to lose our super power status, and if they did not, at the end of the day, have to depend

on it for their own safety, their attitude would change.

To summarize, I believe the constant ridicule and assertion of superiority is mostly a cover for intense resentment.