Americans can be best compared to a human baby ..

I love this quote. It was on one of the NYT's opinion pages today. For anyone who's lived abroad, it may resonate as true. It's not that Americans are a-holes, or whatever, but people in other countries seem to have have a more general awareness events outside their borders and its potential effect on them -- probably because they're not superpowers and don't suffer from the illusion that they control global affairs.

It's as if the US were enclosed inside a kind of cultural bubble, and it's believed that things outside it won't affect those inside, or -- perhaps -- that they don't exist at all. The problem is -- there is no bubble.


Americans can be best compared to a human baby. A baby has an egotistical sense of self, which makes him/her focus on his/her own needs. They are incapable of paying attention to anything else as they only aware of how everything revolves around them. Since they only perceive and observe their inmediate surroundings they miss out on a world beyond their natural borders.

Americans miss out on global knowledge due to their innate egocentrism. Institutions, as well as government, foster a sense that the world revolves around the USA and nothing else matters. Nonethless, the rest of the world is taking advantage of the true effects of this "global village", sharing experiences and being more aware of both diversity and commonalities.

Americans can be best compared to a human baby. A baby has an egotistical sense of self, which makes him/her focus on his/her own needs. They are incapable of paying attention to anything else as they only aware of how everything revolves around them. Since they only perceive and observe their inmediate surroundings they miss out on a world beyond their natural borders.

Americans miss out on global knowledge due to their innate egocentrism. Institutions, as well as government, foster a sense that the world revolves around the USA and nothing else matters. Nonethless, the rest of the world is taking advantage of the true effects of this "global village", sharing experiences and being more aware of both diversity and commonalities.

The true question is can the US catch up?

— Jeff Quinones, San Juan, Puerto Rico