Excellent piece Julian. I think I've had this same conversation. I'm not much of a world traveler either. Mostly because, like you, I'm not a man of means. But when I do get the opportunities I like to go new places.

I have had the opportunity to travel within the U.S. - and outside. There is a good benefit to traveling around the U.S. It's a big country and there is a lot to see - so one can broaden horizons within it. But - the world..... is bigger ;)

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I managed to see a large portion of the world via service with the U.S. Army. This gave me one advantage. . .  I could explore the local downtown environs at night and on week-ends, always with the ability to return to a "little america" each day for succor. I spent eighteen of twenty years overseas. . .  somewhere. The primary lesson learned is, that while people are all so very similiar in what they want and need. . .  everyone views the world through the prism of their own particular culture. AND. . . we are we and they are them and there ain't no in-between. Witness our involvment in Saudi Arabia and that people's refusal to accord our female soldiers/airmen any type of respect, even though they were there to HELP save them from the armies of Sadam Hussain.

I do agree with your friend about one thing though. . . the U.S. is big, and exploring it should be on every citizen's agenda.

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Great article. I've never really understood people who have no desire to see what else is out there. I have known a couple of people who have never strayed from their own country and have no wish to see anyplace else in the world. I suppose it's fair enough but the 'flag waving' is a bit over the top especially if you have never left the neighbourhood. Travelling is joy to me, maybe that's because everyplace i've been to leaves the UK in the shade. The only bad thing about travelling or going on holiday is coming home, you can tell i'm not really a flag waver.

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Thanks, Dave!  I plan on seeing more of the U.S.  The only reason why I haven't is that, believe it or not, it's actually cheaper to go elsewhere.  And I agree that traveling across our own country does open your mind as well.  I recently spent a week and a half in Jackson, Mississippi.  It was the first and only time I ever went to the South.  It was definitely and eye opening experience for someone who grew up in New York.  I really liked it there...but what a different world, let me tell you. 

Snuff:  Absolutely.  I don't have a problem with that at all.  In fact, I really want to do that some day.  But the amount of money that costs is nearly triple what it would be to go to Europe or South America.  But there are definitely many places in the U.S. I want to see some day.  And will. 

Garry:  I hear ya.  I wouldn't have minded the conversation if I didn't detect a little passive-aggressive attitude that came along with it.  It was almost as if he were actually upset that I would even "dare" talk about how wonderful other places around the world could be, as if I was doing something wrong.  What are you gonna do, right?  People can be weird sometimes.  Thanks for reading.  :-)

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I have not traveled the world. However I have traveled the US. And I love to find the enclaves of different cultures in different states.

That is why places like New York and Los Angeles are so wonderful. You can explore many cultures in a small (compared to the world) area.

And yes I know people who would never venture beyond thier own neighborhood. It is sad when people say they traveled and yet it is only from one four star hotel to another. That is not traveling.

Thanks for another thought provoking article.

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Thanks, D.  There are so many places in the U.S. I still want to see, don't get me wrong.  It's just that there are many other places around the world I really want to see too.  But back to the point of the piece, yes, I agree with you here.  Or when people go to another country and stay in a resort area filled with other Americans and they never leave the resort.  That happens too.  I always thought, what's the point in that?  But people will do what they will do, I suppose.  Whatever makes them happy.  For me, I much rather get out there and just walk around and see what's what, in addition to seeing the "sites" as well.  I just think that's a better way to experience it. 

Also: New York is a great place to get a sampling of just about anything around the world since there are people here from all over...particularly the food.  But it's still different, know what I mean?  ;-)

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Julian I know what you mean. Someday

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So weird, I was sitting in a restaurant this morning enjoying my brunch when I overheard some guy telling his friend that America is the best and only place he wanted to travel. He then went on to tell the entire dining room why he hated the rest of the world and would never want to travel abroad. I just kept shaking my head and thinking this bigmouth is a giant idiot. Now, I read your article and think gosh, these idiots are throughout the entire country. Yicks! LOL!

Great article.

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Thanks, Dean.  I always wondered how people can say things like that if they never went anywhere else.  I think part of the problem here is that many Americans just don't want to know...or just don't care....about anyone else on this planet and I think that is part of the reason why there is so much animosity.  It's a sort of arrogance that isn't becoming of us, you know?  Sure...there are people around the world who hate us for different reasons.  Nothing you can do about that, but many people do not, despite what many may think.  People sometimes confuse governments for the rank and file people.  And it's a shame.  As I said in the article, I haven't been to too many places at all...but where I have gone, people always seemed welcoming and friendly and seemed to like Americans very much.  It's as if they just don't really care where you are from.  Were there some people who had this anti-American sentiment?  Sure.  In Barcelona, there were some.  I had been there just around the time the Iraq war started, and there were some who took Bush's actions for mine, you know?  But there are ignorant people the world over, not just here.  But over all, everyone was very welcoming and were happy to see you visiting their country, you know? 

