An American's View of Germany

Many Americans have no idea of what is happening in the world. The world is so infinitely vast in scope, but Americans tend to remain introverted, and rarely leave their homeland. In America, only a very small percentage of people have a passport, in the rest of the world a passport is almost a necessity for regular business. As America increasingly develops interests in the rest of the world through a global economy, why have most American citizens remained so ignorant about the rest of the world? When asking a number of high school students what they thought about Germany, a great number of them responded by saying that they don't like the idea of living under a totalitarian Nazi leader.

When a German hears this, they are appalled at such an accusation. In the past 50 years Germany has developed itself politically into a country that allows even the smallest of political groups to have their share of power in the government. Yet, many of the high school students in America are left believing that Germany is still a nation fettered by totalitarianism; Nazi rule.

Why is it that Americans tend to think of the German's as a group of Nazi's. No one knows for sure, but perhaps popular culture has certainly played a role in this blatantly ignorant assumption that many young Americans make. Perhaps many of the young American's simply read more comic books featuring "Captain America vs. the super-Nazi" than they did their history text books.

Another explanation for this phenomenon is the fact that many young American's may not be able to identify what National Socialism is. As American's come to school, and salute the flag, perhaps they don't know what National Socialism is. After deciding to ask informally around a local high school, I was astounded that many students were unable to identify what a Nazi was. Perhaps young American's are only undereducated in this term, and are simply defining all German's as Nazi's because that is what classic media has taught them.

Regardless of the cause, the fact still exists that many young American's think Germany is a nation that practices National Socialism. This is significant because when people do not understand history, then it is bound to repeat itself. If American's are unable to identify a significant part of global history, then they most certainly would be unable to notice if this particular segment of history had begun to repeat itself...