There is much truth in what you say, but I have to articulate the reverse of the coin. In my trip to Australia last November (which I enjoyed thoroughly, and left with much respect for the Ozzies) I was astonished at how anglocentric it was in my professional field. Now, in this particular field, no innovation of any note has come out of the UK since the early 1970s, and the state of the art is far ahead in North America, the Scandinavian and German-speaking countries and Japan. The anglocentrism was backward-looking and rather strikingly handicapping, to the extent that - compared to their colleagues who trained in the UK - North American-trained Australian professionals were stigmatized in a surprisingly snobbish way (for a country that did not strike me as otherwise all that steeped in class-consciousness), and their drive to innovate was stymied. They had to step very carefully if they wanted to avoid being marginalized professionally, and all felt frustrated and constrained by it. Not saying it's all like this of course (how would I know?) but It struck me as so very odd that a country on the other side of the globe with manifestly different priorities and a vibrant economy would hobble itself with this type of sclerotic thinking.

It all led me to a moment of revelation: you can roll your eyes at the lack of sophistication and historical consciousnesses but bring on the frankens, for they are also the innovators, the uninhibited, the energetic and the forward looking!

 

Medicine. I'm only talking about my little area of it.

Hope I haven't been offensive here - take it as more stirring