ISIS and the relative ignorance of our country...

So today's post may be a bit of a rant... I haven't decided yet. ISIS, for those of you who may not know, is the most organized and well funded terrorist organization of our time. They aren't your run of the mill, psuedo-redneck jihadists that we are so used to. These guys have training, education, structured leadership, an organized agenda, proper equipment, and the means to cause more than just a modicum of devestation. The worst part is, western countries are continuing to fund them. They use terrorism at it's root to generate revenue. The main way they have gained money is by taking hostages, specifically of from western countries. Then, they send videos of these hostages to their governments and demands vast sums of money. If the money isn't paid they behead the hostage on video and send this video to the government and media of said country. The United States is one of the few countries that refuses to give in to their demands as we do not negotiate with terrorists. However, most countries do not have the fortitude to do as we do. I get that this is largely biased and opinionated, and I am not a reputable source but this has just been a very brief, barely scratches the surface, overview of only one of the atrocities this group performs on a weekly basis.

Now with that tangent finished, I can get to the main point of this post. The ignorance the American people... It never ceases to amaze me how any time I mention ISIS, or really most international news, the sheer amount of people that have absolutely no idea what I am talking about. Case in point: just this week at work I mentioned the king of jordan donning a military uniform and actually leading the charge on performing air strikes against ISIS tactical targets. One coworker asked me if ISIS was a band. My mother knew they were a terrorist group but had no clue which countries they were active, or even that they were a realistic threat. If you don't believe me, try for yourself. Ask your freiends, family, co workers, or anyone else you speak with throughout the day. I promise you at least half of the people you ask will have either no idea who ISIS is. If they do, you'll be hard pressed to find someone that knows any actual information on their activities, where they are, how they started, etc. This may seem like a dumb point to you and you may be wondering why this crazy guy is writing so much for a stupid mandatory post for an english class. But my point is this: We as a nation are far too self absorbed. If more of us payed attention to the happenings of the world, events like 9/11 may never even have happened. If knowledge is power, and ignorance is lack of knowledge, then what does our shockingly vast national ignorance of the world say about us?

Rant over.