by Flourfingers

Created on: January 18, 2007   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

'Judging the ignorance of US citizens in world issues' isn't, in my opinion, something anyone here can do. There's also no reason why someone living in the US is in any way more 'objective' or even 'better placed' than someone outside it to judge how good their education system is. It's all relative and comparative, therefore to answer this question you have to have a knowledge not just of the American education system, but in fact the education system of the entire world. Until a writer on this website is prepared to offer that kind of expertise, I will reserve my uninformed opinion, and I think it's healthy for everyone else to do the same too.

What, as an outsider, I can say, is that in Britain I have experienced an awful lot of prejudice against Americans. It is generally accepted in this country that the last two bastions of 'acceptable racism' are Americans, and the French. With the French, the stereotype is of the typical arrogant Frenchman (not helped at all by the way Jacques Chirac handled Paris' bid for the Olympics) who drinks wine and smells of garlic. With Americans, the stereotype is that they are generally fat and stupid.

Now the first part of this stereotype is understandable, given that proportionally, they are. (Britain's no Slim Jim either, but there you go). 63 per cent of Americans are overweight, and a whopping 31 per cent of these are obese.(1) Compare this to (say) France, where the obesity rate is just 14 per cent,(2) and you get one half of the stereotype.

But the second part of this stereotype is more problematic, not least because much of the stereotype comes from political decisions - for instance, many people see the election (and re-election) of George W. Bush as a sign of national stupidity. First off, this is extremely shaky ground to stand on. You're bound to bring your own bias into it in a huge way. And moreover, if political issues are the only reason that smug Europeans call Americans stupid, what is there be for Americans to worry about? It's the Europeans who really have the problem.

Almost all 'world issues' are intensely political matters such as this; therefore, let's not bother talking about how ignorant Americans are on them, simply because, let's face it, we're all bound to be incredibly biased about it.

References
1. http://www.americansportsdata.com/obesitystats.asp
2. http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/o/obesity/stats-countr y.htm

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