A little too much gasoline…?
While I’ve been here there have been a few conversations about politics and whatnot and it’s quite interesting to see foreigners’ perspective on America. I told them about my experience in Texas and how I was so impressed by their school pride. When I went jogging with my teammate one morning, we saw that one out of every 3 or 4 students had some sort of Longhorns gear. I got the impression that they have such pride in their schools and everything they do, which translates into country pride. This is GREAT. I wish we could be so proud of what a great place Canada or Sri Lanka is. However, this [American] pride often comes off as being abrasive or arrogant when dealing with others.
The topic came up because someone asked me if I thought China would overtake the US soon. I told them I didn’t think it would happen soon, but eventually. No, I don’t know when. I was explaining my latest life theory about being 2nd best. I’ll get into it another time, but in a nutshell:
When you’re the best, quite often you become lazy and/or complacent. When you’re second, you’re constantly challenging yourself and your limits because you have something to prove.
At one point in my Global IT Management class, the lecturer was talking about the risk of terrorism/war in other countries. He had said something along the lines of: “You know that they believe that Bin Laden might be operating out of Somalia. Would you really consider investing there now? What happens when the cowboys from Texas come in again and blow everything up?”. Everyone started cracking up. It made me smile, but I wondered if it was really that funny…
Is the perception of America really THIS bad globally? I know there were similar feelings about Americans in Sri Lanka. Can anyone in other countries reading this comment about that? It also made me consider that with our newly installed conservative government in Canada is there going to be much more cooperation with the US? Will people start attributing all these negative opinions to Canadians as well soon? I wonder…