Insular Americans: They don't care what's happening outside our borders.

[The Backlash Cometh]

As long as their lifestyles go along without interference, they couldn't care less how it affects other people.

This realization came because I just met an insular American. I was trying to describe the movie, "Blood Diamonds," to him and I was having a senior moment, not remembering the word, "rebel," but I knew it was important to define the guerrilla tactics used by the bad guys in the movie. I told him I was struggling for the word and I said, "You know, Fidel Castro was one before he took over." And he replied, "Democrat!" No, I said, "Fidel Castro was a Communist," and he replied, "That's what I meant." This guy wasn't trying to be funny. He was dead serious.

So I continued with the story and tried to tell him how the illegal diamond market was destroying entire villages, and he replied, "That's for their government to take care of. Look how they treat us when we do go over and help them." I figured he was talking about Iraq, and I really didn't want to go there with someone who was so deep in his cave.

This entire conversation started because we were talking about aquarium fish and he said that the Asians were pushing the envelope by painting the fish neon colors. I told him it probably doesn't matter as long as they are aquarium bred, and not plucked from the wild. He said, "So what. As long as they're destroying their own environments, what do we care? We're actually rebuilding reefs here in America."

That's when I mentioned the butterfly effect and started talking about the movie Blood Diamonds as an example.

But, in the end I realized that to the insular American, (A) they really don't care what happens outside our borders; and (B) the Scotland bombs have them so petrified that they are arming themselves because they're convinced that terrorists are going house to house to take them out.

It's all about their insular mentality, and learning how to break through.

By the way, I did get the guy interested in the movie on two counts. First, because I told him how outside traders are vaulting large amounts of diamonds in order to take them off the market to keep the prices high and that as a consequence, we don't always get the best diamonds, because it's the best diamonds that usually go in the vault. That's when his interest perked and he wanted to learn more. Not because entire villages were getting slaughtered in Africa, but because we might be paying more for diamonds, and they may not be the best of the best.

[EFerrari]

1. The was a BookTv segment on a new book, "Are We Rome?"

and the author mentioned that 75% of American respondents to a survey thought you had to go south from Australia to get to Japan. "Insular" seems too gentle a term.

[depakid]

2. That's the long & short of it

Worse than that though- most Americans think that the rest of the world will really care about them when the inevitable economic crash comes along....

That'll be a rude awakening.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. Oh, they will expect the rest of the world to come to our aid.

When Iraq started falling apart, someone who was in full support of Bush's unilateral attack on Iraq, said, "Okay, we did our part, now it's time for someone else to take over." And I said, "Do you know what the word unilateral means?"

[RufusTFirefly]

3. Exacerbated by media consolidation

Although I agree with you to some extent, there are many Americans who would care about what happens beyond their borders if they were exposed to international news more often.

But thanks to media consolidation and the corporate mandate to turn news departments into revenue generators instead of the prestigious cost centers they once were, foreign bureaus have been closed and international news has been replaced by stories that belong in celebrity tabloids or "lifestyle" magazines.

[EFerrari]

6. One of the founding values of this nation was the cult of the individual.

That viewpoint doesn't lend itself to a vigorous "worldview". :shrug:

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. What a contradiction we live in.

Americans expect global financial dominance, but live in insular worlds.

You're right. The media needs to find a way to connect the dots for them.

[MADem]

4. Well, they have to be carefully taught, as the old TV commercial goes

Turn on the news they watch, and see why. They're still digging up Anna Nicole on CNN, fachrissake.

Compare that to the BBC World News or the Al Jazeerah in English news. Forget any 'bias' or 'viewpoint' issues--because you'll find those in any broadcast--and just look at the PICTURES you get in those other news reports.

They actually show the NEWS of the WORLD. Not the 'infotainment' of the North American continent, the NEWS of the WORLD.

If these insular putzes saw people dying on tv each day, from all corners of the big blue marble, maybe it would start to sink in.

As it is, they were able to see a Jeep burning in front of a Scottish airport (over, and over, and over, and over again--like those towers falling over and over and over again...) and they're scared, because those folks speak English and look like a lot of people over this way...oooh, scary! That jeep would recede to the back of their mind if they were treated to all of the explosion aftermaths in Iraq, the famine in Africa, the drought hither and yon from just this week alone...and all of the misery that our media just does not have the stones to cover.

[Turbineguy]

8. Your last paragraph implies

hope. It's a start.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

9. I've noticed this for a long time

I think it started, or at least intensified, during the Reagan years. People were being bombarded with patriotic jingoism and, simultaneously, the veneration of "titans of industry". Gordon Gekko was presented as a sympathetic character, if you recall. Today, I continue to be amazed (though I really shouldn't be) by the number of people I meet who don't care a whit about people being brutalized and starved in places like Darfur, not to mention the poverty in this country. But these same people will give you an earful about how poor old Bill Gates pays too much in taxes. :crazy:

Americans are being deliberately kept in shameful ignorance about events in the world and in our own country, while being taught to identify with whoever the corporate media designates as "winners". Throw in a large dollop of disdain for science and critical thinking and you get attitudes like those of your acquaintance. I'll bet he thinks the insurgents attack our troops because they "hate our freedoms".