Have you ever heard of the term "Eurocentric?" The term is commonly used in the historical community, meaning "everything about it revolves around Europe." Modern historians, also called Revisionists, started to bring out the rest of the world's histories and contributions to technological and idealogical advancements in the 1960's rather than use the widespread and widely accepted Eurocentric ways of teaching history. History is now most commonly taught in the Revisionist's views, as it should be.
The way that many Americans think today is Americentric, which of course, means "everything about it revolves around America." To many Americans, the world is mainly only about the US and its interests abroad. No where else, except maybe Europe or Japan on a good day (hopefully you've caught onto my sarcasm). Their thoughts are about the last proposterous thing that some talk show host said or about how "stupid" the War on Terror is (or the reverse, how incredibly superb it is).
Here's a humorous representation that the teacher in my freshman World Geography class showed us a couple of years ago, and it pretty much sums up how a lot of Americans see the world:
The way that many Americans think today is Americentric, which of course, means "everything about it revolves around America." To many Americans, the world is mainly only about the US and its interests abroad. No where else, except maybe Europe or Japan on a good day (hopefully you've caught onto my sarcasm). Their thoughts are about the last proposterous thing that some talk show host said or about how "stupid" the War on Terror is (or the reverse, how incredibly superb it is).
Here's a humorous representation that the teacher in my freshman World Geography class showed us a couple of years ago, and it pretty much sums up how a lot of Americans see the world:
The thing that took me a while to realize and something I would bet that you did not notice (and if you're an American reading this, it is ironic) is that Africa is not even represented on the map. It represents the ignorance of the American people when it comes to the terrible living conditions and wars that are present on the African continent constantly, and how Americans do close to nothing to help them while basking in their underappreciated riches.
Some Americans are great people. I don't want to say that all Americans are lazy and oblivious to any affairs other than what is going on inside their own house, but in general the American public needs to wake up. Being the superpower of the world doesn't mean we should be able to forget or ignore the hurts of the people worldwide, but should entitle us to do our best to help as much as possible.
I'm just a lowly 16-year-old writing a blog during his summer vacation, mostly just to have something to keep him busy. I don't know if my opinions will go very far, but hey, at least you know at least one American can sort of think in the right direction!
-Luke
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