Isolationism is as American as Apple Pie - There's reason why U.S. citizens flunk geography

It's been often said that war is a way to teach geography to Americans. Certainly if young American men didn't know where Korea or Vietnam were or couldn't find such places on a map, they found out the hard way, or their buddies did at least.

It's sad to think of war as teaching tool to try and get those provincial Americans to think of the world around them, but unfortunately that's been a design of policy makers from Theodore Roosevelt on down, either consciously or sub-consciously. After all, one cannot run a vast empire if its own citizens can't even spot it on a globe.

Those opposed to American hegemony had to snicker at the results of the latest geography test issued online by National Geographic which show, among other things, that a good chunk of U.S. citizens cannot find Iraq on a map or even know that it is in the Middle East. It seems this war has a long way to go to teach Americans its latest geography lesson.

This is not the first news story about U.S. ignorance of the world around them nor will it be the last. The usual wailing and gnashing of teeth has followed from academics about the lack of geography teaching in school. But if I may be bold, I don't think the lack of geography teaching has anything to do with such ignorance. There is a purpose to it and a reasoning to explain it that has a lot to do with the American character and one of the founding principles of the nation.

I don't know about you, but I think I got plenty of geography teaching in school from kindergarten to college. Geography can be taught as single subject or as part of several subjects like history, civics, English or foreign language studies. Most classrooms at least have a globe or maps in them for the curious. No one can say the study of geography is deliberately kept from U.S. students.

But then you ask why do so many can't even find where they live on a map, let alone where Iraq is? The answer is that knowledge in the U.S. is based on and has always been based on a need to know basis. In other words, what people care about is what they know.

For myself, in my chosen profession, geography is important. If I couldn't find Iraq on a map, I would have no business writing columns on the situation there. However, when it comes to engine repair on my automobile, I would be completely lost. I wouldn't have a clue as what to do or where things go or how things work. That's why I take it to people who make it their business to know all these things, because they are paid to know. That's why such knowledge is important to them and less so to myself. That's why some Americans are journalists or State Department employees or CIA agents and other are mechanics, miners or accountants.

To each his own.

But lack of knowledge of the outside world fits a part of the American character and psyche as well. From George Washington's Farewell Address that warned against foreign entanglements, to pioneers
and settlers moving deeper into the interior of the country away from the coasts and into naturally isolating places, to immigrants using the great oceans to separate themselves from the Old World, isolationism developed naturally among U.S. citizens and that led to its influence among the political and governmental class that shaped U.S. foreign policy for many years. For those trying to escape the wars, oppression and poverty of the past, isolationism was a welcome respite.
That's why the U.S' wars of the last century and today (outside of a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor) led to a cognitive dissonance which led to questioning as to whether such wars were in the national interest. Even a shrinking world, with the internet and international flights and cross-border traffic and trade, still has not affected the isolationist character of the American people as polls have recently shown. This has to scare the living daylights out of the neocons and other globalists. One cannot make an empire nor build a one-world government over a people so wrapped up in their own homes and native soils. It just doesn't work that way.

And what we mean by isolationism does not mean the kind of hermetically sealed place like North Korea. One can still defend one's border and avoid foreign entanglements and still be engaged in the world, or at least those who wish to be. Those who do not wish to be, can left alone in peace and not be yanked all over the globe doing mercy missions in the name of "democracy" or act the role as global traffic cop. An isolationist America still traded with the rest of the world, still watched it citizens travel to far away places and still received foreign ambassadors. Only those who wish to use isolationism as a pejorative would give it a negative meaning, especially those who wish to see the U.S. up to its neck in the world's problems.

Not only is isolationism as American as apple pie, it is a defense mechanism as well. We've seen the movies and the cartoons of the dictators and the would-be conquerors pouring over maps, their gaze fixed greedily on their next conquest. That's why a true-blue, red-blooded and white hearted American not knowing where Iraq is on a map is very comforting. It means that such a person is not planning a trip there anytime soon nor would really care what goes on there. The more such people that are out there, the harder it will be for the empire-builders and the one-worlders to carry out their plans with U.S. treasure and lives.

So the next time you hear of a good chunk of U.S. citizens flunking geography quiz smile and say to yourself "Despite everything they haven't changed who we truly are. Thank the Lord they've forgotten their geography lessons."

---Sean Scallon