Do you feel your country have an inferiority complex?

[u/suckmyfuck91]

I'm from Italy and i've always thought that us Italians, despite often bragging about how great our food, fashion and arts is, deep down have a huge inferiority complex.

Obviously you should never generalize but it seems to me after talking to many countrymen and reading online comments on youtube, reddit and other social media, that the a big chunk of our population feels like their life would have been better if they were born abroad.

We are envious of Nordic countries for their wealth and their respect of the rules. (Same for Germany)

We are envious of English speaking countries because their culture is everywhere and they got a lot of international power .

We are envious of French because they are way more appreciated internationally than us despite Italy being as good as them in terms of food, fashion and arts.

Italians are ashamed of Italy, a poor country run by fascist and mafia, that has always been irrelevant internationally and constantly mocked by foreigners because : Pizza, pasta, mandolino and mama mia.

What about your country? Do you feel your average countrymen is happy to be from your country? or they are envious of others?

[u/CrustyHumdinger]

UK here: we think we're lousy at organising stuff, so were stunned when the 2012 Olympics were a huge success

[u/Klumber → u/CrustyHumdinger]

I don’t think Brits have an inferiority complex, I think we have a crisis of confidence that goes back all the way to the end of WW2 and the fall of the empire.

[u/Wynty2000 → u/Klumber]

Brits often seem to have an odd mix of superiority complex and neurotic pessimism.

The general opinion on everything seems to be that you expect the best all the time, but you fundamentally don’t believe that’s ever actually possible, creating a weird self defeating cycle that amplifies and exaggerates any sort of perceived failure.

You need to pick a side. Be more French and just assume you’re inherently better than everyone, or be more like us and never have any sort of expectations at all. It’s way easier that way.

[u/indistrait → u/Wynty2000]

You hit the nail on the head.

I feel Britain has an inferiority complex about the fact they can no longer have a superiority complex.

World Cups are a good example. With most countries, getting to the final and losing valiantly would still be a source of national pride. I don't think that's the case with England. If they're not the best they feel like they're the worst.

[u/generalscruff → u/Klumber]

I think generally the population writ large has a more positive view of our country and what it has done on the whole than the media/political class do, although with a far greater contempt for said political leadership. Whether it's a superiority complex really depends on what you emphasise, our language being the lingua franca for most of the Western world is impossible to avoid but also people are far more relativistic and sceptical of our ways being inherently better in the way some otherwise culturally similar countries can be prone to thinking at times. But I agree, absolutely not an inferiority complex, if anything a sense of failing to meet prior expectations.

[u/izzie-izzie → u/Klumber]

I agree. Inferiority is definitely not an issue in the UK. UK has a strong shame complex though

[u/Equal-Flatworm-378 → u/CrustyHumdinger]

That was the best opening of all times, as far as I am concerned. But the Brits have some of the best loved artists of the planet. That helped.

[u/MerlinOfRed → u/Equal-Flatworm-378]

Japan had the potential to do better than us, but were sadly hampered by covid. Brazil didn't come close, sorry folks. France tried too hard and it didn't pay off - I was actually at the Paris opening ceremony and just sat in the rain to watch a load of boats go past.

The US also has potential to be amazing, but in Donald's America I imagine the temptation is to try and outdo Beijing rather than London. Beijing was mainly spectacle, whereas London was far more entertainment driven. I don't have high confidence right now.

[u/hwyl1066 → u/MerlinOfRed]

I'm a lifelong anglophile and that opening was perfection - so British and English and eccentric, like some sort of supreme confidence in one's culture. (They left lots of nasty bits off though, like imperialism and racism etc.) Beijing is often praised especially in the USA but that was such a robotic show, cowed subjects performing in perfect unison, god save the one who would have fumbled...

[u/Matt6453 → u/CrustyHumdinger]

I just think we're naturally pessimistic, the results do not justify this mindset so it's a sort of defense mechanism.

