national one-up-man-ship

[Raglan]

soem of you may remmeber a thread i posted a while ago questioning why patronism is a good thing

this is kind of a related question, but not to close - you'll see what i mean.

anyways why is it so common, and so acceptable for people to choose nations or cultures and put them down?

let me explain, in the vv at the moment there are two threads involved in putting down England

English Non-achievements
Did Britain wreck the world?

although neither of these threads are as bad as they sound.

now i'm not being defensive about Britain, because i have seen many such threads, books programmes you name it i've seen it

In Britain it is common to put down the French and Germans, both for historical reasons that have left an impression on modern day Britain.

But why are we so determined that our country is the best?

France has a fantastic history that is rich and vibrant, while Germany's history as the Holy Roman Empire, as Prussia, as the Tribes thousands of years ago is just as interesting

As usual when i post these threads i'm not really sure if i've explained what i mean, so feel free to ask if you want.

[Trey]

The Germans don't like the French because of their flying tactics in WW1

[Exarch]

soem of you may remmeber a thread i posted a while ago questioning why patronism is a good thing

this is kind of a related question, but not to close - you'll see what i mean.

anyways why is it so common, and so acceptable for people to choose nations or cultures and put them down?

let me explain, in the vv at the moment there are two threads involved in putting down England

English Non-achievements
Did Britain wreck the world?

although neither of these threads are as bad as they sound.

now i'm not being defensive about Britain, because i have seen many such threads, books programmes you name it i've seen it

In Britain it is common to put down the French and Germans, both for historical reasons that have left an impression on modern day Britain.

But why are we so determined that our country is the best?

France has a fantastic history that is rich and vibrant, while Germany's history as the Holy Roman Empire, as Prussia, as the Tribes thousands of years ago is just as interesting

As usual when i post these threads i'm not really sure if i've explained what i mean, so feel free to ask if you want.

pure and simple nationalism, mixed with an unhealthy dose of racial superiority (ie only an englishman/german/frenchman could've invented the steam engine/nuke/haber process etc etc) and finally jealousy over what other countries did actually achieve which their own didnt.
so they feel the need to put down others in order to make their own countries' achievements appear bigger than they really are-so it is also an ego thing

[Hookah Smoking Caterpiller]

Don't worry, on a geo-political level we solved national one-up-manship with the creation of MAD doctrine, forever securing peace or daming us all.

Its ing brilliant.