I want to bring something to attention that has come up quite often in my travels around Europe…which is, that many Europeans believe that most Americans are both ignorant and incompetent. I have heard “typical American” stories from various people of various nationalities and it bothers me.
This is a touchy subject because no one enjoys being called ignorant or incompetent…however, I want to address it. I do not believe that Americans are either of the latter, however, how am I supposed to justify actions and reactions of my fellow countrymen. Especially considering I have only met a fraction of the 300 million inhabitants of the US.
One cop out answer that I don’t enjoy using but have used (especially for European football…or soccer as we call it), is that our media does not provide us with much, if any at all foreign news/media. You could also say the same about the news from within the US – it is skewed and mainly irrelevant… How else can you explain that I hear more about Kanye West’s VMA act than the health care plan being worked on (or at least I think it is being worked on, because I haven’t seen much concerning it in my news feed). If you are on the other side of the argument here, please give me your input.
Here is a more tangible case – I just saw an American couple being interviewed about the upcoming Greek elections and the couple themselves said “Well I guess we are typical Americans, we don’t know anything about your government or how it works…”
1 – If you make a comment like that, you better be heading to the parliament/town hall or library right after to learn, so that next time you get asked that question you don’t have to make the same reply…because that would most certainly be considered ignorance.
2 – From the other side of the fence…how many governments do we need to familiarize ourselves with? I can firmly say that if an individual knows something about 2 governments, 1 of them will most likely be the American government. But, if I were to ask a Greek about the parliament in Germany or the Mexican congressional system, I wouldn’t expect a detailed answer if any answer. So, the question is – do you learn everything about a few systems, a little about every system, etc. ??
This whole article can be true for many foreign country affairs: politics, education, health care, conflicts, history, etc…
Personally – I don’t find myself too utterly fascinated with any sort of governmental system, so, I don’t mind not learning all there is to know about other systems. However, I am quite intrigued by education and health care of both my country and other countries. They are both a hot-topic in the US currently and maybe by looking at our fellow western civilization countries over here in Europe, we could get some ideas and answers we are looking for. Take for example – the health care systems in France and England are unsurpassed and the educational systems in The Netherlands and Germany as well.
If you are interested in any of this, I strongly recommend calling up your neighbors across the pond or just asking Wikipedia…and if you are interested in talking about how Europeans feel about the US in other regards, feel free to ask… I have heard it all (from perceptions of Las Vegas to 9/11 conspiracy theories)
I am really curious about everyone’s opinion on all of this, so please comment!
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A Spartan in Spain 