We need to cool it

It seems as though whenever Canada is mentioned on American TV, it is big news here. Whether its the Simpsons visit Toronto or a comedy roundtable that airs at 4am on FOX News, it always is a topic of conversation. Just being mentioned by our big brothers to the south seem to make our hearts go aflutter.

Usually, we end up raging and bemoaning American ignorance. But really, people, we all need to cool it and ask ourselves the following question:

Why exactly do we know so much about the US?

I'll tell you a couple of reasons that don't apply. Our education system doesn't require us to take American History; in fact, I know only a handful of people who ever take a course on the subject throughout their entire academic careers. Also, it's not because we read about it. Books about Omaha Beach or the Battle of Gettysburg that top the New York Times Bestseller List rarely crack the Toronto Star's Canadian Equivalent.

So, given up? The answer should not swell our national pride. The reason we know as much about America that we do is... that we watch primarily American television, and that even most Canadian content on air is kept as location unspecific as possible so it might be exported South.

I know when the Americans signed the Declaration of Independence because I've seen it on American TV. As for when the Americans concluded peace with Britain, which is something people who actually spent some time researching the subject would know, completely escapes me. I know American politics because of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report, not because I watch CSPAN for fun.

I doubt this is a phenomina that most Canadians, particularly of my generation, can claim they are not a part of. Given this, how can we, with any sense of intellectual or personal honesty, think lowly of an American's Ameri-centric view? Particularly when you factor in the fact that America does more to educate its citizens about us than ours does about them?

That's right, most American students in the last twenty or thirty years in the border states are required to learn about Canada. They are forced to learn about our provinces, our weather, or hobbies and our economy, while we learn most of our information through the filter of media - either ours or Hollywood's.

So, my fellow Canadians, let's all get off our high horses and stop critizing people who have as much interest in learning about other countries as we do and acknowledge that we only know a damn thing about America is because we watch TV.