Why don't Americans care about the rest of the world?

Question

Yes, I'm an American, and I care deeply about what's going on beyond our borders. But it's no surprise that most Americans have no idea what's on the outside.

See here for an example: http://archives.cnn.com/2002/EDUCATION/11/20/geography.quiz/

Question: Why are people in this country so ignorant, they couldn't pass a basic civics quiz, let alone know much about the rest of the world? Why do silly things like celebrity hijinks matter more? And what does this mean for the future of the republic?

Answer 1

I believe that the USA has one of the lowest percentage of citizens who are passport holders in the developed world.  So long as Americans don't travel how are they supposed to understand both the diversity of races and politics and yet the shared humanity of the world.

I suspect that the country's political leaders prefer it this way as ignorant people are easier to lead and to fool.

I am not suggesting that Americans are stupid - just tending to be unfortunately uninformed.

Answer 2

How much importance do we need to put on geography?   Just because someone can't point to Iraq, or Ghana, or Peru, or Nepal doesn't mean that they're not intelligent.  They either haven't been educated on it, or could care less...and with today's society, I'll bet on the latter.

I'm glad you care deeply about what's going on outside our borders.  I do, also...but only in a security sense.  I care about the possible threats we face outside our borders.  Other than that, however...I could give a c**p.

Answer 3

People do care and know, the most people in the US can do is pray, because many of us are in poverty, or borderline to it, so we are trying to help our selves, and family survive...its the rich celebrities, and millionaires that should think more about how to help the other countries, and our country.

Answer 4

I know I'm walking into a can o' worms here, but it ain't the first time and won't be the last.

I don't know how ignoRANT I am, but I can find a spot or two on the map..he,he. I believe the US is in too many places all over this world and "we" should start paying more attention to OUR country and not everyone else's. If the US focused on America and cut the military (and spending for) down to about 25% of what it is today, for starters and spent that money on much needed programs such as health care and jobs here at home! This country could be so much better, healthier and happier.

It's the have's and the have nots in America today and the have's don't want the have nots to have anything, just die and go away. Like Michael Moore said in SiCKO, "This should be a country of (we) not a country of (me)" and one more piont from the movie. I don't remember who said this but, "If you can spend money to KILL people, you can spend money to HEAL people."

So to wrap up...America needs to pull her nose out of the rest of the worlds butt!!

Answer 5

I do care, and I think your question/statement is generalizing, and putting all Americans into one category.

Some people will always go through life with blinders on, if it doesn't interfere with their way of life they won't worry about it, however, that is not all of us.

I am concerned for other countries, their poverty, their children.

Answer 6

they say none of our business if we care so what's the point what will we get? nothing

Answer 7

The USA cares too much, we help every country and they treat us like S**t

Answer 8

I'm Australian first of all, and I think that we certainly tend to look out into the world much more than others do. I'm not really sure why we do it, probably because we feel like we have something to prove to the world.

Anyway, I've seen American news on SBS (which is public free to air channel in Australia) and it seems they are incredably self centred, and advertise the point that everything good that happens in the world is from America. Their media is good at doing that, but is incredably one sided. If I was brought up to believe my country was the be all end all, then I wouldn't care about things outside my country either.

Its a shame though.

Answer 9

You are uninformed. America is the most caring nation on the planet and is always the first to help when another country needs it.  We give more financial aid then the rest of the world combined. One thing we can't do is be the only country to do most of these things. It's time the rest of mankind does their share.

Answer 10

America as a country sends more money outside its borders for aide than any other country.  And as a %, Americans give the most to charity, domestic and international.

As for the celebrity issue, have you ever been to England?  They are obsessed with celebrity issues.

Anyway, it is a sign of a well-off society.  Instead of hunting and gathering we can spend free time looking at David Beckham and Princess Dianna.  We go to the movies and watch TV for the same reasons.

I'm not saying it is a good thing.  In fact people are getting complacant.  The young people in China and India want to eat our lunch, make money while doing it and kick us on our way down.  They see the things we have and want them.

Answer 11

Then what were they doing in Iraq?

Ever wonder Iraq is vital for the survival and advancement of living human kind on planet earth?

Do we expect them to be all over the place on planet earth?

When living human kinds has only two hands out there.

Luke 24.44-45,47-49

Look around in the real world.

Ever wonder who created the mess in their own backyards and could not solve it own their own living in misery in own backyards.

