Because they have never really seen the comparison.
When I was in the US Navy and our ship visited many countries I was the typical obnoxious American tourist at first. Every issue I saw my answer was: "well in American here is how we solved that."
Then I visited Haiti... for 2 days. I saw poverty and things for which there was no American answer for. I was literally mentally stunned, and I went into automatic operation while I though about it for a week or two.
Thats when I realized that America did not have all the answers - and that any real solution had to fit the culture of the place; and most of my previous "American" solutions would not work where I suggested them because of cultural differences.
Over the next few years I learned a lot more about the countries I visited while in the US Navy. I was also routinely invited to stay with a family because I was seriously interested in their perspective of the world and not trying to apply what worked in America to their country.
Once you really see the difference... by going to other places in the world and dealing with the people who live there - then you understand how special the more advanced countries are.
I'm impressed by your story and how you were open to allowing your perspective of the world to change according to what you saw and experienced. However, I do wonder how common that is for Americans.
Even those Americans who are curious enough about the world outside the borders of the USA to travel abroad are limited to how much they can experience due to the pathetic (by European standards) amount of annual vacation time they're allowed by most employers, as well as the sheer expense of getting anywhere seriously distant. So they often end up rushing around, they get only brief glimpses of touristy places, and they come home with about as much real understanding of the foreign countries they've visited as they would have by going on the It's A Small World ride at Disneyland.
As for US military personnel stationed abroad, even those in countries where there isn't active combat in progress tend to live in an American bubble.
I served a spell in Shore Patrol back when I was in the USN and stationed in Scotland. At that point, I'd been in the country for more than two years, and looking back, I can see that I was in the process of slowly going native. I'd seen a fair bit of the country by that point, I had a flat in a civilian area far from the submarine base, and I believe I'd just met a Scottish woman who would be my girlfriend for several years.
One of the jobs of SP was to run people to and from the nearest airport when there weren't enough people in transit to justify a bus. On day, I was acting as taxi driver for a guy who had finished his two-year tour, and his only real topic of conversation on the nearly two-hour drive was bitching about how horrible Scotland and the Scots were. At some point, I asked him how much he'd seen of the country, and he admitted that the furthest he'd got were a few visits to the little town close to the base which was largely built on catering for the needs of sailors.
Basically, his main complaint was that Scotland was not the USA, and the Scots were not Americans.
I agree with your comments that my perspective is rare for Americans; and as for the comments of other service members stationed overseas... I understand completely. Amazing how few of them actually tried to get out into the countries and meet people who lived there.
Bootcamp San Diego, Groton Submarine School, Poseidon A and C Schools in Dam Neck, VA, then Holy Loch submarine tenders (USS Holland, USS Hunley) from 77-84. Left as an FTB-1 (a rating that apparently ceased to exist shortly after I left).
Looking back, it's a bit of a mystery how I managed to stay on the tender for so long. Most guys were only there for two years before and after being on SSBNs, but I'd had second-thoughts about that duty. So I kept applying for extensions on the tender and kept being given them. But by 1984, it was clear that the detailer wasn't going to continue humouring me and I needed sub duty before I could make chief, so I took my discharge. I was also thoroughly fed up with the general military BS by that point.
What's really kinda strange is that I had the idea from the time I was twelve or so that I really wanted to get to know Britain (frankly, I think that was just from reading Tolkien), and the USN ended up bringing me here and giving me time to set up the rest of my life in the UK. I only enlisted because I needed a job, and I only picked the USN because of my father's advice that the Navy's technical training was the best of all the services. When I was given my possible options after taking the aptitude tests, I only picked the Poseidon missile specialities because of the automatic advancement to PO3 after A-school if I signed up for six. I'm sure I didn't even know that there was a tender base in Scotland at that point. But then, while I was going through the A- and C-schools, the slots available, my class standings, and the duty my classmates wanted all worked out so that I ended up being where I'd wanted to be since I was a kid.
I'm glad that you were able to achieve a childhood dream.
I did boot camp in Orlando, MM "A" school at Great Lakes, which was very nice as I could visit home on a long weekend.
My test scores in MM "A" were, I was told, the highest they had ever seen (like 1 wrong answer for the all the combined tests) that they wanted to send me to nuke school; but, I was partially color blind so I was not eligible. I did push-button to MM3 after A school by extending to 5 years, and spent most of my career on an AOR supply ship in a steam propulsion engine-room (with a stint in supply support while the ship was in the yards - where I learned the supply system as good as anyone else on the ship).
I did a lot of 3 day tours or multi-day liberties when I was in foreign ports by paying standby's (at $200/day on my last med cruise - where the normal was a swap or $20/day). That $200/day standby to get out of in-port duty for the entire 6 month med cruse in 1979/1980 was the best investment of my life. My Haiti conversion was several years prior to that, and I saw Europe in a totally new light than what I had seen it at on my 1st med cruise.
Taking my kids to third world country
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That's true everywhere in the world with higher standards of living.
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Meatballsandwich
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Hmm, wonder why that is the case.
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olderdude-xx
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Because they have never really seen the comparison.
