Why do europeans think they are superior

Europeans think about America all the time. American culture and military power are constant facts of life for them. When Jacksonian America does think about Europe, it sees what Sheriff Andy of Mayberry saw in Barney Fife—a scrawny, neurotic deputy whose good heart was overshadowed by bad judgment and vanity.

The slow-talking, solid Andy tolerated Barney just fine, but he knew that Barney's self-importance would get him into one humiliating scrape after another. Europe hopes for a world role more or less equal to that of the United States.

Jacksonians roll their eyes. Jacksonians think that Europe—with a declining and aging population and an economy likely to grow more slowly than most of the economies of the developing world, to say nothing of the United States'—is likely to continue to lose influence.

Europe's military thinking seems particularly unrealistic. Burdened with colossal welfare costs and pension problems that far outstrip anything the United States faces, European countries can't and won't make the investments needed to develop a significant military presence in the foreseeable future.

Even if they spent the money, the major European countries—except possibly Britain—are not very warlike. Europeans think of themselves as mature and evolved.

Jacksonians think of them as yellow. Barney Fife was always looking for new jobs for himself around the station house—new roles, as European politicians would say. European hopes revolve around somehow getting to play global Mom to America's global Dad—getting to be the moderate, kindly half of the global-power couple. When Dad sends Iran to its room without any supper, Mom wants to sneak upstairs with milk and cookies.

In the last century neither Spain nor France faced such a serious threat to their existence as those countries where first the Nazis went on the rampage and which were then left to the Soviet Union as a reward for the victory against the Third Reich. Behind the Iron Curtain national culture was the last bastion against totalitarianism. This experience has had a lasting effect. Fifty-five percent of Czechs see their own culture as superior to Islam and only twelve percent would accept a Muslim in their family.

Say "Alexa, enable the Pew Research Center flash briefing". It organizes the public into nine distinct groups, based on an analysis of their attitudes and values.

Even in a polarized era, the survey reveals deep divisions in both partisan coalitions. Pew Research Center now uses as the last birth year for Millennials in our work.

President Michael Dimock explains why. The vast majority of U. Use this tool to compare the groups on some key topics and their demographics. About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world.

It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Views of religion and whether belief in God is a necessary foundation for morality vary little, if at all, across demographic groups in the Western European countries surveyed. Politically, conservatives in the U. Conservatives in the U.

In Britain, France and Germany, more Christians now see themselves in terms of their nationality than did so five years ago, when national identification was already widespread in these countries. Among Christians in the U. Tolerance for homosexuality is widespread in the U. Acceptance of homosexuality has increased in recent years, and the shift is especially notable in the U.

Today, more Americans accept homosexuality than reject it by a percentage point margin. While there are some differences in opinions of homosexuality across demographic groups in the Western European countries surveyed, overwhelming majorities across age, education and gender groups believe homosexuality should be accepted by society. In addition to demographic differences, an ideological divide on views of homosexuality is also notable in the U. In the four Western European countries surveyed, at least three-quarters across ideological groups say homosexuality should be accepted by society.

It organizes the public into nine distinct groups, based on an analysis of their attitudes and values. Even in a polarized era, the survey reveals deep divisions in both partisan coalitions. Pew Research Center now uses as the last birth year for Millennials in our work.

President Michael Dimock explains why. The vast majority of U. Use this tool to compare the groups on some key topics and their demographics. About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world.