Answer 12

I'm tired of hearing people complain about us sticking our noses in everything, but crying to us first when they need something.  My world starts in NY and ends in California.

Answer 13

I live in a community where I have heard a number of times comments about how people's families came here from somewhere in Europe because of how bad it was there, and we should all be happy to be here and turn our backs of the rest of the world.  This is a degraded version of the Shining City on a Hill concept of the early 19th Century view of America.  There is also probably a certain amount of intellectual laziness.  Personally I've been in 31 states of the US, six Canadian provinces, and a total of 18 other countries.  Without having seen a country you can';t possibly have a valid opinion on it, but our retardate President, who had virually no foreign experience outside Mexico and one quicky trip for a wedding before entering the White House goes blundering into incredibly complex national situations.  But 99% of Americans don't even realize how bad his blundering is because they don't know any more than he does.

I'll give an example.  He's blathering about what a danger Iran is.  This is a country which in ten years of war with Iraq, whom it outnumbers nearly 3:1, could manage no more than a stalemate.  He seems unaware of the large percentage of minorities in Iran:  Turkic tribes, Arabs, Kurds, Baluchis, none of whom are trusted by the govt of Iran, and for good reasons.  To the north Iran has an unsympathetic Christian nation, to the west semitic Arabs (Iranians are an Indo-European people speaking Farsi), and both east and west Sunnis who despise s**+'a as schismatics and heretics.  But very few Americans understand any of this and so Bush can manipulate them into believing in another war.

Answer 14

Excuse me but why should we care about the rest of the world. In the last hundred years we have pulled the world's chestnuts out of the fire not once twice or even three times but more times than I care to enumerate! I spent 9 years in military uniform and saved almost 300 lives in 200 rescues of people who were at sea and really had no business being there. I also saw our military people committed to two dozen little potholes to bail out fools who did not want or appreciate our people. Why should we continue to pour lives and money into those pest holes?????

PS as for travel I have been in 107 countries on 7 continents! Where have you been to see personally?

Answer 15

Well, you'd have to start with elementary school.  Kids should be learning basic geography in elementary school but many classrooms in America do not even have an accurate, functional map of the world in them.  Worse yet, many teachers teach stories to the class that involve foreign lands but those same teachers won't bother to pull the map down to show the kids where the story takes place.

I meet people who don't follow the news of the world for one simple reason---they are kinda self-centered.  It's that simple.  It's a stretch for them to care about their friends let alone a bunch of strangers 10,000 miles away.

Plus, in many portions of the U.S. there is a deep sense of territorial pride.  Farmers stick up for farmers.  Kansans stick up for Kansans.  Small town folk have a sense of isolation and pride about their  small towns.   This sense of isolation and community identification leads people to forget about that big old world out there and focus on their own town.

That's what I think is going on.  Add to that the vague media coverage we get unless we read a good newspaper and you wind up with people who don't stretch themselves to get involved outside their own little worlds.  Plus, people are very busy.  It takes time to be involved.

Answer 16

Well here is the problem "americans" are to obsessed with their own lives to care about what happens to their neighbors. I have said it a million times everything that happens in other countries affects us one way or another. For example the fact that Cuba and Venezuela have been so buddy buddy can not be good for america. Also now that we are trying to get rid of all the illegal people in ways that some people would describe as inhumane when those people go back to their countries they will hold resentment for america which will then be passed down to their children. Which is what happens in the middle east. Do we really want to have every country south of us hate us? Yeah the american army is the strongest army in the world but what if all those countries got together against america then what do we do.

Answer 17

such a long QUESTION so no ANSWER

Answer 18

Generalizations are never true. Americans are all different. Some are dumb and some are brilliant.

I believe right now many Americans feel helpless to do anything about all the problems. Our president isn't listening to us, the economy forces us to work too much and constantly accept lies from our president. We do not trust our government anymore. The whole world hates us it seems. So what can we do? I can't go to mexico like I did as a youth with my parents, to give my time to help the needy because now I would be kidnapped.

Answer 19

Of course a lot of us do care, as do you. But many of the answers you've received certainly make your point that plenty of us do not. So why? I think part of it is because we're such a melting pot, we've emphasized our national identity to compensate for the lack of a strong racial/traditional identity. Part of it is because we're sandwiched between two other countries, but not surrounded by other countries the way people in England or Africa--or the Middle East--are. We have the *luxury* of isolationism because unless troops invade via Canada or Mexico, our borders are fairly secure from enemy troops. That's all I can guess.

