America: A Country Full of Incurious Know-Nothings
American Ignorance
America is becoming a country full of “incurious know-nothings.” This statement was made by Andrew Romano on his essay How dumb are we? He states that ignorance is growing rapidly among American citizens and suggests that we find a solution. His thesis is that we, as a society, are very dumb in terms of history and knowledge of our own country and the world around us. On the text he refers to American citizens as dumb and ignorant, and in my opinion, he is quite right on that aspect.
Therefore, I would say that I agree with him because of so many reasons that I will explain throughout this essay. American ignorance has got to a point where citizens do not even have the knowledge to name the vice-president of the U.S. They are even unable to define the Bill of Rights. This is according to the results of America’s official citizenship test given to 1,000 U.S. citizens by Newsweek. The results were depressing and, of course, unexpected since there was a 6 percent that could not even circle Independence Day on a calendar which is very embarrassing for our country in general. These results are shocking coming from citizens of the world’s biggest superpower. And this is only one of the few things where we can see American ignorance reflected.
Another area where we see American ignorance reflected is when our citizens’ knowledge is compared to the knowledge of citizens from other parts of the world, especially those from
Europe. It is then, when we realize how ignorant we are. On his essay, Romano shows us the results of a questionnaire on international affairs given to citizens of Britain, Denmark, Finland, and the U.S. by the European Journal of communication where, as he says, the European “clobbered us.” “Sixty-eight percent of Danes, 75 percent of Brits, and 76 percent of Finns could, for example, identify the Taliban, but only 58 percent of Americans managed to do the
America is becoming a country full of “incurious know-nothings.” This statement was made by Andrew Romano on his essay How dumb are we? He states that ignorance is growing rapidly among American citizens and suggests that we find a solution. His thesis is that we, as a society, are very dumb in terms of history and knowledge of our own country and the world around us. On the text he refers to American citizens as dumb and ignorant, and in my opinion, he is quite right on that aspect.
Therefore, I would say that I agree with him because of so many reasons that I will explain throughout this essay. American ignorance has got to a point where citizens do not even have the knowledge to name the vice-president of the U.S. They are even unable to define the Bill of Rights. This is according to the results of America’s official citizenship test given to 1,000 U.S. citizens by Newsweek. The results were depressing and, of course, unexpected since there was a 6 percent that could not even circle Independence Day on a calendar which is very embarrassing for our country in general. These results are shocking coming from citizens of the world’s biggest superpower. And this is only one of the few things where we can see American ignorance reflected.
Another area where we see American ignorance reflected is when our citizens’ knowledge is compared to the knowledge of citizens from other parts of the world, especially those from
Europe. It is then, when we realize how ignorant we are. On his essay, Romano shows us the results of a questionnaire on international affairs given to citizens of Britain, Denmark, Finland, and the U.S. by the European Journal of communication where, as he says, the European “clobbered us.” “Sixty-eight percent of Danes, 75 percent of Brits, and 76 percent of Finns could, for example, identify the Taliban, but only 58 percent of Americans managed to do the