A trip to another country will help you understand why people who don't live in your country feel as they do about yours. Their opinion of your country might not necessarily be entirely opposite yours, but in some areas, such as education, justice, and quality of life, they may be.
Why should what outsiders think of your country matter? For innumerable reasons. Those "outsiders" are, in truth, insiders. Technology keeps them abreast of everything going on in a country as influential as the United States. During my trips abroad just this year, people have shown their vast knowledge of the USA, so much so that they would put Americans to shame. Here are some people I asked in casual conversations as a customer or passerby. A landscape gardener in Oslo, Norway, asserted with clarity and precision his humble opinion of the New York mayoral race in which Zohran Momdani appears to be the frontrunner. A university student in Helsinki explained in depth the historical tension between Finland and Sweden as analogous in certain respects to the United States complicated relationship with its neighbors both north and south. A bartender in Stockholm, with maternal roots in the Bronx, New York, listed reasons that, having visited the United States numerous times, the social services system in Sweden keeps him from immigrating to the United States. A retired Australian police officer visiting Malta told me with the authority of a respected historian why the current global surge toward nationalism is not just a fad. You can argue with these people's viewpoints, but you'd better come with your A game without spewing nonsensical statements like "My country right or wrong," or uniformed, misguided ones like "America is the greatest country in the world." There's a lot to learn here.
Who should you ask about the state of the world in general and of yours in particular? Virtually anyone. An intelligent and concerned world is watching us. Food, no, oxygen, for thought.