Me, I think one of the best things I ever did in my life was get to know other peoples and other cultures, both in the States (I've lived in 5 different states--in one of them on a Navajo reservation where *I* was the minority) and in Europe. It expands your view of the world in a way isolationists won't even imagine.

Answer 20

That has a lot to do with the fact that most stations do not cover the important aspects of world news. For example, the French elections that just past a while ago. Unless you were watching a channel devoted specifically to world news, you were out of luck, really. And the stations that covered it, only really "covered  it". They were too concerned with Paris Hilton going to jail. The whole idea is to dumb us down, that way we are easier to control. Ever wonder why the cost of movies is going up, while the quality is going down? Americans don't care about the world because the media and everything around us basically says that America is the greatest country on Earth and to h**l with everyone else. That's taking national pride a bit too far, don't you think?

And as for the US caring too much...well, that's just not true. We only get involved in things that have an effect on us and our investments. For example, if we cared so much, why didn't we get involved in the Rwanda Genocide? Its basically the same situation as the one going on in Iraq, so whats the difference? The difference is 1) some people who might be stationed in that area (who they have yet to find) blew up two buildings in our own country and 2) oil, oil, oil.

Answer 21

its worse than that most can't tell one state from another on a non labeled map and basket ball players can't tell any on the labeled

example when Carl Malone got drafted to the Utah jazz his comment was what state is Utah in, pretty sad

but heck of a player

GO JAZZ

Answer 22

How about a study of Iraqi kids and how many of them can point out all the countries on a map???

Answer 23

If you have been hiding under a rock the U.S. Has helped out underprivileged countries more than our share, And never got beans in return and furthermore  CNN is a rotten source of news.

Answer 24

Americans has Hollywood, big baseball games, football millionaires and NBA multi-millionaires as compared to the poverty-stricken people of Africa and Asia.  Can the Americans share at least a few of their bucks to feed hungry people.

Answer 25

This is a great question and in its magnitude you have to look to many curruptions that have hindered Americans education and in many ways taken the real power in this country away from the people.  The media that really powers the county does a poor job of doing so primarily because it has turned into a largely for profit machine.  Instead of broadcasting news and isssues the air time is used to attract as many people to its station as possible and celebrities or symbols of everything money could buy fuels the american greed that spending power has done to this nation. We are quite litterally in a bubble.  Our educational system also continues to fail us.  This spawns directly from the lack of funding.  The educational system truly shapes the country as a whole and its not just the quality in the public classroom it has a great deal also to do with ridiculous costs of a college degree.  As americans we are hindered by low minimum wages and a globalized maketplace that threatens to continue to export work from this country over seas to places without the humanitary standards we as a people expect.  Government needs to re-allot a ton of money that it continues to pump into war and military funding.  War is never a means for peace and our efforts in Veitnam and now Iraq should serve as reminders of this.  If a teacher in high school made possibly eighty thousand a year or even more you could imagine how much of an improvement we'd see in the classroom and we'd expect then a direct improvement in the product of our schools.  College grants should not be only  for the people that litterally make, for lack of a better word, dirt.  The government should be pushing post high school education as a key to the future and the spending should mirror the importance of education.  The government is suppose to be for the people but it has long been hijacked by big buisness and the interests of the companies that fuel our economy.  Some people in this country need to wake up and realize that WE ARE NOT THE BEST.  Seriously we're not.  Our health care system is ranked out of the top thirty in the world.  The life expectancy is insultingly out of the top fourty in the world. Our automobile standards don't even meet that of china's, they won't sell our cars in china because they don't meet the mpg standards! Am I crazy or is something wrong with that situation?  This country even fuels the global warming polluting.  Why doesn't it change? Because the biggest companies in the country are happy making increasily larger profits.  Ask the CEO of the oil companies... a 4 billion dollar bonus would look nice to me too.  We're going in the wrong direction and the only thing that will ever make it better is if people get up and start pressing their reps to change what matters to them. Get rid of lobbying, the system that birthed this dissaster. Also voting helps.  As for the future of the republic, history tells me that this country will wait until the bridge collapses completely before deciding its worth fixing.   but we maybe in luck, I think this presidents administration broke that bridge and I expect record turn outs in 2008.

Answer 26

As quiet as it is kept some Americans can't think pass their own situations because they are hardly staying afloat themselves.

I find it difficult to believe some Americans do not even watch the news.

So it's not that we are uncaring we do not know when and if to care.