[NanbanJim]

Webstral, do you have any links on your project? I'm sure we'd love to see them.

The below is often a rehash of other things, already said, often highlighting areas others have brought up. But, you know... a forum is for communicating.

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

This is something that has definitely been discussed outside of American circles but not necessarily as any sort of academic analysis and as far as I am aware, not as any in-depth study on the American psyche.

It's been more a case of questions such as: -
Do the Americans really not understand...

No, they do understand this--or at least are taught each of these things.

... Except for the deGaulle bit. That was news, but then NATO internal politics aren't taught nearly as much as the bipolar Cold War struggle. That bit is more a French History thing, so, no, we don't get taught French history in high school any more than I suspect the French get taught Texas-specific history.

Note, quite a few Americans would agree with deGaulle...

Americans are taught that the US made critical contributions to WWI and WWII, in the latter case after the French surrender. They are not taught the difference between French culture and Parisian culture, again, any more than a French student is taught the difference between Texas and Dallas cultures.

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

I'm hoping my comments are not taken the wrong way as I intend no insult. It appears to many of us outsiders that US citizens can get very emotional when their country is discussed and often miss the point of what was being discussed because they perceive attacks where none were intended.

An apt observation; similarly, Europeans seem to us to be extraordinarily snide and yoked with an inferiority complex when speaking of the US, so I guess it balances out. Just an observation.

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

I've had discussions with some friends who were either studying or lecturing at universities about the myth-making of America... the underlying theme to us appears to be that the US hero worships the colonial militias, cowboys and superheros as something of a replacement for not having the history and traditions of their indigenous, European and Asian forebears.

Beautifully said. Niel Gaiman wrote a book on that, but I'm a bigger fan of how you put it. No joke.

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

It's been interesting trying to examine how the USA perceives itself. As an outsider to US culture, it's a little surprising to see that the USA has taken ownership of the terms "America" and "American" to refer exclusively to them because in some countries we were taught that America refers to the two continents.

We are taught this as well, but we shorten everything. It's quite similar to deGaulle with the Russian/Soviet thing. Do you call South Korea "the Republic of Korea," or just "South Korea?" "North Korea," or "Democratic People's Republic of Korea?" "France" or "the French Republic?" "Germany" or "Federal Republic of Germany?" It would be interesting to know, might be telling about the cultural psyche.

Originally Posted by Raellus

I'm not sure either side really understood what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they wrote the Second Amendment into the Bill of Rights.

Quite right, "Regular forces" is no longer part of common knowledge; it is in fact rather niche, so language hinged on understanding of that is all but extinct.

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

I would like to ask though, would not the various State National Guards be the legitimate inheritors to the original militias? I know they are heavily "federalized" but weren't they set up as a counter to a federal military trying to enforce federal policy onto the states?

Yes, the National Guard is an inheritor of the original militia, though one can also argue that after Federalization they are merely a Federal reserve force that is funded and operated by states until needed. There are also State defense forces under various names in many (but not all states). These are rather neutered, eg no exemption from national draft; on the other hand, they are rather come-and-go in comparison to NG/Reserve or even the regular military.

Originally Posted by CDAT

Most Americans that I have talked with about this have a real hard time comprehending how small most European countries are in comparison the North America, and I suspect it is the same for the European people just reversed.

Oh, no need to suspect. Find me a European who will talk about Texas (or Ohio or Wyoming or Washington) culture, laws, history, etc, and I'll find you ten (and ten Americans) who just see the US as another nation equivalent to a European nation, with a largely homogenous culture, language, laws, etc... Instead of noting that with nearly the same geographic size as all of Europe and half the population, their expectation that one should have one culture and the other should have 20+ cultures is a little odd.

I already found a Korean with the same preconception: The man who started the first Tae Kwon Do dojang I trained under. He states he moved from Seoul to St Louis because he thought, that's right in the middle, I'll get students from the entire nation there!