“Yet, how many road trip movies have we watched where they are driving either on dirt roads or one-way roads?? Who drives coast-to-coast on back roads??”
Driving on freeways isn’t particulalry interesting on the whole that’s why, not much of a view and not too much of interest along the route. Quick and efficient yes, good for a movie no.
“Americans love to self-reflect. We not only do it to excess, but we have created an entire industry around it. Hollywood and people like Michael Moore know first-hand just how lucrative it is to bash American culture on all levels. These images of a racist, violent America are disseminated throughout the world. Hollywood is completely out of touch with the real America. ”
There is also a well-developed navel gazing self-critical industry in Europe, the difference perhaps is that Americans don’t see this as it doesn’t get translated into English or spread around the world to anywhere near the same extent as Michael Moore’s polemic. Go to a French, British or other European bookshop and you will see dozens of titles bemoaning decline and saying how society has gone to the dogs and life is better elsewhere.
The stereotype that many Americans seem to have about smug Europeans always thinking they are right and always thinking that they are the best doesn’t fit in with this but Americans are not often exposed to this aspect of European culture.
I certainly don’t get the impression as I talk to Europeans that they always arrogantly think that Europe is the greatest at all, not long ago I was talking to a guy in Trieste about the Collio wine-growing regions in the hills outside the city ‘yes’ he said ‘they used to be among the best in the world but now of course all the best wine comes from California, Chile or Australia’. In reality the wines from there are excellent and I told him to stop being so negative. Just an example but this is certainly not untypical of conversations I’ve often had with people around Europe and frankly they are often unjustifiably negative.
Of course Europeans probably get defensive about their countries and cultures if Americans come over and start saying how much they suck, how much better the US is etc etc which is a natural reaction that many people will have.
