USA v. The World

This is not about anything that’s happening specifically today, but rather a phenomenon which has existed for as long as I can remember, so at least the last 60 years ago. I just saw a post on Facebook this morning that reminded me of it, so that is today’s blog topic.
The person was lamenting the fact that kids today don’t know how to write in cursive, which is probably true. Kids today also wouldn’t know how to DIAL a telephone, and many cannot drive a car which has a clutch. Writing, today, means typing. But, again, that’s not the point. My point is in the final line of what she wrote, saying it was ‘the dumbing down of America.’
It has nothing to do with America. If it is a dumbing down, it is the dumbing down of the whole world. But Americans (who are probably over 50% of the people on my Facebook page, although I didn’t plan it that way) just don’t see the rest of the world as existing. Most of them have never seen it, or inter-reacted with it in any meaningful way. It is one of the reasons I left the USA the first time, and one reason I am glad to be away from it now.
It is a natural phenomenon. It must be. Americans are not a separate race, they come from different countries all over the world. So, the fact that they see the world this way is due to their culture and the accidents of history which have led to its being the world’s dominant superpower, much as Rome was 2,000 years ago.
Come to think of it, the Romans probably had a very similar attitude. And look what happened to them.