According to this Yahoo headline: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041202/wl_uk_afp/britain_poland_auschwitz_041202132030 At first I couldn't believe how pathetic that is, but then I thought about the high likelyhood that MORE than 50% of Americans have not heard of Aushwitz. I am stunned. This somewhat jars my sense of people slowly forgetting the true impact of 9/11 or the phrase "remember the Armenians?" Why is it human nature for this to happen? Or is it a problem of plain ignorance? (Mods, this is not Politics/Religion, this is a discussion of history and commentary on the world's ability to easily forget major events of our time )
Is the 50% of the US possibly not knowing about Aushwitz suppose to put the Briton statistic in a less negative light? Not knowing and/or remembering everything that happened across the water is VERY different than not remembering what happend RIGHT NEXT DOOR. 50 to 100 years from now I don't expect the entire rest of the world to remember every thing that occured on 9-11. Why should they? Americans on the other hand should have a pretty good grasp on the events of it 50+ down the years since well, it happened to us. Same applies to Euro and their events. Once we all achieve photographic memories then we'll look into retaining everything.
OK, you go to someone and ask, "What is Auschwitz?" And they have never heard of it. Apparently a large number of people haven't heard of it, if this story is accurate. Does that make them stupid and uncaring? No. It means that previous generations haven't made them aware of it. Do you think that someone who had been told about Auschwitz would forget about it? It would appear that the subject is not being given proper attention. The world should never forget. This isn't ancient history.
So some people haven't heard of Aushwitz. Not a real big deal. I'm sure some haven't heard of Bugatti. The Aushwitz is a nice car but it hasn't been made in years........ Why do you care? Do you have one for sale? JK Oh, you mean Auschwitz. The truth is of course they don't know what it was. There is "ethnic cleansing" going on today and people don't know or seem to care. So history repeating itself is a timeless trend.
I've yet to meet anybody unfamiliar with at least a basic grasp of some of appalling events of Auschwitz. it's not like it's something which hasn't been documented. unlike some of the atrocities in eastern Europe and Russia, which seem to have happily disappeared under a carpet somewhere
I bet America is more like 75%. It is amazing how ignorant the average person walking around really is. This site does not in any way reflect America in general.
After dealing with a representative cross section of all Americans, it's a wonder most of them can tie their shoes.
Hey John, hows it going in Nawlins ? Still Cold ? I miss the food there RE your Q? Lets think of the US, now think of how many illiterate people we have here, then throw in the high school drop outs, crackheads, alcoholics, trailer trash, etc & pretty soon you have a high % of people who dont know anything about anything LOL I have met people who knew next to nothing about WW2 and I am sure there are a lot of teenagers who have no clue what Vietnam or Woodstock were about Strange world we live in
I would say that for many people, unless something impacts them personally on a daily basis they simply don't care. I would say that your 50% approximation of Americans not knowing what was Auschwitz might be conservative. Sadly, if you were to ask two questions: 1. What was Auschwitz? 2. Name two characters from "Friends". More people would know the answer to #2 IMO. A colleague of mine during his dating years became disgusted with the general ignorance of potential spouses he had been dating. He devised a simple quiz I'm sure most of us would score 100% on. He eventually pared the quiz down to a single question: "Who was the President during most of WWII?" After asking several of his girlfriends, one got it right, and he also happens to be happily married to her now. We were talking about this yesterday when some other people (both sexes) decided to join in the conversation. None of them knew the answer!. These were younger, professional, college-educated people. Amazing. All of us had the history of WWII in high school. All of us learned about Nazi atrocities in these classes. Most of us have the History Channel and can relearn of the horrible events that took place in Europe throughout the 30's and 40's. All of us have had the opportunity to watch Schindler's List uninterrupted and unedited on network TV. The problem is most people have no interest in things other than the here and now. They simply turn over to Desperate Housewives. There are already people who claim the Holocaust never happened. Eisenhower called for camera crews to inspect the camps in all their hellish brutality in part because he wanted a video record to prove that it did in fact happen so we would never forget. I'm sure they are hard to watch for many people because of the personal connection they may have to the events that happened not too many years ago, but that the record exists, and is irrefutable means subsequent generations will never forget as well. For that I appreciate Ike's foresight.
OMG. That has got to be the most elitist comment I've seen come out of an FChatter in a while and we all know there are alot of those. NEWS FLASH: Because people don't take an interest in what you do or don't share the same values as you does NOT make them igonrant. I'm sure I know alot about things you don't if only because you find them trivial, have no interest, or just deem them unimportant. Does that make you and anyone else who doesn't know these things ignorant? I'll assume you're going to answer no. Also worth mentioning 'ignorant' is probably not the best word for a persons inability to recall what they've supposed to have memorized at some point in time. I'm pretty sure you haven't memorized everything yet. Let's save the word for people who can't do things that actually require some logic, thought, or computation, or some kind of proactiveness. Oh and I'm sure someone else in this thread has made it a point to call people ignorant over this subject also. This post applies to them as well. Your post just came first and hit the hardest. Arg my day was going so well too.
Ignorance is a lack of education or knowledge. It is not synonymous with stupidity or a lack of intelligence. Everyone starts out ignorant, and some people stay that way.
By that definition everyone would be ignorant since everyone lacks education and/or knowledge in most things. And given the large amount of things out there I think I can use the word most. Granted and we can limited to certain things, which is fine and dandy but the way he just used the word definitely rubbed me the wrong way. But i dont want to play syntax games, I hope the generally motive and idea of my previous post could be understood.
You've never seen the Tonight Show, have you? Where Jay walks around and asks people relatively simple questions? It's astounding how the world that most people live in ends right outside their front door.
A lack of knowledge or education about a certain item or subject. Whether they should be excused about being ignorant of Auschwitz is the debate.
I agree with what you trying to say. But Alan's statement was not limited to Auschwitz. "It is amazing how ignorant the average person walking around really is. This site does not in any way reflect America in general." If limited to Auschwitz, it could have easily been worded to say so. His statement said in almost any context would be seen as making a huge generalization.
I'm not trying to pick on you, but you've apparently not read the thread yesterday about "When did you act like an a$$ about your wealth?"
Bruce Down here in Nawlins you can make almost any kind of gumbo, all you need to do is add heat and stir the pot
Right now its about 50 degrees outside. You know the drill, anything below 70 means its time to grab the snow gear You don't have to tell me, I have Bourbon St.(and Rick's ) practically right outside my door! Hey, I am coming to Miami next week. Let's grab lunch or some drinks. I tried to PM you but your message box is full!
I am not sure if Alan's meaning came across correctly. Here is what I was thinking... F-chat is definitely NOT reflective of general society as a whole. Here is some reasoning: F-chat is comprised of many individuals who are in the outer percentiles of success in their respective fields. People who are able to afford these delectable things we refer to as "Ferrari" typically have their heads on straight. Generally speaking, there are MORE overachievers gathered on this site than there are at www.GaryGreen.com And for those who don't already have F-cars, the large portion of people from this site that I have personally met definitely fall into the category of "overachiever". Alan's comment is not elitist, it just may not have been articulated well. So back to the core issue, what IS really important to the average person? Is it that people simply don't care? Or is it that people simply don't know enough TO care?
They only surveyed 2000 people ... hardly accurate. It is amazing though ... and as others have already stated, ignorance is bliss. Pete
http://www.armeniaemb.org/DiscoverArmenia/History/History.htm Thanks to the wonders of the intarweb, you can educate yourself in seconds.. I suggest you try it next time. -Chris
