Have you ever wondered how Americans are so ignorant? They boast that they know of other cultures, yet they only eat our food. If food was the only item that made up a culture, the world would be in chaos. For example, if you asked people about Hindus, they would probably say that Hindus are Indians, and have many gods.


Although the fact Hindus have many gods are correct, there is much more to Hinduism. Hindus believe that when people die, they go to hell and heaven. Some people are even reincarnated into people or animals. They also assume Earth was made by the gods themselves and that the Earth gave birth to the animals, plants, and us humans.


These facts alone are specks of dust if compared to the WHOLE amount of facts about Hinduism. When Americans do notice the outside world, they focus solely on the worse side of the Earth. When it comes to Africa, they focus on poverty, genocide, HIV, and etc. But, have they not noticed the beautiful wilderness that looks like it is a gift from the gods as sunsets hits the land? What about the proud warriors roaring to protect their lands and their pride? They should have at least noticed the chirping of the birds, or the humming of the insects. As it said in the Bible, “How do you focus on the speck of sawdust and not see the log in front of your face?”


When people talk about China, it’s always about what bad things happened there.
Rarely does a person speak about the attractions there like the Great Wall of China, or the Himalayan Mountain Range. They are even false in the fact that Buddha was born in India. The actual birthplace is in Nepal. The Indians just lied. Whether you Google “birthplace of Buddha” of search it in Wikipedia, the results are exactly the same. Buddha was born in Lumbini which is in the Kapilavastu district in Nepal near the Indian border.


In my opinion, this petty ignorance is due to the fact that America is the world’s most powerful country. American did not care to get involved with the outside world. That is why they never had the slightest clue to what might happen in September 11th, 2001. Back then, American ignorance had risen to an unimaginable extent. The destruction of the Twin Towers brought them down a little.


There ignorance could be diminished greatly if we do things that will help them become aware of the outside world when the people are in school. We could show more documentaries instead of bookwork, invite real people who have lived in the outside world, or we could actually go visit the countries. Instead of always going to Washington D.C. we could maybe go to India, Nepal, China, Japan, and more. There they can see the hardships in reality not look at it through a T.V. screen or listen about it. If we did some activities while we were visiting, they would get a little taste of real life, where you have to work for everything. I’m not saying watching documentaries or listening to people is bad, just that it would help the students more if they visited.


In the future if nothing is done, I believe that the American will fall from its glory just because they don’t pay attention to reality. It is a very price to pay for such a small fixable mistake. If they don’t do anything, they will suffer and little by little be turned into the people that they are ignorant of. They say ignorance is bliss, but dangerous. However, knowledge is power.