[anthonyshort]

In my experience, other countries don't view themselves that way, and it's mostly seen as an Americanism (I'm not American)

[andi999]

Long time ago I heard this joke: Ship is sinking, the captain needs to tell everybody 'women and children first' . So to the british: you are gentlemen, aren't you? To japanese passengers: look what everybody else is doing. To US-American: you guys want to be heros?

[agumonkey]

Maybe to a lesser extent but you can find Indian movies of absurd heroism too. That's what propped me to think America is not very special.

Also being a young and rich state probably pushed things to eleven.

[ido]

I wouldn't say "being young" is that relevant after a couple centuries. Nobody in the US today knows someone who witnessed the declaration of independence (unlike, say, in Israel or India).

[agumonkey]

Probably. But I believe there's still a notion that they're new players who got everything right to the top. While other countries have seen peaks and valleys.

[Hokusai]

That is also true for the police. Usually the police is incompetent if you want to be funny, or they are suffering humans. The police as a hero is also USA propaganda.

[denton-scratch]

British war films made 1939-1945 were explicitly propaganda. And there was a lot of them.