The Arrogance of Ignorance

As some of you may have noticed, I have been absent from this site for a few months now, so Antigone was constantly winging in coming up with a new story. She claims that I lost my mojo and cannot write anymore. As usual, she's wrong. I do have what it takes to write another story and I don't even need palm notes like Sarah Palin to remember what to write or say. I don't even have to think hard about what to write these days. All I have to do is think of Sarah and her TEA Party supporters.

Surely, some of you have heard Sarah Palin had mistaken South Africa for a continent rather than a country. I do not know if this is true but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised.  However, the average American's ignorance of the outside world is downright astonishing. It's not a secret that many N. Americans do not know much about the world and seems damn proud of it. Check, for instance, this Youtube video. I am sure that this is not representative of the people, especially MY American friends, but the fact remains that there are many Americans who know nothing about the world, as this link also shows.

This ignorance can be partially blamed on the fact that the US is so vast that people can easily spend their entire lives within a single county or State. Some manage to remain close to home and apparently lack any curiosity to delve into what’s not right beneath their noses even if today’s modern technology allows one to explore the world without leaving one’s own residence (ie that little thing called the internet). However, that is why we have things like education and schooling – at least one would think. Americans may not leave the country but they should learn in elementary school that Canada is not a ‘state up there’ but rather a sovereign country (although this is debatable these days, especially with Harper being in charge).

We can blame this overwhelming ignorance on the educational system. It seems that the educational system has being gradually degraded over a period of years. Standards are dropping each year to meet the lower expectations of parents bringing up stupid children. Challenging children's intelligence is considered a politically incorrect thing to do. Smart kids are allowed to be smart although they're usually stuck amongst the not-so-bright bulbs in the same classroom yet we dare not call a child 'slow' or 'stupid' or even gently suggest the child isn't meeting his/her aptitude because we may offend the parents or may make the child feel bad which might actually point out the fact the kid could do better in school if he/she tried and if mom/dad gave a fak. Imagine if the kid's forced to study rather than faking off every day after school and the child learns something and becomes a contributor to a future society by thinking independently, that couldn't be good for society. Instead, let's produce more stupid people generation after generation - sadly this seems to be the 'American way.'  

It seems that the system is engineering American kids to become dumber and dumber with every generation more stupid than the previous and damn proud of it - another profundity in our quest to sort the logic (if there is any) behind the marvel known as American mentality. The education system seems to be 'dumbing down' the American society from the ground (kids), all the way up (adults). We don't challenge brains to stretch and grow; we don't expect much of anything as not to pressure children to learn but instead make excuses or lower standards so they're more easily met by those who are either too dumb or too lazy to reach for the stars. Why is this? Why isn't the 'greatest nation on earth' striving to advance in the brain department but rather kicking back to relax and 'dumbify' while countries like China and India are producing wizards in cutting edged fields of science and others related to a nation's development and ability to remain or edge ahead in a very competitive global environment? Why would America do this and give a country like China the chance to get light years ahead? Could American's powers that be fear a smart population or worse yet, not just book smart kids but those pushed to think for themselves? This is very possible. Keep them dumb to kill off a threat brought about by the greatest weapon of all - aware people. Let's face it: A dumb population is much easier to control because it'll accept what it is told without questioning anything, especially authority which makes it a hell of a lot easier for the existing authority to remain just where it wants to remain: in power or control.  

Of course, the 'stupidification' of American youth is a gradual and slow process. This didn't happen overnight but rather slowly, almost unnoticeably, over time. In the name of political correctness, students are not allowed to fail exams. That'd be too obvious; therefore standards were lowered to meet the average dullard's pathetic aptitude. The only way for everybody to pass exams is by making exams easier for the son of Joe 6-pack and that took degradation of the whole curriculum. For argument's sake, we simply removed the 'hard parts' of the American public school curriculum as not to make it 'too difficult' to succeed (and we use that word while laughing). 

