Truer words were never spoken

So far, my summer has taken on a theme of British humor. I've been devouring Douglas Adams' books, insisting my sister read A Room with a View, and watching shows like The IT Crowd and QI. It was while watching an episode of QI that I heard the quote from Ambrose Bierce "War is God's way of teaching Americans geography". I laughed at how true it is.

Sorry, Teddy. I'm sure you did good.

Every time America is involved in a war, it is immediately fused into our culture. The details may be a little fuzzy, but at least we remember who we were fighting. With the Revolutionary War, it was England. The Civil War, the South (or the north, depending on where you live). Then there was Germany and Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and now the "War on Terror" which although isn't against a specific country it's geographic location has become familiar to society at large. I know, there were some other wars in there, but I doubt anyone remembers the Spanish-American or Mexican-American wars.

What I'm getting at is that our wars are somewhat classified and categorized geographically. Instead of calling our latest war "The War against Taliban", for a while it was mostly being called "The war in Iraq". I doubt anyone knew where Vietnam was on a map before we got involved there, let alone Cambodia or Laos. However, since that was where the action was and many families had people who fought over there, the region of Southeast Asia became more known to us. Coincidentally, I don't think people took Holland very seriously until we  were trying to get the Nazis out.

To put a modern spin on this, what if Osama Bin Laden had been hiding in Kosovo instead of Pakistan? Instead of talking about Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan we would have the names Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina on our lips and in our news. We could look on a map and the names would hold more meaning than they do now. For instance, when I here the name "Vietnam", I don't think of Saigon or Nem nướng, but rather of the late 60's, protests, and Lieutenant Dan. The only way Vietnam holds any relevance in our culture is in the context of war.

I might be related to Victoria herself as well as her nursemaid.

Are other countries like this? I'm sure they are, but I think I know why America's trouble with geography and world knowledge is so apparent. Compared to the rest of the world, the United States is a relatively young country. Just over two hundred years compared to England or France who had established monarchies way back around the year 600 or so. They've had more time to get into skirmishes and have that knowledge become part of the relative culture. Even outside of the context of war, European countries have had more time to interact and learn about each other while America was toddling along and trying to acquire enough territories to look like a threat to anyone who stepped foot there again. Queen Victoria became the common denominator whenever European royalty was concerned, and the Hapsburgs and Bourbons did there fair share of cultural spread too. As marriages and alliances were made (more often at the same time than not), a little bit of other countries leaked to their neighbors. Another little tidbit I got from the same episode of QI was that the national anthem of the Netherlands still swears some allegiance to the King of Spain from when the Netherlands were under Spanish control.

America is still young and learning about the world. We Americans are still learning, however we go about it like a 20 year old man who is just a bit too cocky: by getting in fights. We only recognize the people we have fought, are currently fighting, or who helped us fight someone else. The rest are just bystanders, so it would seem. I'm not suggesting that the US should fight every country in the world in order for its population to pass 7th grade Geography tests. I just wanted to remark at how little we Americans know about our world. Every day it seems like there are wars and battles fought around the world that we know little to nothing about merely because they don't affect us directly. I am amazed when I watch British TV shows and realize they know so much more about Europe than I do.

If you like British humor or love trivia shows, definitely check out QI. For now, I will leave you with this little taste:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsHg3wsqTzI

(images from here and here)