As a kid, I bought into it to hook line and sinker. This whole obsession with self-criticism started back then. When you're ashamed, you're superior. And that lasted well into my young adulthood until I became permanent ex-pat. We don't really like people who are ashamed of where they come from. It's a kind of betrayal. The boomer generation brought this stuff to life. They got some stupid notion in their head about the U.S., he says.