[IP] A foreign knowledge desert requires cultural irrigation
Begin forwarded message:
From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: May 4, 2006 4:08:25 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: A foreign knowledge desert requires cultural irrigation
Dave:
There's a nice constructive article in today's (UK) Guardian about
Americans' lack of knowledge of the world outside the USA by Sir Max
Hastings, the author and former editor of the (London) Evening
Standard, which you might want for IP.
Cheers
Brian
A foreign knowledge desert requires cultural irrigation
Unless we teach Americans more about us, we'll continue to be
dismayed by the thrust of their foreign policies
Max Hastings
Thursday May 4, 2006
The Guardian
A couple of weeks ago I met a bright young Senate staffer on
Capitol Hill in Washington. Like most such people, he possesses a
lot of influence and significant power. He has at his fingertips
details of every planet in his universe - names, wards, counties,
votes, biographies, vices.
His only limitation is an absolute ignorance of the world outside
the US. He had visited London with his wife on a European
sightseeing trip. He once attended a conference in Asia. His self-
assurance and fluency are undiminished by knowing nothing of the
foreign issues on which his employer speaks and votes in the
Senate. He is content with mastery of his own, all-American sphere,
and has no desire to burden his agenda with the arcane affairs of
Britons or Germans, or even of Afghans or Iraqis.
Article continues
His mindset is characteristic of many smart young Americans, and
matters a lot to the rest of us. Our destinies are at the mercy of
the US, and will continue to be. The passing of the generation that
found itself obliged to voyage overseas in the second world war has
had perverse consequences. Though 21st-century Americans can travel
much more easily and cheaply than did their grandparents, their
horizons are narrower. As mere tourists, few of us learn much about
any society.
The foreign knowledge desert will not water itself. Few Americans,
even clever and ambitious ones, feel a need to inform themselves
about abroad. Only a policy of cultural irrigation, which will have
to start with us and not them, offers a chance of helping the next
generation of US powerbrokers to know a little more about the
outside world than does the present one.
Because we are Europeans, we can aspire only to enlighten others
about our own patch, but that would be a start.
. . .
Full story at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1766834,00.html
--
School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon
Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell@xxxxxxxxx PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/
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