Another Thursday, another set of hot tips. DO: Love America. DOO-DOO: Be America.

A couple nights ago, my roommate and I got into a 2 a.m. philosophical discussion/debate/passive-aggressive argument about whether it was okay for America to be culturally isolated. We were talking about how Americans are less prone to discover and appreciate music from other cultures. (This entire article will be written in generalizations, so if you are American and are going to take offense, please do so generally.) People halfway across the world appreciate and emulate American songs, films and political leaders, but most Americans would fail a test of global culture. We were trying to determine if this global ignorance was a bad thing.

I was presenting arguments about the social, economic, technological, political, geographical and pretty much every other “-ical” differences between the United States and other countries. I was making sure to acknowledge our influential power and cultural independence. (I think, sadly, I used the argument, “It’s like millions of people choosing to follow Brad Pitt on Twitter. You can’t expect him to follow all of them back.”)

Ultimately we ran circles around the argument. He was presenting well-prepared and reasonable arguments. In return, I was Stephen Colbert-ing him to oblivion. Colbert-ing is my usual form of argumentation, in which I make claims so preposterous that no one knows if I’m intentionally being ridiculous for satirical purposes or if I’m just a plain idiot. And when I say no one knows, I mean no one. Not even me.

We eventually settled on the conclusion that most Americans don’t find value in exploring and understanding other cultures because America has been culturally independent for the last 200-odd years. We’ve either been a world juggernaut, or we’ve been left alone. Our music, film and sports industries haven’t needed a foreign outlet to be sustainable.

European countries know the importance of appreciating other cultures because they’ve seen and participated in the shifts in global power and have been forced to adapt and widen their understanding of art and cultural worth. America has yet to depend on another country’s culture. We’ve grown into arrogant elitists of cultural convenience.

Here’s an analogy. Say there’s a football team that has gone the last two seasons undefeated. They’ve dominated every team in the league in every game. Now, it makes sense that every other team is going to be studying their strategy, trying to pick up whatever is working. But is the dominant team going to spend its time trying to understand what all the losing teams are doing? Probably not. They will most likely settle on what is working for them.

And is that a bad thing? Yes and no. No in that it is not illegal-bad or unethical-bad. The league is not going to fine them for not branching out. But yes, it is bad in that it is a shame for the team. While they are dominant having mastered their specific style of play, they would be unstoppable if they could master other styles as well. It’s a shame that they’ve grown so complacent that their pride doesn’t allow them to be even better and more diverse.

This team will never understand the need to diversify and learn other strategies — until they lose. Until they are no longer dominant, independent and capable. Until they are humbled.

It’s the same thing with America. Once China takes over the world (because everyone keeps telling me it will — I hope it hasn’t already happened yet, because I still prefer regular checkers to Chinese checkers), you can bet more Americans will be learning Chinese for business, which will trickle into our political, educational and social lives. We will understand the value of a different culture out of necessity.

And it’s the same for Stanford students. For so many of us, we are the America of our own lives. Everything I know and value is because it is convenient for me. I’m not willing to take the time to learn about someone else’s culture or religion or background or personal history or whatever it is because I’m doing just fine on my own. Now, is this a bad thing? I’m not going to go to jail for not appreciating a certain culture. But it would be a shame to be that wrapped up in myself.

I think we could all serve to be humbled a bit; to find appreciation and value in the people and things that are not our own.

Chase would like to serve you a nice slice of humble pie. (You know, maybe after a nice dinner?) Email him at ninjaish “at” stanford “dot” edu to set up a time.