Definitely not everyone 'wants to be an American'.
The only people that 'want to be American' in very large numbers are those that currently are below the standard of life that America offers, and plenty of those people would still be quite happy to be European, Japanese or even Australian.
As for your sense of mission and purpose in the world, that might be more of a problem than a part of the solution.
Far away from where? I'm 6 hours from Singapore, 7 to HK or 9 to Tokyo, and - more importantly - they're mostly straight up so there's no jetlag. I think you live far away from everything! ; )
Wow. I don't know where I got confused but for some reason, I thought you were Canadian. Oops. I love Europe, though - been to all of those cities except Brussels.
Let me know when you do make it down under - beers are on me!
I've lived in Canada for 5 years, I still have a 'token' paper presence there but I'll wind that down this year because I definitely won't be going back.
Also plenty of my domain names are still registered to the Toronto office.
Pardon?
Seriously, do you actually believe that?
Definitely not everyone 'wants to be an American'.
The only people that 'want to be American' in very large numbers are those that currently are below the standard of life that America offers, and plenty of those people would still be quite happy to be European, Japanese or even Australian.
As for your sense of mission and purpose in the world, that might be more of a problem than a part of the solution.