American History or the lack thereof..

[shadowkat]

Posting from work on my lunch break because it's too bloody hot outside to walk around the park, which is never a great idea (posting on lj at work not park walking) but what the heck - as long as I don't post about work.



According to Momster - the news had done a survey of the American public and discovered that over 29% or 27% (can't remember which) did not know who the US fought for and got independence from way back in 1776. Sure they knew that the 4th of July was about getting our independence from another country that we happened to be a colony of, but they didn't appear to know which country.

Now this blew my mind. So, bewildered, I asked Momster, "out of curiousity - who do people think we won independence from?"

Momster: Spain and France - were the leading candidates.

Okay, could be worse. (hint - in case you don't know the answer - what language do the vast majority of Americans speak? I mean seriously folks, if we won our independence from France or Spain, don't you think we'd all be speaking Spainish or French? ) Maybe they are confusing the French/Indian Wars with the Revol War (which was earlier) or the Spainish/American War which was much much later?

Of course this wasn't all - about 29% don't know who the first President of the US is. Uhm okay. That's just sad. Hint - look at the American Dollar Bill or Nickle, and what is the name of Capital of the US? I mean this is not hard people.

And...they can't tell you who the first four Presidents of the US are? Okay, that I can sort of understand - took me a while to get them into the correct order.

Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison...then I think John Quincy Addams.
John Quincy was also Sec of State.

I don't know. Methinks people are spending far too much time on twitter, facebook and the internet in general for their own good. Googling whenever they have to know the answer to anything. As a result, Generation Tech (Gen T)is rapidly turning into Generation Spoiled Stupid (Gen SS).


It would be amusing, if it weren't so sad and pathetic. There's an old adage - those who do not learn from history, let alone remember it, are doomed to repeat it. Which is exactly what we are doing.


Okay - back to work.

Comments

[angearia.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's a generational thing. I remember growing up watching Jay Leno and his questions on the street segment. And well... I think some people are just ignorant. And this was long before Facebook and Twitter, also before the internet really got up and moving.

Some people just don't give a crap about history or general knowledge, never bother to learn it and certainly wouldn't bother remembering it if they happened to learn it. In one ear and out the other.

I'm cynical about this sort of thing. But in general, I despise this sort of attitude and I've definitely come across it in RL. Maybe it's gotten worse with the all the tech around, but it's always been around us--maybe we were all just less aware of it.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

True. I've seen similar street surveys done in the 1980s. So it may have always been the case. But I think the dependence on technology is having a derogatory effect in some respects.
Tech is a double-edged sword. It's a bit like calculators - before they were invented, people added, subtracted, multiplied in their heads - now they just pull out that trusty calculator.
(Not that I'm not happy about the invention - love calculators).