by Sandra Piddock

Created on: January 09, 2010

The main thing to remember about Americans is that there are a hell of a lot of them. That may be obvious, and one can also say there are even more Chinese, yet nobody perceives the Chinese as stupid. What singles out Americans? I believe the main thing is their history, or rather lack of it. America is a relatively new country, whereas China is an ancient civilisation. When Americans are taught their history in school, the only country whose history they really overlap with is England, and that only briefly, while Chinese children will come across other cultures and other time periods in the study of their own history.

When the Chinese travel the world, they have at least some background information on the countries they visit, and are eager to learn more. Americans, on the other hand, seem to want to cover as many miles as possible, and look out for biggest and best, rather than the nuances that make up a nation's history and culture. This was brought home to me on a recent visit to the Tower of London. An American lady in our group was more interested in the size of one of the vases on display than the story of Colonel Blood's attempt to steal the Crown Jewels. The cry of, 'Gee, Harvey, will you just look at that for a vase? We gotta have a picture to show the folks at home' drowned out the guide, and drew a chorus of angry 'Shushing' noises.

And then there's the rewriting of history in Hollywood. From Braveheart, where the script displayed a complete ignorance of timescales, to World War II, which was apparently won single-handed by either John Wayne or Tom Hanks, there is a total disregard for history as we know it. However, this has nothing to do with stupidity - it's just the spin the scriptwriters put on the story. While it may be annoying to the rest of the Allies, who played a major part in the victory, it's not admissable as evidence that Americans are stupid. It just proves that they know how to make a blockbuster.

Americans are criticised for their insularity, but we British are just the same. The difference is, when we travel, we can be self-deprecating about our homeland, and recognise its shortcomings. Nothing endears you more to other nationalities than telling them, quite honestly, that they do things better than we do. Americans - or at least the ones we seem to come into contact with - are convinced that America is wonderful, and compare everything they see in Europe to 'back home' - almost always to Europe's detriment.

Then, of course, there's the politics. Americans are famed for knowing nothing about the foreign policy of other nations, and having no wish to know about it. While some people see this as a sign of stupidity, I cannot agree. The American political system is a complicated one, and I would imagine that anyone who can get their head around it has neither the energy nor the inclination to look to other political systems.

So, are Americans stupid in comparison to the rest of the world? I don't believe they are. Like any other nation, they are a mixture of personalities and intellects. Living in Europe, we seem to come across the ones that have more money than sense. Like the English lager louts who head for the Mediterranean and cheap booze, these Americans are the worst of their kind and earn a bad reputation for the rest of their countrymen. I certainly don't think it's justified to class them as stupid on the available evidence.

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