by Cody Hodge

Created on: January 24, 2009

This right here is a question that has intrigued me for a long time. If you have ever watched Leno, and caught his segment called "Jaywalking" you might cringe at some of the questions that the people on the street get wrong. However, does this really mean that Americans are stupid when it comes to the intelligence levels of other nations?

I will be diplomatic here, but it did offend me when there were some people at work on the 20th of January who had no clue what was going on that day. When I asked some people why it was so slow today, they just said it was the weather, or that it was early in the day. I then said the inauguration was that day, and they looked at me like I asked them to solve a complex equation. A blank expression that told me that some didn't even bother to follow even the biggest news.

That little tidbit put aside, I don't really think we are as stupid as we may seem to be, just that we have fewer real issues to deal with it seems. The threat of terrorism is still relatively low in this country compared to Pakistan, or India. Our economy is still number one in the world, despite some recent setbacks to our nations wealth. We have peace, and good relations with our northern neighbor, and good enough relations with our neighbor to the south.

It would be impossible to build such a great nation if it were truly founded, and then run on stupidity. Sure, we just had the most dubious administration in recent history lead our nation for the last eight years, but this is the exception, and not the rule. Look at China, even though they have a booming economy, and have become a global force, look at how they do business.

They have no labor standards, and the relative life style of the average person in China would be looked at as poor, or just above poverty in this country.

To be honest, the rest of the world are as tuned in to events in America only because of the influence events in our nation play in the world. When Barack Obama was elected, every major magazine, and paper in the world had a picture of Barack Obama on it. Do we ever do that when Peru holds an election?

I know for me, and I think it goes for a lot of Americans, is that we really opened our eyes over the past year or so. Now with people out of work, and a financial system in ruin, we have to know what is going on. We can't just sit back and play video games, or go to the salon and not keep on eye on the markets, or who is running them.

Are we really stupid? No, we just have different priorities. If the Mexican education system was so great, would as many immigrants come to the US illegally? No because they would have high paying jobs in high tech industries, but they come to our country instead for the hope of a better life.

We don't really know who leads Japan because really how much does it effect the average American? On the flip side though, the election of Barack Obama probably has an effect on the average Japanese citizen, because without the US, who will protect them from N. Korea if they ever managed to develop an effective nuke?

On an IQ level, maybe it is fair to brand us as stupid. Although, we shouldn't be branded as a bunch of stupid people unless another country is willing to take the lead in the fight on terror. Or take the lead on solving world hunger, or solving the crisis in Darfur, or dissuading Iran or N. Korea from attaining nuclear weapons. No matter what they say, we still are a symbol of freedom and opportunity, and there is nothing stupid about trying to achieve your dream.

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