> Don't feel too bad. I slip into making the same sort of assumption now and again. I don't think it's arrogance so much as a combination of two other things: one, most of us subsist almost entirely on our own media (besides magazines and books, we own Broadway and Hollywood -- in any other English speaking country, the preponderance of movies made in and set in the USA will be a constant reminder of life outside their borders); two, because the country is big enough that it's hard to get other countries into our mental image of the world around us.

You think YOUR country is big? ;-)

> On the first point, I'm not saying Sherlock Holmes and Monty Python aren't ingrained in our culture. Present fads here include Harry Potter and the Crocodile Hunter. But we manufacture so much of our own entertainment that a lot of Americans just aren't going to be eternally conscientious of culture outside our borders. It doesn't help that so many media figures from other countries come here to do their work. As for Canada, well, sorry to say it but the average American knows *nothing* about Canada. It's just this generally big but unpopulated country to our north. When Michael J. Fox or Celine Dion or somebody comes out of it, nobody realizes they're not from here. For that matter, most here would take credit for Russell Crowe and, unless just asked the question "Isn't he from Australia?", Mel Gibson.

Don't forget Jim Carrey, who is hugely popular in the States but was Canadian first. I first got to know him long before Ace Ventura came out, watching a two hour standup special he did. It was after he had made that first movie (in which he was an alien, don't know too much about it) in Hollywood, and he had one segment talking about American impressions of Canada. The whole special was really good, though. i was quite disappointed at Ace Ventura-- I expected better.

One other thing: Mel Gibson is Australian?

> On the second point, having lived in numerous places over the course of my life so far, I can definitely testify that there appears to be some sort of limit on how many square miles and how many state/country borders one's mental image of where one lives tends to cover. Sure, I know where I am in the world, but when I think about where I live and the area around it, only extends north to the Canadian border, not very far into Maine, west to either Vermont or New York, and south to either Mass or Connecticut. That's a small area. When I lived in Virginia it was easier, because the states are a little bigger. My mental image of where I lived (20 minutes west of Leesburg, which is right on the northern end of VA) extended well into Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and North Carolina. Much bigger. When I lived in Germany and England, I managed to fit the British Isles, Germany, France, Switzerland, and Austria in.
>
> So the size of the area I *tend* to envision when I think about where I am in the world varies depending on how many borders I have to incorporate into that picture -- but the point is, none of these mental images exceeds the size of the entire United States. So perhaps that's another reason why Americans don't tend to think about life outside the border. I can't even imagine what someone right smack in the middle of Russia or China thinks.

Huh. That's interesting. For me, the number of borders I cross has little to do with my definition of the area I live in. Perhaps it is because Canada covers so much land area, or because I have lived all over Alberta (six different towns and cities), but I am restricted more in terms of distance than I am by borders. My mental image of "where I live" covers about a three hour drive in every direction, although it cuts off about an hour into the mountains to the west, which gives me only a two hour reach westward.

> Anyway, it's not wrong to succumb to the tendency to think of the USA as being "it." Everybody here does that. I do. It doesn't mean you're ignorant or arrogant. That would be if you didn't *care* what else is in the world.

Amen to that. When I hear "The West" these days, I think of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. Now western States come to mind, nor does the concept of our grand occidental continent. I also find it interesting that even when I DO think "West" in global terms, I rarely include anything more than North and South America, although I have heard that Europe is generally considered to be psrt of "The West" as well.

Now that I've gotten going on this stuff, I might as well follow through on the thought. Has anyone else ever wondered about the arbitrary labelling of "The West" and "The East"? I mean, they're basically on opposite sides of the world, so why does the Pacific Ocean get the pleasure of being "The Impassable Barrier" at which we split the plant apart when making our flat maps? I mean, heck, Russia and Alaska almost touch in the Pacific Ocean (and at one time, they did) so why not split things up where it's a bit easier, in the Atlantic? I think it's all because of Greenland. You know, it's not like there's anything there... There are probably more people living within a ten-block radius of me than there are in all of Greenland. I say we just start bombing the coastlines until it all falls into the sea and then redraw all of our maps in a more logical fashion. Who's with me?

Don "Weird Rambler" Monkey