Newsweek: “How Dumb Are Americans” and why?

US news. Despite the widely spread opinion about the I-couldn’t care less attitude of American media to the intellectual level of its citizens, “Newsweek” magazine has published an eloquently titled article “How Dumb Are We?”

Demonstrating the self-criticism that one can only be jealous of, the author of the article Andrew Romano admits that “…the country’s future is imperiled by our ignorance”, citing as arguments the results of a quiz, which has been carried out by his periodical among 1,000 Americans. What exactly was shocking for the world investors about this information, and how much?

What is this quiz, and what are its results?

The questions mostly concerned the US political life, although this does not mean that the respondents’ knowledge about other spheres would be higher. Therefore:
1. 29% couldn’t name the vice president;
2. 73% couldn’t correctly say why Americans fought the Cold War;
3. 44% were unable to define the Bill of Rights;
4. and 6% couldn’t even circle Independence Day on a calendar.

These results gave the ground to Andrew Romano to talk about a grave danger to the United States’ future, the population of which will, due to its illiteracy and ignorance, become non-competitive in the constantly changing world of high technologies. Luckily, the journalist does not speak about the intellectual degradation of his own nation. Referring to the scientists’ statements, he rightly claims that the yearly change in the knowledge of citizens since the World War II is averagely happening within 1%.

Mister Romano’s concern is rather clear, as he fears that his Motherland may gradually lose its primacy (first of all, intellectual) among the numerous friends and allies. The leadership, which has been achieved by so much effort (including the “brain drain” from the entire world), may now be conceded to the old lady called Europe. The journalist provides the example of a quiz, which was held in 2009 by “European Journal of Communication” periodical among the citizens of Great Britain, Denmark , Finland, and the USA. He was taken away by its result: “68% of Danes, 75% of British, and 76% of Finns could, for example, define what Taliban was, whereas among Americans only 58% succeeded”.

Why do Americans have such poor understanding of politics?

The experts of Masterforex-V Academy explained that one shall leave to the journalist’s head his obviously steep demands to his fellow countryman and his exaggerated attitude to the knowledge of such things as Taliban.

Andrew Romano’s merit is that he has conducted an exhaustive analysis of reasons of Americans’ political ignorance. He has also raised the issue of low intellectual level of modern people. Thus, US citizens have weak political knowledge because of:
• intricacy of political system. US political system is rather intricate, and it is not easy to understand it even for a specialist;
• social differentiation. The United States of America have one of the highest levels of income inequality among the countries with advanced economy. In America, unlike Western Europe, much more people live below poverty line, having no access to good education. Accordingly, if to compare the equal number of Americans, proportionally collected from all social layers and Danes, for example, the latter will have decisive superiority;
• educational autonomy. The USA maintains a decentralized educational system, when every state has a right to have its own curriculum for schools;
• narrow specialization. In America higher promotion will be received by the curricula that are dictated by the market to the detriment of general education curricula, especially humanitarian. However, this is the wrong doing of everyone: from Europe to Japan.

What else did US citizens surprise by?

Andrew Romano sums up: “Before the Internet appeared, muscular strength was enough, but informational economy requires brains instead”. This statement is hard to argue, especially taking into consideration the fact that Americans have more significant knowledge gaps in other spheres, besides politics:
1. About one half of American pupils cannot find their country on the map of the world.
2. Approximately the same number of grade four pupils managed to arrange in the correct order (according to size) North America, USA, California, and Los Angeles.
3. Only 10% of Americans can name all planets of the solar system.
4. 53% of US citizens believe that all creatures have appeared on the Earth, having the appearance that they are now known to have.
5. 31% supposes that God’s will was the mainspring of evolution.
6. The Darwin theory is shared only by 12% of the questioned Americans.
7. 95 % of the US youth have no idea of where Afghanistan is.
8. The overwhelming majority of the New World inhabitants have problems with geographical map. Half of them shoe where New York is with great difficulty. Every third American has no idea of where North America is (!).
9. 10% of US citizens believe that the majority of “hot spots” are concentrated in one place, and Chechnya, in such a way, borders on Serbia.
10. The absolute majority of American pupils are convinced that it was their army that entered Berlin, but nobody knows which year exactly it was.
11. One fifth of Americans cannot recall in fight with who the USA have gained its independence.

