I'd be mildly interested to know how much of the population are "kickers", and how much of the population actually uses their hand for the flush bar on public toilets.
Sorry. I was thinking earlier today about how much I like automatic sinks but not automatic flushers.
While we're on percentages, a Polish friend and I were talking on the ride back from Munich today. I said a large portion of the American population is oblivious, and incidentally believes that there are about ten different countries in the world: America, a few well-known countries that actually make the news here, like China or Iraq, and Everything Not In The Above.
So to make a long story short, I'd be interested to know how much of the American population knows what the Czech Republic is, how many know it's in Europe, and how many could actually tell you the location of the Czech Republic without desperately consulting a map first. I'm being generous. I could just as easily ask for Sierra Leone, or Kyrgyzstan, or Vanuatu. (Which are, by the way, located on the far east coast of Africa, just south of Russia, and several hundred miles off the northeast coast of Australia, respectively).
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And how many Americans can list all 43 presidents, in order, and how long they served? Or explain different kinds of rocks, or know the scientific names for all the dinosaurs? I think these all fall into the category of "knowledge that is good to know, but not useful in everyday life, and has thus been filtered out to make room for the technical knowledge needed in one's job/hobby."
I always thought of it like this:
Americans pay more attention to america because, well, it takes up a whole continent! Sure somebody in Latvia knows more about what's going on say, Slovakia than the average American. Just like the average American probably knows more about the happenings in Oregon than that Latvian (does anything happen in oregon?). How many Europeans know where Alabama or Tennessee are? The only difference is the semantics between a "state" and a "country"...which with the European union is getting thinner over there too. I like to amuse myself thinking of the European Union as a "country" instead of a "union" with all the countries as states...
Basically I'm saying, yes it's good to be educated. But you can't fault people for only keeping up with what directly affects them. Just keep in mind the scale here. How many Europeans could name obscure states? I know I had to tell Brendan Alabama was next to Florida...
Oh. And I expect many could point out the Czech Republic, if they remembered the name changed. Since it was in the news a lot ~10 yrs ago. And Vanuatu was on Survivor, so that one has a chance :p
Mm, so I guess I go on little spews like this simply because of one overall detail, being --> I get sick of being around Americans. I feel more prone to going off on Americans nowadays. You're right about being in touch with only what affects you directly (even though a lot of Europeans I've met here are still possibly more in touch with American workings right now than a lot of Americans...), and I shouldn't criticize that. But I think it's more of the overall American mentality that makes me want to run away. There is something about it that bothers me, and I can't pinpoint what it is.
So it's not saying everyone else in the world is better than Americans for sundry reasons left and right, but maybe I've just been stewing around in the States for too long for my taste now, and I feel like lately, it's been an enormous breath of fresh air to get completely out of the country. This is why I also do not want to go home.
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