In article <360F25B2.65F48625 at OntheNet.com.au>, tonyg at OntheNet.com.au wrote:
> Brett Evill wrote:
> >
> > In article <360d9538.613536 at news.mv.net>, junkmail at moreira.mv.com (Alberto
> > Moreira) wrote:
> >
> > >There has been no event that was more influential to so many people as
> > >the American Revolution.
> >
> > Only an American could say that. It looms large in your world, mate.
> I'd agree with above, having visited the 'States' 7-8 times and lived there
> for a 3 month period fairly recently. Most studies (eg. National Geographic)
> give US citizens the lowest ranking of any OECD country when it comes to
> general knowledge of the world, and an extraordinary percentage (>10%) of one
> study sample could not even identify the USA on a map of the planet!
The US is a country of extremes.
Yes there are a ton of idiots here, and yes, the only thing that keeps
them going is intelligent foreigners. But I am also amazed at the
intelligence one can find in the US. For example in my community there are
probably 15 book stores I can go to, standard public book stores, any one
of which carries more high level material (eg grad school texts) in a
variety of fields than I ever found even at college book stores in the
time I spent in other countries.
One could argue that the US, more than anywhere else, allows people to
reach their natural level. It allows the idiots to wallow in their
ignorance, but it also allows the intelligent to feed their curiosity and
to utilize it, and it that embracing of intelligence that lead all these
foreigners (including myself) to leave their home countries.
Maynard
--
My opinion only
