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 ofyou have heard Sarah Palin had mistaken South Africa for a continent ratherthan a country. I do not know if this is true but I wouldn't be the least bitsurprised.  However, the averageAmerican's ignorance of the outside world is downright astonishing. It's not asecret that many N. Americans do not know much about the world and seemsdamn 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 ignorancecan be partially blamed on the fact that the US is so vast that people can easilyspend their entire lives within a single county or State. Some manage to remainclose to home and apparently lack any curiosity to delve into what’s not rightbeneath their noses even if today’s modern technology allows one to explore theworld without leaving one’s own residence (ie that little thing called theinternet). 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 learnin elementary school that Canada is not a ‘state up there’ but rather asovereign 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.'