Appalling Ignorance of Americans

Americans know neither important dates nor capitals of particular countries. Sometimes they cannot even point to some states of their own country on a map. Interestingly enough, the most famous scientists and Nobel Laureates come from the United States, not from Asia or Europe.

Herman Cain seems not to hide his shortcomings; in a television interview, he said honestly: “When they ask me who’s the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan, I’m going to say, you know, I don’t know. Do you know?” Cain, the president of Godfather’s Pizza, is seeking the Republican Party’s nomination for president. In another television interview, he stated that China may soon build a nuclear weapon — and as everyone knows, they have had it for more than 40 years. On another occasion, it turned out that he is unaware where Libya lies and who the neoconservatives are; furthermore, he confuses the U.S. Constitution with the Declaration of Independence.

All this, however, absolutely does not bother his supporters. According to surveys, in the race for the presidential nomination, he goes head-to-head with the leaders, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. When the media point out his ignorance, his fans believe sincerely that this is done by arrogant, liberal elites who are against the black conservative.

American = Ignorant

Cain is an extreme case, but there are plenty more examples. Another Republican contender for the highest office, Governor Rick Perry of Texas — whom the GOP has recently deemed a statesman — during his meetings with students boasted about his grades, which were in most cases only “D’s.” Michele Bachmann, the favorite of the tea party, who has lost her fame recently, has been caught repeatedly being ignorant of American history. Sarah Palin, the candidate for vice president in 2008, was unable to say what “Bush doctrine” means exactly. However, embarrassing gaffes have also been made by presidents. During a television debate with Jimmy Carter in 1976, President Gerald Ford said that Poland was not under Soviet domination and in that way lost his re-election chance. In the 2000 campaign, George W. Bush was speechless when asked who was the leader of Pakistan, the key U.S. ally in South Asia.

Bush, like Perry, is a product of Texas’ cowboy subculture. He graduated from Yale, but with unsatisfactory grades — mainly “C’s.” He was famous due to the fact that before he moved to the White House, he had not bothered to read any books. Apparently, he was interested only in newspapers and, more specifically, their sports sections. There have been plenty of historical and geographical gaffes made by politicians, but other people make them too, such as sophisticated, worldly erudite politicians who graduated from the top universities with honors. Numerous members of Congress talk about Czechoslovakia as if the country still exists. Even Barack Obama attributed the invention of the first car to Americans.

The daily columnist of The New York Times, Maureen Dowd, commenting on the performances of Republican celebrities, has wrung her hands over their ignorance and complained that they are spreading the cult of intellectual narrowness. She has written that it must be reconciled that ignorant voters pose a great threat for democracy, but not for know-nothing candidates. However, anti-intellectualism has a long tradition in America. Since the beginning of its existence, the acquisition of knowledge — both abstract and impractical — has not been highly esteemed. The prestige of an unwise university professor could not be compared with the prestige of a man of action, such as the best entrepreneur.

However, this changed during the Cold War, when rulers started appreciating the role of science in the economy and in the arms race, especially [the] nuclear [arms race]. In the second half of the 20th century, American universities, receiving funds and credited with the most prominent immigrants from Europe, began mass-producing Nobel Prize winners. The sciences, including [the] social [sciences], have become the domain of Americans.

A Problem with the Map

As research shows, 63 percent of Americans aged 18-24 cannot find Iraq on a map, 88 percent [cannot find] Afghanistan and 70 percent [cannot locate] North Korea, although there is much about these countries in the media. Despite the abundance of news from the Middle East, three-quarters of Americans do not know where Israel or Iran is, and 63 percent have no idea where Saudi Arabia is situated. The geographical ignorance goes hand-in-hand with the ignorance of foreign countries — 75 percent of people do not realize, for example, that the vast majority of the population of Indonesia is Muslim, and 50 percent believe that Islam dominates in India. Only 22 percent of young Americans have a passport; it may be the case that, simply, they are not interested in foreign countries. However, it appears that they do not even know much about their country. Half of them cannot find states like New York, Mississippi and Louisiana.

The knowledge of history in the U.S. is equally rare among people. Research on students, conducted in 1999 in 55 elite universities showed that 40 percent of them did not know when the Civil War was (1861-1865), and 56 percent had no idea when Abraham Lincoln was president. After 12 years, nothing in this regard has improved. At the beginning of this year, the weekly magazine Newsweek asked 1,000 randomly selected Americans several questions that usually must be answered by immigrants applying for U.S. citizenship. Nearly three-quarters of them could not say why the Cold War broke out, and 44 percent of them were unable to define the Bill of Rights, which is an integral part of the Constitution.