Americans Are Tuning Out the World

In the Essay Americans Are Tuning out the World by Alkman Granitsas it is said that Americans pay little to no attention to the world around us, we have isolated ourselves from every other country. Before the Essay a question is posed "do you believe that America is "a shining city on the hill"?" Before reading this essay I was a little confused as to what this question meant. Now after reading the essay, I realize that Granitsas argues that people in America believe that we are more important than any other country. People tend to believe that because "everyone else" wants to come to America then no other country must be as good as America. We seem to believe that no other country is worth our time. Granitsas gives many examples as to how this is true by telling us that people, now, more than ever, are reading less and less about affairs in other countries. People used to rank Foreign Affairs as number one, but now the economy is continuously ranked number one. Students studying a foreign language has decreased to 8.6% from 16% in 1965. He also talks about the fact that Foreign Affairs used to take up much more of the newspapers front page. Granitsas says that the reason this is happening, is for the very reason I mentioned before. Americans tend to believe we are the "Shining city on the hill." Granitsas says that this is an issue, because people will tend not to participate in foreign affairs when it is most important out of any other country for us to pay attention these foreign Affairs. He says a great line at the end " The world may be turning into a "global village," but the average American has moved to the suburbs."
It seems as though this essay is suprisingly true. I think the same way, when I think of any other country, I think that either they are poverty stricken or their government must not be as good as ours, or they must not have as many freedoms as we do. As we grow up in America it is taught to us how great our Legislative system is and how wonderful a democracy is we forget to question. We forget that there are other countries that are doing just fine with the way they are doing it. We need to learn from other countries so that we do not fall like the Roman Empire.