At 22 October 2002, 05:50 PM, Mike Joy wrote:
Even though you break Americans into two groups (95% and 5%), that is still a gross oversimplification. America is one of the most diverse countries on the face of the earth, and this type of stereotyping cannot help but misrepresent the nature of huge segments of the population.That's the whole trouble, Wiz. Americans don't WANT to be part of a global community. They prefer to think that America is a satellite of Earth and who the heck cares what happens on that inferior planet down there?By Americans, of course, I'm not referring to the educated few, but to the 95% that make up the Joe Six-Pack variety. Only Rod Paige (Sec. of Ed'n) can change America's attitude, but right now votes are slightly more of an important issue than America's future.
We have uneducated and highly educated people, pro-metric and anti-metric people, globalists and isolationists, liberals and conservatives, socialists and libertarians, religious and non-religious, a hundred different nationalities, probably as many religions, dozens of skin colors, etc. etc.
And NO TWO OF THOSE ARE SYNONYMOUS!! You can NOT claim that educated means pro-metric or globalist. You can NOT claim that uneducated means anti-metric or isolationist. etc.
As long as anyone thinks they can attack metrication in American with big, broad plans based on these stereotypes, they will inevitably fail.
And Rod Paige can't do squat for metrication. Most Americans do not even know who he is, let along give a damn about his opinions. At most he can influence K-12 school curricula, and even then only by paying homage to the NEA, which is hardly a progressive institution. To see him as someone able to help metrication is, I believe, very mistaken.
Jim Elwell, CAMS
Electrical Engineer
Industrial manufacturing manager
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
www.qsicorp.com
