I met a guy who was in his 50's and the furthest that he'd been from Los Angles was Las Vegas (no Mexico either). It still boggles my mind. With a life experience that alien, voting for Bush II twice... might actually make sense.

This faculty member has a low self esteem and/or a fragile belief (yeah, belief) in America. I can't think of a better explanation for their disbelief that the rest of the world doesn't want to be/act/think like us. Such uneasiness needs to be shored up with guns and bombs.

de Tocqueville, Twain, Lawrence, missionaries, heathens, contests of civilizations, le Big Mac...

"Yankee Go Home"

http://librivox.org/the-innocents-abroad-by-mark-twain/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocents_Abroad

American democracy was seen to have its potential downside: the despotism of public opinion, the tyranny of majority, the absence of intellectual freedom which he saw to degrade administration and bring statesmanship, learning, and literature to the level of the lowest. Democracy in America predicted the violence of party spirit and the judgment of the wise subordinated to the prejudices of the ignorant.

Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_America

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._E._Lawrence

Battle For The Arab World: Lawrence of Arabia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZhCXCzCtnw

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americanization

and finally us.
we are an occupied country, fit to be americanized further ourselves.

(i really should reply later, i'm hungry for one thing, but wife has a honeydo list...)

http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/farewell/text.html

washington spoke of parties and national unity in his farewell address but i submit americanization was born here, from britainization, and on to westernization.

(i've deleted tons already, so hush.)

The unity of Government, which constitutes you one people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very Liberty, which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee, that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment, that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national Union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the Palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion, that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.

carried further upon our entitled sense of owning the earth, coupled with this very lack of difference between the parties now
scheer-nader.mp3

http://www.prorev.com/

well, you get my gist, ain't new
& i gotta eat

I'm with Zuma, and nice "linkage" btw.

The ongoing delocalization of the world began in the US and continues to spread from there. From a materialist perspective, the US has never been "a country of immigrants."

It must seem "logical" to the Colonel's professor to see the rest of the world through the lens of Western (corporate) triumphalism. But none of this is inevitable. It just feels that way.

This kind of world/life perception is not specific to Americans, even to Westerners. It is a by product of Modernism. I can confirm that most of the educated people in my country see the world as the same way. That's because they had a western education in a non-western country longing to be like the West. This education entrenched ideas of Modernism into their minds such a way that as Col Lang describes when they are faced with an alternative world view they feel like they lived all their lives in error and pyschologically inclined to deny transform their thinking.

To be more specific, modernism tells us that there is a Truth out there independent of us. It is very Platonic in this sense. Because of scientific achievements and enlightment West has discovered the path going to the one and only good life for any society. Their wealth, technological superiority, and international power proves that. Evolution is also understood very linear in this frame. For instance, most of us believed or still believe that evolution always results in progress and the end result is our species. In reality, of course, there is no hierarchy of species and evolution is about co-dependency. But when you applied these two ideas to societies, it is natural to believe that every society would sooner or later evolve into an ideal state and Western societies and their leader America are closer to this ideal state. So every society should follow their footsteps since there is no need to rediscover America. Just copy what they have done with minor modifications for your own culture.

Second half of the 20th century taught us that there are deep flaws in this world view and actually life doesn't work that way. We make up our reality ourselves, we don't just discover an ideal Reality out there somewhere. Younger generations who grew up in a more postmodern world are more eager to embrace this kind of world view, i.e. cultural relativism. It is much harder for the older generations whether be American, European, or western educated Eastern.

Not really sure that the way we live is that good for us in the US either...

Perhaps it is exactly because we are a nation of immigrants that makes us so provincial. After all those who came here from elsewhere came here because in fact they believed that for them this version of the west is special if not inevitable - and by extension for everyone they left behind. Some are from outside western culture altogether but even those within the culture came here for the specific instance of that culture that the US offers.

While this doesn't make such an attitude desirable and even at that it remains arguably dangerous, I suppose one should be surprised that given our provenance if it were otherwise.