When I was a teenager I used to believe Americans were especially dumb, but as I've grown up, I've realized that most people just are plain dumb, no matter where or in what time. While I still feel there's a special annoying "American" kind of stupidity, I would say that every nation/people has it's own brand of stupidity. There are two reasons why the prejudice of American excellence in the field of dumb is so widespread (both outside and inside the US):
1. America's special position in the world insures that there is always special focus on American culture, which is exported and transplanted to many other cultures. This results in American stupidity having a more direct and irritating "in-your-face"-quality, since its simply everywhere, and thus an easy target to diss (like the weather).
2. The American kind of stupidity is simply fun. It's cheesy, silly, and often very entertaining. There are nations that maybe have less overall stupidity, but have worse kinds of stupidity, like Russia (self-destructive stupidity), France (pompous stupidity), Sweden (risk-fearing stupidity), etc. My favourite quote regarding this is by American journalist H. L. Mencken:
All the while I have been forgetting the third of my reasons for remaining so faithful a citizen of
the Federation, despite all the lascivious inducements from expatriates to follow them beyond the
seas, and all the surly suggestions from patriots that I succumb. It is the reason which grows out of
my mediaeval but unashamed taste for the bizarre and indelicate, my congenital weakness for
comedy of the grosser varieties. The United States, to my eye, is incomparably the greatest show
on earth. It is a show which avoids diligently all the kinds of clowning which tire me most quickly
– for example, royal ceremonials, the tedious hocus-pocus of haut politique, the taking of politics
seriously – and lays chief stress upon the kinds that delight me unceasingly – for example, the
ribald combats of demagogues, the exquisitely ingenious operations of master rogues, the pursuit
of witches and heretics, the desperate struggles of inferior men to claw their way into Heaven. We
have clowns in constant practice among us who are as far above the clowns of any other great state
as a Jack Dempsey is above a paralytic – and not a few dozen or score of them, but whole droves
and herds. Human enterprises which, in all other Christian countries, are resigned despairingly to
an incurable dullness – things that seem devoid of exhilarating amusement by their very nature –
are here lifted to such vast heights of buffoonery that contemplating them strains the midriff
almost to breaking.
As true today as it was when he wrote it in 1922.
avatar! wrote:I think most educators would say that Americans are not dumb, but severely lagging behind other countries.. I mean, just look at the emphasis put on science and math in this country! Er, that is, lack of emphasis...
Wait a minute here. Are you equating "dumb" with a lack of scientific or mathematical knowledge? I know many people who are skilled mathematicians or scientists that are pretty dumb and have one-track minds, while I also know some people without college degrees that are very intelligent and shrewd. Academic prowess is not a good gauge for intelligence (in some cases it probably is, but in most cases not). Besides, I'm not sure if school results can really be compared between countries, as the systems can vary a lot, as well as the possibility of some results being forced/produced by various framing techniques.
