I think it’s more so that we view everyone else in extreme terms, it’s either an enemy or a close friend rather than due to a self inflated self worth. Look at how FOBs treat Turkey with such reverence and all they’re doing is completely see through. We’re much more sensitive and aware about our own issues than foreigners, it’s confused many people about our strange antics even prior to the civil war. At this point I don’t even know if it’s due to our precarious standing what with being surrounded by hostile enemies all around us, those enemies whom are much much larger and better equipped. I think it’s at this point always been part of our national identity, I can’t remember where I saw this but I remember reading an interview excerpt of an American ambassador who was stationed there in the 60s.
Here’s the section I had in mind,
“Q: Okay, the Soviets were doing this, and our policy was, if they're doing this, we've got to back the other side. But did you ever sit down and figure out what good this was going to do the Soviets, and think maybe we should just let this thing go? Or were we reactive?
ELY: …On the other hand, assisting Somalia has always been very difficult. The Peace Corps had a terrible time there. They managed to stay there for a while, but it was the most difficult Peace Corps assignment that they had.
Q: Why was it?
ELY: The Somalis are very independent-minded people, and you can't tell them anything. The Peace Corps never would go into secondary-school teaching, because once a Somali has a secondary-school education, he considers that he ought to be instructing you.”
Here’s the section wherein he discusses our fondness for nicknames, which he suggests is due to our love for choosing the same three names. He also goes on to psychoanalyse our neighbours hilariously.
“That's what they called him. I don't know whether it referred to his loquacity or just that he happened to have a large, oral aperture. To an American this was a kind of appealing, national personality characteristic. I used to contrast this with the situation in Ethiopia, which was very different. The Ethiopians are very formal, very proper, very deferential, and very polite and soft-spoken--extremely conscious of social class. They are very--what's the word? "Devious" sounds too sinister but they are very convoluted in their speech. You had to read between the lines to understand what they were saying. By contrast, the Somalis were very straightforward. They told you exactly what they thought.”
This particular quote stood extremely relevant to me lmao “they put this crazy self-importance in the world's pecking order, not realizing that they are a tiny drop in the ocean. Ive never have came across more delusional people then the Somali