Americans are Tuning Out the World

Americans need to realize that the United States isn’t gods-send country. While being one of the greatest countries for opportunities, freedoms and rights; it is not the only country with all of these amenities. This short narrative written by Alkman Granitsas called “Americans are Tuning Out the World” was written to bring to attention the fact that Americans are becoming more naïve in respects to global affairs. Granitsas wrote this essay for the November 24, 2005 edition of the Yale Global.
Granitsas gives some good facts to prove the lack of affection for global affairs; such as, how only 8.6 percent of American college students study a foreign language. He feels as if there are two major communities in the world, the United States and the rest of the world. According to Granitsas there are two reasons why Americans are tuning out foreign affairs, and that both of these reasons confirm the common belief that America is a “shining city on a hill” and that the rest of the world has relatively less to offer.
His first reason is that since the 1960’s there have been over 20 million immigrants into the United States. With immigrants coming from all over the world, people as the question, why would anyone want to look outside the U.S. when it seems like they all want to come over here? Granitsas’ second reason is that America’s economy has been growing relative to the rest of the worlds’ over the last two decades. I agree with Granitsas when he sais that despite having the world’s more important foreign policy, can America shape a responsible foreign policy with such an uninformed electorate?
It is shocking to learn that only 8.6 percent of American college students are studying foreign languages; it is also shocking to learn that I am part of such a few numbers of students who are studying another language. One would assume that with increasing globalization and such diversified job markets, people would become more aware of who their competition for jobs are as well as career prospects outside the nation. It is very noticeable, from moving to Europe and back, how naïve people are here in America, how many of them can be ignorant, and how much people don’t know and even don’t care about things that are occurring outside their sheltered United States. Both of Granitsas’ reasons for America’s naivety make sense. There are probably some more reasons out there that just haven’t been dealt with. Perhaps another factor is the question of whether or not our media is dumbing down America. I feel as if sometimes people take advantage of the great amenities that are provided by our government. The American population only hears of the problems across seas, such as wars, work strikes, natural disasters, etc. The general population will see these negative things and just assume that life outside America’s borders is untamed, wild and nothing but treacherous.