"Imagine a situation: a rich man comes to his poor neighbor and starts talking about his wealth: how many limousines he has, how many yachts etc. And it's not empty bragging - he's really rich. Is it an example of arrogance? I don't know. My English is not so good, there may be another term for that. It may be sensitivity gap or something else. Any suggestions?"
Some foreigners use this as an excuse to justify anti-Americanism - I'm not saying that Alex-DV does so, just that he is reporting what some think. As Americans, do you think this excuse of anti-Americanism is justified and why or why not?
In my opinion, it is most important that each of us tries to do better today than we did yesterday. We should best compete with ouselves, and vanity is our worst impediment.
Some foreigners use this as an excuse to justify anti-Americanism - I'm not saying that Alex-DV does so, just that he is reporting what some think. As Americans, do you think this excuse of anti-Americanism is justified and why or why not?
Surely, there are people from any nation who, when abroad or when you visit their country, brag incessantly about how their country and its ways of doing things are far superior to yours and everyone elses. We Americans are not immune to this.
As I read this, I thought of too things: First, Americans worrying over this for years, as evidenced by such books as The Ugly American (circa 1960); and secondly, all of the Europeans whom I've met who have smuggly carried on about the superiority of their social systems, moral rectitude, and general level of culture, while at the same time skimping on their own national defense and relying on a massive American military presence (which they bitch about) and expenditures to defend them from the threat of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Sometimes the American bragadoccio is simply repayment in kind.
That said, I don't find international exchanges on the my dog's better than your dog model particularly fruitful on either side of the exchange.
To the extent that Americans talk about what our system does make available, and suggest that those opportunities could be open to any country who instituted a similarly free economic and political system, I don't consider that bragging, assuming it's done as a factual. There will be those who resent our success, and little can be done about it. We ought to be sensitive to how we come across, however.