When I was in the US Navy and our ship visited many countries I was the typical obnoxious American tourist at first. Every issue I saw my answer was: "well in American here is how we solved that."
Then I visited Haiti... for 2 days. I saw poverty and things for which there was no American answer for. I was literally mentally stunned, and I went into automatic operation while I though about it for a week or two.
Thats when I realized that America did not have all the answers - and that any real solution had to fit the culture of the place; and most of my previous "American" solutions would not work where I suggested them because of cultural differences.
Over the next few years I learned a lot more about the countries I visited while in the US Navy. I was also routinely invited to stay with a family because I was seriously interested in their perspective of the world and not trying to apply what worked in America to their country.
Once you really see the difference... by going to other places in the world and dealing with the people who live there - then you understand how special the more advanced countries are.
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Boojum
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I'm impressed by your story and how you were open to allowing your perspective of the world to change according to what you saw and experienced. However, I do wonder how common that is for Americans.
Even those Americans who are curious enough about the world outside the borders of the USA to travel abroad are limited to how much they can experience due to the pathetic (by European standards) amount of annual vacation time they're allowed by most employers, as well as the sheer expense of getting anywhere seriously distant. So they often end up rushing around, they get only brief glimpses of touristy places, and they come home with about as much real understanding of the foreign countries they've visited as they would have by going on the It's A Small World ride at Disneyland.
As for US military personnel stationed abroad, even those in countries where there isn't active combat in progress tend to live in an American bubble.
I served a spell in Shore Patrol back when I was in the USN and stationed in Scotland. At that point, I'd been in the country for more than two years, and looking back, I can see that I was in the process of slowly going native. I'd seen a fair bit of the country by that point, I had a flat in a civilian area far from the submarine base, and I believe I'd just met a Scottish woman who would be my girlfriend for several years.
One of the jobs of SP was to run people to and from the nearest airport when there weren't enough people in transit to justify a bus. On day, I was acting as taxi driver for a guy who had finished his two-year tour, and his only real topic of conversation on the nearly two-hour drive was bitching about how horrible Scotland and the Scots were. At some point, I asked him how much he'd seen of the country, and he admitted that the furthest he'd got were a few visits to the little town close to the base which was largely built on catering for the needs of sailors.
Basically, his main complaint was that Scotland was not the USA, and the Scots were not Americans.
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olderdude-xx
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Just by curiousity was it abit hard to fit in in the UK at first because you had straight American teeth?
I agree with your comments that my perspective is rare for Americans; and as for the comments of other service members stationed overseas... I understand completely. Amazing how few of them actually tried to get out into the countries and meet people who lived there.
I was active duty 1975-1980; when were you in?
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Boojum
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I was in 1975-84.
Bootcamp San Diego, Groton Submarine School, Poseidon A and C Schools in Dam Neck, VA, then Holy Loch submarine tenders (USS Holland, USS Hunley) from 77-84. Left as an FTB-1 (a rating that apparently ceased to exist shortly after I left).
Looking back, it's a bit of a mystery how I managed to stay on the tender for so long. Most guys were only there for two years before and after being on SSBNs, but I'd had second-thoughts about that duty. So I kept applying for extensions on the tender and kept being given them. But by 1984, it was clear that the detailer wasn't going to continue humouring me and I needed sub duty before I could make chief, so I took my discharge. I was also thoroughly fed up with the general military BS by that point.
What's really kinda strange is that I had the idea from the time I was twelve or so that I really wanted to get to know Britain (frankly, I think that was just from reading Tolkien), and the USN ended up bringing me here and giving me time to set up the rest of my life in the UK. I only enlisted because I needed a job, and I only picked the USN because of my father's advice that the Navy's technical training was the best of all the services. When I was given my possible options after taking the aptitude tests, I only picked the Poseidon missile specialities because of the automatic advancement to PO3 after A-school if I signed up for six. I'm sure I didn't even know that there was a tender base in Scotland at that point. But then, while I was going through the A- and C-schools, the slots available, my class standings, and the duty my classmates wanted all worked out so that I ended up being where I'd wanted to be since I was a kid.
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olderdude-xx
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I'm glad that you were able to achieve a childhood dream.
I did boot camp in Orlando, MM "A" school at Great Lakes, which was very nice as I could visit home on a long weekend.
My test scores in MM "A" were, I was told, the highest they had ever seen (like 1 wrong answer for the all the combined tests) that they wanted to send me to nuke school; but, I was partially color blind so I was not eligible. I did push-button to MM3 after A school by extending to 5 years, and spent most of my career on an AOR supply ship in a steam propulsion engine-room (with a stint in supply support while the ship was in the yards - where I learned the supply system as good as anyone else on the ship).
I did a lot of 3 day tours or multi-day liberties when I was in foreign ports by paying standby's (at $200/day on my last med cruise - where the normal was a swap or $20/day). That $200/day standby to get out of in-port duty for the entire 6 month med cruse in 1979/1980 was the best investment of my life. My Haiti conversion was several years prior to that, and I saw Europe in a totally new light than what I had seen it at on my 1st med cruise.
Have a great life,