I do not mean to offend anyone with the question I am posting. I have respect for all cultures, but I have observed that people from some countries, for example India, America and China especially think the entire world circles and revolves around them. Many Indian people say their culture is one of the oldest, for which reason they are the best. Many Americans believe their skin color is superior, which makes them super-dominating. Many Chinese people think that their culture encourages intelligence and thinking, for which reason it is the best. Why do these people forget that all cultures, including Indian, Chinese and American have borrowed from other cultures and become what they are today? Again, no offence. I am not undermining them. But, in most cultures, people are taught to believe that their cultural identity and at times, religion, is the only thing that exists. And to think that we talk about education and open-mindedness all the time. Does that even exist?

Pride, And I live in America and we don't think we are better because of our color it is because we think we are smarter and more advanced technalogicly even though we are not....

Sometimes people get into these "debates" and they don't necessarily believe their race/culture is the best. These people might just be very proud of it. Everyone are ethnocentric. But nationalism plays a big role too I think.

Too much pride.

" for example India, America and China especially "-

notice the similarity? Its easier to be proud when there are more of "you" :)

Others may be not saying it- because they are a minority, and when you are in minority you dont want to argue with majority.

lol

It is just the way life is. Do you think your's is the best?

that's called ethnocentric - we Americans have dat issue, sadly

It is because that was what's endorsed to them long before they even know how to think for themselves, in short, it is already cultivated in their deeper being. In my own opinion, it's a way of "brainwashing". That is what probably happened to their ancestors and so with their ancient forefathers and so on and so forth. :D

I agree with the previous posts. I really do believe it is a question of pride above everything else. Everyone wants to believe that their culture is the best/better than any other culture. It is how we are raised. From a young age we are raised to be part of a certain culture and therefore proud to be a part of it. At the same time, I believe it is important to have a certain pride when it comes to one's own culture, but being overly and obnoxiously proud to the point where you don't want to listen or learn about other cultures is just wrong. You can be proud of your culture yet still be curious and respectful towards other cultures.

Why is everyone trying to be best at everything in the first place?

One country is not best with its culture than any other country in the whole world.
I sincerely believe that culture is a personal phenomena. My culture is not better than the one of the person sitting next to me. In fact, my culture is part of who I am as a person and trying to compare it to the rest of the planet would actually make it less significant. I do give credits to countries with a high-level of culture such as Japan or the United States of America. But, frankly, culture is not a popularity contest. It should remain personal to each individual.

I think that every person must pay respect to other cultures. Otherwise our relations are fraught with hostility and so on. Of course we must love our own culture. And we should show its main points to the representatives of other cultures. But being proud of your own culture we should be cautious with those of other cultures. I think everybody is very much pleased when people from other cultures pay good interest to your culture speak well about your culture, customs and traditions. And vice versa bad comments about our culture hurt our feelings and make us feel humiliated. That’s why we should be very cautious about feelings of the people of other cultures. One of the major tasks of foreign language teachers is to teach their stunts to be tolerant to other cultures.

Chauvinism can be related to several factors. I believe that the main suspect that prevents people from being open to other cultures is fear. Cultural awareness is very dependant on how people are brought up but also on the way their educational system presents other cultures. Cultural relativism has to be taught early on so children can compare and contrast cultures without being judgemental. We also have to give them solid “moral tools” so they can use rationality and deduction to evaluate certain practices that are, from a humanist perspective, unacceptable and condemnable as all cultural practices cannot be justified (ex: excision, lapidating, etc.). Fear remains the number one enemy and can only be overcome through direct exposition to the “otherness”, to the direct empirical fact that “there are other ways to do/say/think/believe”.

Perhaps there are some positive factors that contribute to this mindset. While I agree that arrogance and ethnocentricity are not something to strive for, I feel patriotism and unifying together for something bigger than yourself are. I am a Canadian and think I live in a REALLY great country. Perhaps I'm just less expressive about my patriotism. I know when I lived overseas that for the first several months I looked down my nose at how my host country did EVERYTHING. I finally realized how arrogant I was acting and had a change of heart. Once I became more open-minded I realized that there are many ways to 'slice a pie' and mine wasn't always (or even most often) the best way to do it.
Lyndsey Pratt
Oxford Seminars
http://www.oxfordseminars.com