Europeans, as well as Americans, have nothing to be proud of?

As the British are the haughtiest of the European nations, as explained by the experts of Western Europe Community of , they are... at one step distance from their overseas descendants. The sad idea emerge due to the following facts:
• 23% of the United Kingdom citizens suppose that Winston Churchill is a fictitious character that did not exist in reality. One third of junior school pupils claim that this was the name of the first man that landed on the Moon;
• the quiz held by The Daily Mail showed that many Englishmen consider as fictitious such people as Richard the Lionhearted, Charles Dickens, Mahatma Gandhi, and Egyptian empress Cleopatra. At the same time, they believe in the real life of Sherlock Holmes, King Arthur, three musketeers, and Robinson Crusoe;
• when publishing its quiz data, The Telegraph periodical announced that 77% of British younger than 20 never read historical books, and 66% on principal do not watch historical programs on television;
• one quarter of British pupils have no idea of which century the World War First was in, whereas every twentieth person supposes that Hitler was the Prime Minister of Great Britain;
• two out of five British pupils are certain that Mars is the name of chocolate stick only, and one third of junior school pupils claim that the Earth is not a true name of our planet.
Other inhabitants of the European Union do not show brilliant knowledge either. Thus, the question “Does the Earth turn around the Sun?” received positive response only from 29% of the questioned.

Russians also have to learn, learn, and learn again

Citizens of the former USSR as the nation that once was mostly involved in reading, unfortunately, is to be forgotten too. Electronic media, creation of consumer society, heavy individualism, and other attributes of harsh market system have eventually done their black business, having seduced the descendents of Pushkin, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky out of the right way. The current situation is approximately like this:
1. The quiz, which was held in 2007 by All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) among 1,600 adults in 153 Russian cities and villages, showed a rather sad picture: 28 % of Russians are certain that the Sun turns around the Earth, and 30% said that the first people on our planet appeared at the same time as dinosaurs.
2. Only one half of modern Russian has an idea of Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution that was suggested by him.
3. The majority of questioned Russian do not know for certain where Portugal is (they believe that it is either in Latin America or in Africa).
4. One half of RF respondents suppose that Holland and the Netherlands are different states. A great many people confuse Sweden and Switzerland.
5. 30% of Russians have no idea of in the honour of what the holidays of February 23 and March 8 were introduced.
6. Only 4% of adult Russian citizens could correctly answer the questions of Universal State Exam (USE) about the Russian language.

Confusion or the modern world tendency?

It is evident that everything that has been told about the British can be projected to the citizens of all countries of modern Europe, and the results of quiz in Russia can equally be spread to other CIS citizens. It is highly unlikely that the situation in Asia (China, Japan, and India) looks better. Unfortunately, the fall of the level of general knowledge is not only the problem of the USA, but of the rest modern world too. And there is no confusion about it, no matter how hard Andrew Romano searches it. In our age high intelligence remains the prerogative of aristocracy and various experts that provide services to its members. The rest are to do with the role of consumers, who are to have the knowledge about goods that have been prepared for them and no more. It is now far from the age of Enlightenment, when the masters of the world strive to provide a higher educational level for their nations. Modern times are more similar to the dark Meddle Ages.

The Editorial Board of “Market Leader” magazine, jointly with experts of Forex Academy and Masterforex-V Stock Exchange Trade, holds a questionnaire in the traders’ forum: in your opinion, can we now talk about more or less “educated” nations at all?
• yes, educational level in separate states is different anyway;
• no, it does not have a point;
• such talks are only a part of propaganda.