Originally posted by lazs2
I think what a lot of guys are missing is that....
What is the intent of these polls? Have you ever seen an American poll that polls a bunch of countries about how they feel about england? what if we did and then anounced that the world felt that england was prissy and aloof but law abiding. would the brits on this BB focus on the law abiding or the prissy and aloof? What if some of the ones most disgruntled were british 'artists'?
Wouldn't the brits wonder why we had bothered to single them out for evaluation and wouldn't they suspect our results, especialy, the negative ones?
You ask us to not be arrogant and yet.... most of you focus a great deal of attention on us... We seem to occupy a good deal of your thoughts.
go figure.
lazs
Lazs,
Actually I think someone did a poll about England. The English love that kind of thing and the more critical everyone is the better. The British do a lot more navel gazing than most and do worry about what people think of them. In the 19th century the British were the big superpower and everyone thought about them and had an opinion about them. The 20th Century was considered the 'American Century' as British power declined. Now in the 21st century, America is THE power in the world.
So everyone has an opinion about America. America is in your face all the time. American companies, products, cars, people. American TV and movies, lifestyle, ways of doing business. It's inescapable. It's mostly positive but if your government p**sses off America, you might wake up one morning with an Abrams in your back yard. That is why you occupy our thoughts.
But being around America is liking living with a Grizzly bear. He might roll over in his sleep and crush you without noticing or if you annoy him he can kill you in a moment. Most of the time we get along just fine. But you pay attention to his moods.
America as the last superpower, could if it wishes take over the entire world or destroy the entire world. Luckily for us it mostly wants to do business, on it's own terms.
So Lazs, you may not think of England much. I don't think of China or India or Italy much and they don't think of me. But we all think of America because we have no choice. That's why they had the poll mainly to try and see what people really thought of America.
