Science a Mystery to U.S. Citizens

maddugan writes "CNN and probably others are posting their synopses of the National Science Foundation's biennial report on the state of science understanding in the US. Sixty percent of those surveyed believe in ESP, psychic power, and alien abduction."

Comments

Re:Scary

[grammar fascist]

Oh, please. +5, Insightful? Have we got a bunch of jealous anti-Americans as moderators today?

I can tell you where the America-is-the-world attitude comes from, though, if you care to understand it. First off, for the people who don't already: have you ever BEEN there?

The United States is HUMUNGOUS! I've lived outside of it for a while, and one thing that strikes me is how small it seems almost every other country is. You can drive across the UK in a matter of hours. The same amount of time would get you across just half of Colorado.

How often does the average U.S. citizen actually have to communicate from somebody outside of the U.S.? Not bloody often. If you ask a French person who their neighbors are when talking about politics, chances are they'll name the British and the Spanish. Somebody from Nevada will name Californians and Utahns.

How much is the average U.S. citizen directly affected by the policies of the U.S.'s neighboring countries? Compare that to the direct effect of a neighboring state's policies, and the answer is: not much at all.

So before you shoot off your crapper about how isolationist the U.S. population is as a whole, consider the environment. The people live in a very large superpower country. Contact with foreigners is minimal. It's going to be that way. Deal.