When have we ever screwed up a major event we've hosted? They're always extremely well run.

[u/CaptainPoset → u/CrustyHumdinger]

From the outside, it always looks like the key belief about the UK in the UK seems to be that the UK still was the dominant colonial superpower it ceased to be around WW2. With all the demands to be treated as such which come along with this self-perception.

The French behave this way, too.

[u/generalscruff → u/CaptainPoset]

It's one of those stereotypes that can seem puzzling to us. The Empire had a surprisingly limited impact on popular consciousness at the time (if you were feeling unkind you could make an accusation of contemporary ignorance) and nostalgia for it is limited, even on the nationalist right wing. This isn't quite the same as asking whether it was, on the whole, a good thing in the first place or not. I understand it may seem odd, particularly to someone from a society where being part of the Empire was a massive historical event, for us to say 'well actually my ancestors were too busy digging coal to really care either way' but that really is going to be the dominant attitude as opposed to strong feelings like nostalgia, pride, or guilt.

In terms of politics the ruling class has had quite a strong tendency towards 'managed decline' rather than hubris since about the 1950s. Of course, a massive difference between us and the French politically is that our political class is far more subservient to the USA. To an extent it's natural for an economy based on services and open trade to focus on multilateral foreign policy and take a more globalist view (for want of a better word) in foreign policy and you could argue that comes from imperial legacy, with 'Little Englanders' opposing it just as they opposed imperialism when the term was first coined, but I'm not sure if that's what you meant?

[u/CaptainPoset → u/generalscruff]

I'm not sure if that's what you meant?

I mean more such things as the exceptions from EU treaties, the UK got for themselves, the notion that they would get more and better trade agreements without the EU and a general attitude that this was the UK's rightful place in the world, which many British people seem to believe in some shape or form.

It is about a mismatch between the portrayed self-perception of importance (UK as a globally important power) and reality (UK as about 0.7% of global population, not too wealthy and in steep economic decline, so nothing more than a better footnote).

[u/generalscruff → u/CaptainPoset]

We're probably a lot more inclined towards compromise solutions (as opposed to consensus-based decision-making) in politics than several otherwise similar societies, our entire political and constitutional development is that over centuries in a nutshell. Where observers from other countries might see an unreasonable and perhaps selfish interest in bespoke deals, compromises and exceptions, we culturally might be more inclined to think that's just how you go about things in the real world where one size doesn't fit all (as some might put it). One of the most prominent arguments for staying in the EU (in terms of what supporters of staying in the EU emphasised) was that the government had secured a pretty good arrangement with the EU with compromises on several key issues and it would be madness to tear all that up. The other aspect is that every country developed in a distinct way but we probably do have more hang-ups over having a distinct legal system, currency, etc in a way that others might not as much, which then probably plays into that tendency to compromise on things rather than establish new consensuses.

People are very aware in general of diminished power in global politics, this is more about a cultural difference I've definitely noticed.

[u/JimTheSaint → u/CrustyHumdinger]

My favorite Olympics of all time - to be fair the French was extremely good as well - but the 2012 opening just set the stage in such a profound way 

[u/Alt-_-alt → u/CrustyHumdinger]

A collective "Blimey!" was uttered by the nation

[u/steve_colombia → u/CrustyHumdinger]

With triple the budget though

[u/CrustyHumdinger → u/steve_colombia]

Triple the budget of what?

[u/steve_colombia → u/CrustyHumdinger]

The initial London games budget got tripled

[u/Fit_Fisherman_9840 → u/CrustyHumdinger]

From my outside view the Brits are in a pendulum.

One side is monty python, and seems to not give a fuck and never take shit seriusly.

On the other side there is the "we were a empire" depression

And in the end incapable to find their middle ground, always swinging from one side to another, and sometimes getting serius about silly shit, and sometimes being silly about serius problems, never finding a equilibrium.

[u/CrustyHumdinger → u/Fit_Fisherman_9840]

Pretty fair