Couple the educational system with the everyday stupid soap operas, the general sub-culture of bigger is better (as explained in the previous section) and the mass-media(controlled by the corporations that bring you the advertising during the mindless television shows) and you have a recipe for disaster or rather a recipe of a totalitarian regime. Keep them stupid; keep them unaware and watch how easy it is to have your way with them and literally no one will be the wiser. Have you observed the lack of action from the general public about what is going on in America? No one is doing anything about it because very few even notice it's faked up. Many years ago the war in Vietnam triggered mass protests and riots.  

Have you seen anything like that? True, they do exist but it is not nearly the response that resulted 30 years ago. Since then, however, people have become more ignorant about the world and are only being interested in the microcosm of their own sub-culture. The few who do know something is VERY wrong are labeled 'weirdos,' 'freaks,' 'intellectuals,' or our favorite: communists - of course by people who can't define communism properly. 

Have you observed an ignorant person speaking lately? It's not like it's that hard to find. If anything, you must have seen Sarah Palin mumbling in the news about something she knew nothing about. Have you observed the direct correlation between ignorance and arrogance - this obvious tie between luck of education and bone-headedness? It seems that the less somebody knows the less willing he is to engage in a conversation with arguments and counter-arguments. Instead they embrace the approach of least logic. This is arrogance at its worse. The more ignorant they are, the more arrogant the sound. Honestly, check Sarah's supporters trying to speak here and here. I betcha that Joe the Plumber has higher IQ than they do.

You know, In his book 'Just how stupid are we?' Rick Shenkman defines 5 characteristics of stupidity: "First is sheer ignorance: ignorance of critical facts about important events in the news, and ignorance of how our government functions and who's in charge. Second is negligence: the disinclination to seek reliable sources of information about important news events. Third is wooden-headedness, as the historian Barbara Tuchman defined it: the inclination to believe what we want to believe, regardless of the facts. Fourth is shortsightedness: the support of public policies that are mutually exclusive, or contrary to the country's long-term interests. Fifth, and finally, is a broad category I call bone-headedness, for want of a better word: the susceptibility to meaningless phrases, stereotypes, irrational biases and simplistic diagnoses and solutions that play on our hopes and fears." Does this sound way too familiar? Did you just have a sense of deja-vous?

Of course, arrogance leads to easy manipulation of the masses. Arrogant people fail to acknowledge other opinions but their own. They don't bother to hear another side of the story because they're convinced they're absolutely correct in their assessment and could not possibly learn anything from another argument. They also fail miserably in the analytical thinking category which again is a result of a piss poor education. True intellectuals question everything and are glad to hear other opinions even those that seem way out in the right field because the thinking person knows they know nothing or very little in the grand scheme of things. Voltaire once said "I do not agree with a word you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." This is probably the most elemental notion of democracy and human rights. Therefore, arrogant people are undemocratic by definition and thus can fail victims of establishments with totalitarian tendencies whose central theme is based on the idea of blind support without questioning.  

In order to control the masses and keep them at bay, it is imperative to keep them ignorant and arrogant about their blind faith to the establishment which imposes their politico-religio-pseudo-ethical way of life and beliefs. Is it a coincidence that so many people fail to see that the whole neo-conservatism Bush regime is based on lies and propaganda? Is it a coincidence that the southern states of the U.S. are bound by this metaphorical 'Bible Belt' that may as well be a blind fold instead? What is sad, though is that 70% of the black people in California voted for Proposition 8. It seems that human rights only apply to one group of people at a time depending on whether we belong to that group or not.

Bottom line, the question is: Why are so many Americans that ignorant about the world? Did it just happen or are we seeing a systematic stupidification and ignorification of the masses by establishments in order to control them and ‘sell' their products and ideas? Is this an outcome of free and unregulated market or was this a carefully orchestrated, albeit time-released, plan that's now just becoming very apparent to those of us still living with our eyes wide open? And if this is the case, is the US gradually turning into an undemocratic  country controlled by mass-media, corporations and religion? Are we seeing a gradual degradation of American ideals, as set by the Constitution, towards a totalitarian or Orwellian 1984-type state whose ideals are consumerism, pseudo-political correctness, pseudo-happiness and general ignorance driven by general greed and hunger for profit and power by a very selected few?