Many many Americans are not so closed off and ignorant.  And that was part of the point of this: being lectured about being a "true, blue American" by someone who never sets foot out of their own neighborhood (literally) and being sort of chastized (passive-agressviely or otherwise) for traveling to foreign countries as if that act in and of itself was somehow a "betrayal" of America.  Nonsense, of course, but when you deal with those who take on igornance as a virtue, there's really nothing you can do but just ignore them and more or less pity them for it. 

America is a great country.  But it isn't the only one and I think if we Americans were more open and willing to accept the rest of the world on their own terms, can the arrogance and hubris a bit, we might have better relations around the world, you know?  Sometimes other people's criticisms of us is not without merit. 

Thanks for reading!  :-)

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This cuts both ways, though... how many supposed 'citizens of the world' hate America and Americans for no other reason than they're taught to? Or they base it on portrayals in their media? We are not alone in the 'we're the only country that exists' game. Attitudes are formed about us without the benefit of really knowing us and our country as much as it is the other way around. And if you want to see where hubris was invented, then Europe is most certainly your destination. This is for sure, though: NO ONE hates America more than self-hating Americans... and that's a sad thing. 

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Granted. All the points you make here are valid.  However this all has nothing to do what I was talking about here.  What I was talking about here is my discussion with a friend, who implied, that I was somehow being "anti-American" by traveling overseas.  This was the point here.  And this attitude tends to be from those who love to wave the flag, talk about how bad everywhere else is, when never setting foot out of the confines of their own neighborhood much less the country itself.  Nowhere in this piece was it said that I "hated America".  In fact, I pointed out the fact how fortunate we are to have been born and raised here...as opposed to Pakistan or Saudi Arabia, for instance. 

As far as the attitude goes that "we are the only country that exists"...well...there is an awful lot of that going on here.  To deny that is being dishonest at the very least.  There is a feeling out there that everyone else out there should be just like us, and this attitude comes from people, for the most part, who never set foot outside the United States.  Europe and their sense of hubris?  Absolutely...their history has shown that ten-fold..., with colonialism, slave trade, etc..even including the founding of THIS country. Mindless nationalism knows no borders that's for sure; and there is a difference between patriotism and mindless nationalism.  The history of mankind is filled with examples of one people viewing another as "the other".  Nothing new here.   

The main point I am making is that just because I have a desire to see the world and experience other cultures for what they are, does not make me some sort of "America hater", which is what my friend implied with his statement to me.  What he was saying to me was, in essence, by me going overseas and spending my money there I was somehow being "disloyal" to my own country, which is a crock.  But I've had my fill of flag waving idiocy as of late because that's all it is from people like this.  There is no law written that one can't criticize his own culture and society in America if one sees something wrong with it.  Hell, the Right wing in America does it on a daily basis as much as any Liberal does.  And each side has their right to: Believe me, there is plenty wrong here to criticize.  

And...like it or not we are all part of this planet...so in essence "citizens of the world"...and I did point out that others hate us for many differing reasons...and they are taught that...by their leaders, their religious establishments, or whatever else.  It's up to us whether we want to buy it or not or learn for ourselves the truth.  We don't exist in a bubble and something going on somewhere far away can have an effect on us here too...and just about everyone else.  Just look at the mess in Israel/Palestine/Middle East...the thorn in the world's side for the past 60 odd years now.  What happens there effects us here...as well as it effecting everyone else too.  I wish it didn't...but it does.   

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From one of your post-article comments: "...if we Americans were more open and willing to accept the rest of the world on their own terms, can the arrogance and hubris a bit, we might have better relations around the world..."

Do you really believe that? To justify the hostility we face from other parts of the world based on one interaction with a narrow-minded flag-waver seems a little skewed, no?

"I am of the opinion that this contributes to some of the hostility we face around the rest of the world: our complete and total unwillingness to see, experience and understand that there is a world outside our protective and comfortable bubble we’ve built around ourselves as a nation and a society."

To connect the dots between your friend's attitude and a self-inflicted arrogant American isolation seems a stretch to me; to make him the Everyman seems too convenient, as if it suits some kind of agenda where we are jingoistic cavemen only interested in waving the flag. And remember, his "flag-waving" was only implied, which means you brought your own mindset and baggage to it; one man's pride and patriotism is another man's nationalistic frenzy.

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I'm just using this one person as an example to make a point.  He is not the only one out there with this attitude.  For the purposes of the article, I use him as that example of a much larger phenomenon that does take place. 

As to the difference between patriotism and nationialistic frenzy.  Patriotism is love of one's country but has the honesty to speak out when they see something they feel is wrong.  Nationalism is the "My Country right or wrong" attitude..and there is a huge difference between the two.  It's like the differrence between Colin Powell and Sarah Palin.

And as far as me bringing my own baggage to the conversation: perhaps one could view it that way.  But I know him.  This is what he was saying...though not explicitly so. 

You obviously don't have to agree with me here.  That's fine.  But this is how I saw this particular conversation. 

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