America's Obsession with Lists

The United States loves to rank things. Everything has to be a Top 10. This is the America culture of "We're Number 1" gone amok when everything damn thing has to be ranked but now in the Top 100 lists.

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There's a connection with this and the deep need for self-praise that exists in American culture. Americans never tire of hearing about how great they are and insistent on platitudes recognizing this greatness. My favorite out of all of these platitudes is the constant refrain whenever a presidential election approaches that it is so wonderful that Americans have a democracy and that they change power peacefully through the ballot. That it is so civilized and noble for Americans to partake in this exercise. As if the U.S. is the only democracy or other nations do not have peaceful changes of power!

de Tocqueville noted this best in his famous 'Democracy in America': "The Americans, in their intercourse with strangers, appear impatient of the smallest censure and insatiable of praise. . . . They unceasingly harass you to extort praise, and if you resist their entreaties they fall to praising themselves. It would seem as if, doubting their own merit, they wished to have it constantly exhibited before their eyes."

And the idiot annual lists of great this and wonderful that and sexy this is in keeping with this obsession with self-praise. But now they're nice enough to include non-Americans in the lists.

But I detest this lists. Take Time's 100 Most Influential People. This is one of the stupidest rags around and only gets dumber with this annual issue. First of all, influence is hard to measure. Second, many of the people are not influential but just noteworthy and make a lot of noise but really carry no influence.

Or take Foreign Policy's 100 Global Thinkers [sic]. Here's how made the cut: o the hell with that, they're nearly unanimously lousy.

But just when you think it could not be stupider: FP asks most of the 100 two questions: Chine or India? and Kindle or iPad? That last one is meant to be cute...hahahahha. What kind of stupid question is that? Is that supposed to convey wisdom in this so-called intellectual publication?

Is it just me and my fastidious nature or is American mainstream culture just to vain, stupid and shallow and MISERABLE?!!!