Are Americans Dumb?

Are Americans Dumb?

When I was working in Saudi Arabia, a British co-workers asked me:" Can I sing you the national anthem of the country of dummies?" I said: "Go ahead" He then proceeded to sing "the Star-Spangled Banner" with the following lyrics: "Dumb-dumb-dumb dumb-dumb-dumb..". Another British co-worker said that Americans were the dumbest race of people on the face of the Earth.

I asked him why? He said that he once made a phone call using an ATT&T operator and inquired her if he could place a call to London. She asked him " Where is London? Is that in Europe?" Later he told him that whenever he switched the TV channel to see a rugby or a cricket match, American co-workers would simply leave the room, totally uninterested in the game. In his eyes, these incidents made Americans "dumb".

America is the largest economy in the world and Americans call themselves the richest country in the world. American leads the world in technology, space exploration in other such areas. So, why is this accusation of being "dumb"? And if Americans are so dumb, why is the country so rich?

America is rich, there is no doubt about it. And it owes its riches to many factors. The main factor is probably the culture built on Protestant work ethics and solid North European common sense. People work hard and they work smart. They know how to solve problems. While some may call modern Americans "wastrels", the past generations had been very thrifty. The country was built on free enterprise and for hundreds of years the government had a laissez fair policy towards business. The culture is forward looking with a "can do" attitude. People are enthusiastic and believe that they can achieve their individual dreams through discipline and never giving up. Add to this the fact that education is much more accessible to many more people than how it was in Europe and the fact that the society has a much less rigid class structure and you've got yourself a rich country. And don't forget the fact that the country has lots of natural resources and unlike the European countries there have not been any major invasions for the past 200 years or so.

So, where does this dumb thing come from? I think what is happening here is a classical case of intercultural misunderstanding. It occurs when foreigners visit the US and when Americans go to foreign countries. The people that call Americans dumb for the most part are Europeans. Latin Americans sometimes call US people uncultured, but not necessarily dumb. So, what is going on?

There seems to be a difference in education. Europeans believe in being informed about the world outside. Being a well-rounded person is seen as a virtue. In the US, according to Europeans, people are very good at their individual professions and a few of their hobbies. However, studying anything that does not lead to practical results, is seen as a waste of time. That for some reason seems to include Geography and World History. So, as long as a conversation between an American and a foreigner runs along a specific topic such as business or the American's chose field of expertise, everything seems fine. Problems start when a European wants to have a broader discussion on international culture or current world events ( the ones that do not cover America's involvement in some war). Once a discussion like that starts, an American tunes out. He gives his conversation partner a blank look and starts feeling uncomfortable. Some Americans will even say with pride " I don't know anything about ( insert the topic). You might be talking to a five-year-old for all one cares.

The neglected areas of Geography and any knowledge of the world outside the US- a subject that many Europeans take for granted and learn at an early age which seems to go largely uncovered in the US causes the impression of 'dumbness'. Brits complain that when they were in the US, MIT graduates would ask them questions such as : "Is there a bridge between England and Scotland or do you take a ferry? One Brit was fuming 'Do you know what that American asked me? He asked me " So what language do you guys speak in England?" Australian TV once ran a program where an Aussie went to some American city and stood there with a map, asking people to show on the map where Australia was and no one, allegedly, could do it.

And these are American reactions to people who come from fellow- Anglo-Saxon countries! Things get worse when other countries are involved. Numerous foreign students who go to the US to study complain that most Americans have never even heard of their countries to begin with. One Malaysian girl studying at a college in New York was almost hysterical " No American has even heard of Malaysia". They keep asking me " Where is that?" One Saudi Arabian official once told me this story: He was studying in the US in 1980ies and once he was picnicking with his friends when a man walked up to them and said " F*** you, Iranian!" They promptly left the place but later decided to go back and explain to him that they were not Iranians. Upon approaching the angry man and telling him that they were not Iranians, the question that came their way was " So, what the f**** are you?"." We are Saudis!" to which the man replied " Same f****ing s**t!" In Latin America tales about of US presidents calling Brazilians "Bolivians" and being surprised that Brazil had Black people. White South Africans are asked " You come from Africa, How come you are white?"

The other thing that aggravates the situation is that, because of geographical and cultural distances involved, even if Americans know about the existence a country, they have a very distorted picture of how life in those countries must be. Questions such as " Do you guys have electricity or TV?" or" Do you guys live in houses and are there cars in your country?" or "Are there big buildings in your country?" are asked of Thais, Nigerians and Singaporeans, people whose countries are quite modern in spite of poverty in some of them. Movies made in the US about Russia or Korea or Africa notoriously portray poor peasants and countryside devoid of any civilization whose people, nevertheless speak English and who all want to go to the US. Since most Americans have not been to those countries, they blindly believe the simplified Hollywood version of the world.

A similar phenomenon occurs in the Philippines, a country that was once a US colony and that adopted an American system of education. Many foreigners visiting the Philippines or who work with Filipinos often say that Filipinos, even those with BA degrees have not heard of many countries unless they are those from which most tourists to the Philippines come and where Filipinos work : USA, Canada, Japan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Italy, etc. Having a worldy discussion with many a Filipino is quite difficult in spite of the fact that they are a well-educated nation.

Hollywood, too , plays a role by putting America in the center of the world with other countries somehow being "run-away provinces" of America, who one day will want to join the Union and become another state of the US. They think that the world speaks English ( because on the screen most people do) and if some people don't ( actually 75% of people do not) then they should and soon will. Even the National Geographic channel covers only the very modern or the very exotic countries leaving a huge number of countries unmentioned. All these factors contribute to the international "uninformed-ness" of an average American and makes him or her appear "dumb" when a meeting between an American and a person of another culture takes place.

In all fairness, Americans also see some other nations as "dumb". For example, the "Polish jokes" seems to be a uniquely American phenomenon. Few people in Europe think that Poles are dumb. Countries surrounding Poland actually think of them as astute, discreet and highly cultured people. In Russia, for example, a Pole is highly respected as being intelligent and even aristocratic. Possibly, the Polish immigrants to the States were originally poor and appeared "dumb" to Americans since they did not function well in the American culture in the beginning. French Canadians whose English was often poor and who also acted clumsy when they first arrived as immigrants in the US, were described as "dumb". But these adjusted to the country, learned the language and the culture and are no longer referred to as such. However, the "dumb" American image persists, especially in Europe.

Being uninformed about the rest of the world does more harm than earning the title of being "dumb". People who think that they live in paradise while unaware of the many social and technological improvements that are always taking place in other countries will eventually fall behind in many areas. They will not be able to adopt many exciting innovations that are being introduced around the world all the time. Japan had video- cellphones as early as late nineties and Sigapore solved its race problem once and for all by very ingeneous quota systems that seem to benefit rather than harm. Many countries, such as Slovenia ( Where is that?) have small per capita prison populations and have much better programs to rehabilitate prisoners. However, if Americans do not know about them, how will the country improve?

They will not be able to elect good leaders and will support international campaigns of dubious usefulness which drain US resources by diverting money from home to some overseas ventures in which patriotic Americans always die. They will believe myths about how the rest of the world is a God-forsaken place and if they become just like the US, they will be OK.

Such ignorance creates suffering and death and stalls progress at home and abroad. And changing that requires improving the education at home and creating a new generation of highly intelligent, worldly citizens. Such Americans will probably be the world's most perfect human beings.