Do you think Americans are a little parochial?

I can only speak for myself, yes. I’m an untraveled American and my views and connections to the world are this little screen gadget and before that, TV and magazines. Sorry.

@hungryhungry: Sorry you’re sorry. I just wonder if we realize
that we’re kind of isolated, physically.

@susanc: Are you speaking as an American? I think any of us past the age of 10yrs old who haven’t yet been off the main continent feels a bit left out, maybe isolated at times.

I honestly didn’t know much about life in other countries (well, besides Europe, because I’ve been there a lot) until I went to India. Geez, that was a huge dose of reality.

Unless an American is well-traveled, I usually assume they don’t know anything about anyone outside of the country.

American’s don’t have the exposure to other cultures like in Europe because of our geography. Our educational system is partially responsible for this.

We know a lot about our neighboring states at least. A few of us know a few things about Canada and Mexico. Some Americans tend towards being smug jerks when traveling abroad, no argument there.

I’m interested in other cultures, but I’ve barely been off the east coast.

Yes, but we don’t have a corner of that market. I could list about 150 other countries that are also.

No, not all Americans are parochial. It has seemed to me that there are pockets of parochialism just about everywhere. It is a question of education, scope, scale and heart, mostly, in my view….not that there is anything wrong with that.

It’s ridiculous to generalize such a thing. Personally I’ve been to too many countries to count.. there is a lot of fascinating culture out there.. a ton of outstanding food.. and some of the most amazing people you’ll ever meet all over the world. I’m one of those who is proud to be an American but might move to Australia .. or New Zealand.. or London… or Italy .. or…. there’s just too much that’s good to decide.. I suppose I’ll just keep roaming around.

Just like any other generalization .. there are often quite a few exceptions.

Well, there are a lot of people in the US that have never strayed outside of the state that they live in. When I hear them speak of common stereotypes about people in other countries, (i.e the French) it says more about them than it does those other countries. I’ve never traveled abroad, but I do enjoy learning about things through history and reading current events, just so I don’t feel like one of those people I am disparaging here.

All mind broadening exercises are valid. Just because one has not had the opportunity to move beyond a 200 mile radius of one’s place of birth does not mean that an enlightened understanding of life and human interaction cannot be realised. Traveling to the next city, state or region of one’s own country could suffice as a culturally shocking experience. It is a good thing to become shocked, culturally, anyhow. As with every challenge, study it well first before taking the plunge. It will become your social scientific experiment and you can be your own guinea pig.

Well, duh! All Americans are parochial, just like all Americans wear either ten-gallon hats or three piece suits.

Parochialism is a state of mind, and people who have been outside the country can have it, and people who have never left can be free of it. I think a lot of Americans think that the way they do things is the best, and that different ways of doing things are pretty suspect. But most of the people in the world are like this.

I think it takes education to get beyond parochialism, and that the more education you have, the more open-minded and culturally adventuresome you are likely to be. Education is not a surefire way of reducing parochialism, but it helps. People who are curious and less judgmental, and less afraid of people who are different and cultures that are strange—they are the ones who are less parochial.

There are indeed Americans who have a very restricted world view. However, there are also Americans who are well-traveled or at least well-read and who have a sense of how people in other countries think and live.

And, to be honest, I could say the same of almost any other country. There are always people who for one reason or another basically know and understand only the folks in their immediate village. I say this as an American from Texas who traveled to London only to discover many people otherwise intelligent who basically believed Texas is the same thing as Dallas and honestly wanted to know if I had met J.R. Ewing (this was a few years ago).

Sometimes parochialism is unsurprising. For example, my family was invited to dinner by a Guajiro family while we were visiting the jungle near Angel Falls. The reason was because they had never seen people that looked like us and they were curious if we could eat the same foods and understand basic human ideas. The answer was yes, although only my father ate the rhinoceros beetle grubs. He told the man of the house through several interpreters that he couldn’t allow his women to eat them. The gentleman agreed and commented “I know what you mean. Once you let them have something good they demand it all the time.”

In other words, I think any country contains citizens who cannot understand how others live, and hence are surprised both when they turn out to have the same values or very different values as themselves.

It is just that there are so many of us Americans, and we tend to be so loud.

Yes, I think that on the whole, people in this country tend to forget, or not realize, how different life outside of America can be until they have direct experience. Even hearing about direct experience of others doesn’t seem to be enough in many cases.

But I agree with the other comments above, this is not a problem specific to the US.

@Darwin: lurve for the rhinoceros beetle grub story. Men understanding each other, that’s what we’re looking for here.
@daloon: nice. I do know that not every American is “parochial” but since we need an airplane to cross all but two borders – it seems like we’re trapped on our own continent. A disadvantage.

Man, ol’ @Darwin truly nailed it!

Caray!

In general, I think Americans are the worst kind of parochial. We think we know all there is to know about all the other countries in the world, when in reality we know very little. What little we do know is probably comprised of plenty of misinformation.