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To: Jorj X Mckie who wrote (28568)	2/24/2003 2:08:33 PM
From: Bid Buster	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 57110

>>We are no more ignorant about the "rest of the world" then anyone else<< numerious studies suggest that Americans are more ignorant than the rest of the world..My conversations with Canadians indicates to me they know more about U.S. politics than my neighbors here in the states...Which reminds me of what someone asked G. W. Bush what he thought of Canadian prime minister Putin..LOL..kind of sums it up eh?

To: Jorj X Mckie who wrote (28568)	2/24/2003 2:20:52 PM
From: bramble88	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 57110

Hi Jorj- You make an excellent case, and I mostly agree. But as a relative outsider in the US this is what I see: Americans are no stupider in this sense than anyone else, however they do have a disadvantage. Geopolitical isolation and increasing mono-culture does create a climate where people grow up less knowledgeable about the outside world than people elsewhere. As you pointed out, Europeans have several countries with a variety of cultures and languages within a day's drive; the result is that they ARE more worldly. There are some huge advantages to growing up in this country, but this is one of the disadvantages. I feel very strongly that the citizens of this country would greatly benefit if basic education was more intentionally geared toward compensating for this particular imbalance. JMO. A slight aside: I think that what happens with foreigners who come here and seem to critisize the culture at every turn is that these immigrants and visitors are not a fair sample of their own country's population; they are better educated than most people anywhere. They have just come to a new and different place and so their critical senses are sharpened. They themselves are better educated than most people and it is easy for them to attribute this difference to the new place they just came to rather than to their own personal advantages. In other words, their perspective is warped when it comes to these kinds of judgements. This being true, it is still worthwhile listening to their specific critisisms, since often they are very perceptive and to the point; I just wouldn't take it personally.

To: Jorj X Mckie who wrote (28568)	2/24/2003 2:33:29 PM
From: Oral Roberts	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 57110

Europeans don't understand the size of our country very well as they have nothing to compare it to. I remember having a rep from Austria for some equipment we bought call me and say he was going to be in Chicago and wanted to drive over and meet me. I asked him if he knew how far Chicago was from me and he replied it didn't look far on the map. I said look at the scale but it will take you 6 hours to drive here. Kind of blew his mind. He decided flying was a better option:)