Hi Tore,

I'm not really the guy to cheer upon others when saying something I want to confirm, but I make an exception here.

Very well said !!!

Now before some US american draws any conclusions they cannot make...

The USA is class on its own. It is a country that has no direct equivalent in the world. It is exceptional in many areas. It large economy en productive citizens have made it a very succesfull country business wise.

One of the keys to its success however is to strive for patriotism beyond any reasonability. Many of its citizens have little knowledge of the world outside. They have little reason to as the USA in itself is large enough. It is the success of the government to keep a large portion of it citizens ignorant, arrogant and unaware of the complexity outside their borders. This way the government has the absolute power of making idiot decisions without beeing accounted for by the population (because they would not know any better). The ones that are more enlightened are labeled as liberal, humiliated or neutralised in other ways. (hmmm doesn't that sound familiar .... some 70 years ago?)

I keep people here correcting making totally ignorant assumptions. I remember a discussion where I said that the scandanavian countries are the richest countries in the world and pay the most taxes as well. This was countered with an argument that they did not wanted to live by the wage of a busdriver. When I told him that the average wage is higher in those countries than in the US, it was responded with ehhh, emmm, ahh, really??

Anyways, those people will keep making idiots out of themselves again and again to the outside of the US and are actually enforcing the stereotype of an average american we have up here.

That being said. I also recognise that many americans up here do have a more nuanced view on matters and do realise and understand that there is a world outside of the US and that the US is not the paradise the others believe it is. They do understand that there are countries that are doing at least as well but have a total different culture. They do understand that the eroding image of the US is because the many, many blunders of the present administration. They do realise that the leading economy is under pressure of a new asian economy, the strong euro and the giant debt caused by an unneccesary war. Those people as you said and has been gratefully admitted by JimB are the one who have taken the effort to look outside.

Lets not forget those americans and fight for them in their battle against the ignorance, arrogance and plain stupidity in their home country.

Last but not least. I truly think that any american has the right to feel proud of their country. It is a great country in many respects. However if often crosses the point where it becomes beyond reality, insulting, degenerating and ingnorant to the world outside it.

Oh yeah kevin (because I know you read everything I write in chatter), let me know again when I'm refered upon again by a blogg of a person who is too chicken to reveal his true identity and is idiot enough to admit he made a mess out of life and directly degrade his credibility out of anything he writes. Thanks in advance.

Walter,