The big difference between the US and other countries seems to be that the mythology of Manifest Destiny is still very active in the national psyche. Hence the false belief that the US really is a land of endless opportunity and its inhabitants are more free than anywhere else in the world - when in reality on objective measures of quality of life, including press and other freedoms, the US scores relatively poorly for a first world nation.

This is a huge problem for the rest of the world. The obvious effects aren't just the kind of adventuring that we're seeing now in Iraq. But they're also visible in the way this same mindset underlies the Smithite Marketistas who believe that the Anglo-Saxon model is the only possible way for the rest of the world to do business.

I have a suspicion that the 'special relationship' between the US and the UK is based on the UK side on a kind of secret remnant of the kind of imperial superiority that the US is known for. The British won't admit it, but being involved in things that the US lets the UK get involved in feeds the British fantasy of still being a major player on the world scene. Smithite fantasies are another expression of that, based partly on quaint historical beliefs, but also partly on a kind of historical inertia, because free-marketism has been blocked historically, but it has never really been deconstructed and debunked as an ideology.

I'm not suggesting the rest of the world doesn't have similar latent nationalist or imperialist issues. But the difference is they seem more latent - which is possibly a function of influence. I'd like to think the mythology of Europe is cleaner and gentler, but until Europe is as influential as the US is today, it's hard to be sure if that's true or not. China and India and the other usual suspects seem to have similar tendencies, so it's not exclusively a US-only issue.

But the point seems to be that these are all live and current and not historical issues. It's the mythology that defines the perception of history, not the other way around. And even people who are historically literate get very little training in questioning the mythologies that are most active around them now, as opposed to a century or two ago.