It seems to me that the U.S. and the UK share one thing in common with measurement: a jingoistic fear of changing to metric.
A past issue of Metric Today (March-April 2005) theorized on the origins of this fear, part of which is a kind of metrological nationalism. The editorial stated, in part: But metrophobia finds one of its best lightning rods in patriotism: that Americans will be somehow less American if they use metric. The often-repeated riddle in the 1994 film, Pulp Fiction, "What do they call a (McDonald's) Quarter PounderT in France? . . .they have the metric system . . ." popularized the distorted concept in the U.S. that metric is an overseas threat instead of a world standard. The issue often comes down to tying U.S. superpower status with its measurement units: that the country is somehow supreme because it adheres stubbornly to its antiquated system, as if the adherence to outdated measurement units confers a talisman-like protection against conquest. I have never lived in the United Kingdom, and cannot speak personally for the British people. Maybe I'll be able to find out more when I visit Scotland in August. But, now, I see an island nation beset with a world measurement system closing in on all sides. Ireland, which, in 2005, changed its road signs to read in kilometers and kilometers per hour, faces the UK border at Northern Ireland. And, of course, the Channel Tunnel pipes the metric system into the country from the southeast. So, in the case of the UK, it seems that a new system of measurement is closing in. I wonder to what extent, in both America and Britain, it remains necessary to continue to reinvest in the old units as a cache of national identity. I hope that, one day, for the sake of both countries, national strength and popular honor will be found in common sense. Both Britons and Americans should conclude that metrication is victory, not defeat. Paul Trusten, R.Ph. Public Relations Director U.S. Metric Association, Inc. www.metric.org 3609 Caldera Blvd. Apt. 122 Midland TX 79707-2872 US +1(432)528-7724 [email protected]
