Americans Ranked Number One in National Pride

We talk a lot in the K-blogosphere about the strong sense of nationalism that runs through Korea and northeast Asia in general, but according to this survey by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, America is in fact the most nationalistic country in world:

People rated how proud they were of their countries in 10 areas: political influence, social security, the way their democracy works, economic success, science and technology, sports, arts and literature, military, history, and fair treatment of all groups in society.

In the U.S., “the two things we rank high on are what we think of as the political or power dimension,” said Tom W. Smith, a researcher at the university. “Given that we’re the one world superpower, it’s not that surprising.”

Patriotism is mostly a New World concept, the researchers said. Former colonies and newer nations were more likely to rank high on the list, while Western European, East Asian and former socialist countries usually ranked near the middle or bottom.

The U.S. ranked highest overall and in five categories: pride in its democracy, political influence, economy, science and military. Venezuela ranked highest in four categories: sports, arts and literature, history, and fair treatment of all groups in society.

So where was Korea you may wonder in this survey of 34 countries?  Well towards the bottom believe it or not:

Cultural differences might explain the lower rankings for the three Asian countries on the list ¿ Japan (18th), Taiwan (29th), and Korea (31), Smith said.

“It is both bad luck and poor manners to be boastful about things there,” Smith said.

Bad luck and poor manners to be boastful?  Mr. Smith obviously hasn’t read as many kimchi stories as I have or experienced a Red Devil World Cup run.  Actually the findings are probably pretty accurate.  As nationalistic as Koreans can be if you look at the criteria the researchers used I can see why Korea rated so low.  Corruptions scandals and the current President Roh Moo-hyun’s incompetence have ruined any pride in the government, then in science the Hwang fiasco pretty much ruined any national pride in science, then many Koreans perpetually think the economy is bad even when it isn’t, and then because of the “shrimp among whales” philosophy that Koreans are indoctrinated into, which will cause Korea to score lower in national power even though they have stronger political, economic, and military power than most of the countries ranked ahead of them.

This survey just goes to show that nationalism comes in many forms and in Korea we just tend to see the loud form of nationalism that comes from Korean soccer fans and their ilk which is actually based on little substance when you dig deeper according to this survey.