This week in class, we were confronted with the (fake) "death" of our teacher, Mr. Bolos. Our assignment was to write a biography of him based solely on artifacts, interviews, and the internet. When I first heard about the assignment, I was sure it was going to be impossible to find out much beyond the basics, but boy was I wrong! His large imprint left on the world got me thinking. If one person leaves this many artifacts when they die, how many artifacts would the US leave behind (if everyone in the country suddenly disappeared)?
Take a second to think about the top 4 "artifacts" you think America would leave behind. Here's my list...
1) McDonalds- Even though it's sad that this is one of the first things that comes to mind when I think about America, it is definitely something that tells you a lot about how modern day Americans live their lives. From this artifact, future historians would gather that we are fat and eat food that doesn't ever decompose
2) Our major cities- Now, this one sheds a much more positive light on America as a whole. It shows that we are advanced and are smart enough to build skyscrapers as tall as the Empire State Building and Sears Tower.
3) The Statue of Liberty- One of the most iconic things in America, the Statue of Liberty definitely makes sense to the majority of the American population. But, if aliens were to stumble upon Lady Liberty, they would have no clue what to make of the giant green woman.
4) The Internet- This is the artifact that completely changes the game. Since we have internet and records of nearly everything possible, future historians will definitely have a lot easier time learning about us than we did about ancient civilizations.
Ellie - I agree that McDonald's is up there, I'm not sure if it's number one, but it sadly would probably make the top four because fast food is omnipresent in the United States. And the Statue of Liberty is definitely iconic, like you said. But I feel like there are a few things that are just as memorable, so the list might have to expand to be more than the top four. One of the biggest things that would be left behind by America is the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. It's true that the idea of democracy here is based off of things like the Magna Carta, but the United States really put those ideas into action, and we still live by them today. Or how about something like being the first and only country to land on the moon? Or being the first country to create the nuclear bomb? Or the development of the computer's hardware and software industries in Silicon Valley? Just a few ideas.
ReplyDeleteYour comment about the Internet helping historians to be able to learn about us more easily than we can learn about ancient civilizations got me thinking, what is the first page that comes up on Google if you search "America"? Not surprisingly, a Wikipedia page stating facts about how America began, the current population, etc. was the first to come up. After that was a page about the music group "America". While music is a big part of our culture, why does it come up second? And the page after that was "America Magazine", a national Catholic magazine. Why does that come up third when we so adamantly emphasize the separation of church and state? I think that while the Internet has thousands and thousands of good information, America might also be somewhat misrepresented by many websites out there.
ReplyDelete