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TechnoratiHow These Gibbering Numbskulls Came to Dominate Washington
The degradation of intelligence and learning in American politics results from a series of interlocking tragedies
How was it allowed to happen? How did politics in the US come to be dominated by people who make a virtue out of ignorance? Was it charity that has permitted mankind's closest living relative to spend two terms as president? How did Sarah Palin, Dan Quayle and other such gibbering numbskulls get to where they are? How could Republican rallies in 2008 be drowned out by screaming ignoramuses insisting that Barack Obama was a Muslim and a terrorist?
Like most people on my side of the Atlantic, I have for many years been mystified by American politics. The US has the world's best universities and attracts the world's finest minds. It dominates discoveries in science and medicine. Its wealth and power depend on the application of knowledge. Yet, uniquely among the developed nations (with the possible exception of Australia), learning is a grave political disadvantage.
There have been exceptions over the past century - Franklin Roosevelt, JF Kennedy and Bill Clinton tempered their intellectualism with the common touch and survived - but Adlai Stevenson, Al Gore and John Kerry were successfully tarred by their opponents as members of a cerebral elite (as if this were not a qualification for the presidency). Perhaps the defining moment in the collapse of intelligent politics was Ronald Reagan's response to Jimmy Carter during the 1980 presidential debate. Carter - stumbling a little, using long words - carefully enumerated the benefits of national health insurance. Reagan smiled and said: "There you go again." His own health programme would have appalled most Americans, had he explained it as carefully as Carter had done, but he had found a formula for avoiding tough political issues and making his opponents look like wonks.
It wasn't always like this. The founding fathers of the republic - Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and others - were among the greatest thinkers of their age. They felt no need to make a secret of it. How did the project they launched degenerate into George W Bush and Sarah Palin?
On one level, this is easy to answer. Ignorant politicians are elected by ignorant people. US education, like the US health system, is notorious for its failures. In the most powerful nation on earth, one adult in five believes the sun revolves round the earth; only 26% accept that evolution takes place by means of natural selection; two-thirds of young adults are unable to find Iraq on a map; two-thirds of US voters cannot name the three branches of government; the maths skills of 15-year-olds in the US are ranked 24th out of the 29 countries of the OECD. But this merely extends the mystery: how did so many US citizens become so stupid, and so suspicious of intelligence? Susan Jacoby's book The Age of American Unreason provides the fullest explanation I have read so far. She shows that the degradation of US politics results from a series of interlocking tragedies.
One theme is both familiar and clear: religion - in particular fundamentalist religion - makes you stupid. The US is the only rich country in which Christian fundamentalism is vast and growing.
Jacoby shows that there was once a certain logic to its anti-rationalism. During the first few decades after the publication of The Origin of Species, for instance, Americans had good reason to reject the theory of natural selection and to treat public intellectuals with suspicion. From the beginning, Darwin's theory was mixed up in the US with the brutal philosophy - now known as social Darwinism - of the British writer Herbert Spencer. Spencer's doctrine, promoted in the popular press with the help of funding from Andrew Carnegie, John D Rockefeller and Thomas Edison, suggested that millionaires stood at the top of a scala natura established by evolution. By preventing unfit people being weeded out, government intervention weakened the nation. Gross economic inequalities were both justifiable and necessary.
Darwinism, in other words, became indistinguishable from the most bestial form of laissez-faire economics. Many Christians responded with revulsion. It is profoundly ironic that the doctrine rejected a century ago by such prominent fundamentalists as William Jennings Bryan is now central to the economic thinking of the Christian right. Modern fundamentalists reject the science of Darwinian evolution and accept the pseudoscience of social Darwinism.
But there were other, more powerful, reasons for the intellectual isolation of the fundamentalists. The US is peculiar in devolving the control of education to local authorities. Teaching in the southern states was dominated by the views of an ignorant aristocracy of planters, and a great educational gulf opened up. "In the south", Jacoby writes, "what can only be described as an intellectual blockade was imposed in order to keep out any ideas that might threaten the social order."
The Southern Baptist Convention, now the biggest denomination in the US, was to slavery and segregation what the Dutch Reformed Church was to apartheid in South Africa. It has done more than any other force to keep the south stupid. In the 1960s it tried to stave off desegregation by establishing a system of private Christian schools and universities. A student can now progress from kindergarten to a higher degree without any exposure to secular teaching. Southern Baptist beliefs pass intact through the public school system as well. A survey by researchers at the University of Texas in 1998 found that one in four of the state's state school biology teachers believed humans and dinosaurs lived on earth at the same time.
This tragedy has been assisted by the American fetishisation of self-education. Though he greatly regretted his lack of formal teaching, Abraham Lincoln's career is repeatedly cited as evidence that good education, provided by the state, is unnecessary: all that is required to succeed is determination and rugged individualism. This might have served people well when genuine self-education movements, like the one built around the Little Blue Books in the first half of the 20th century, were in vogue. In the age of infotainment, it is a recipe for confusion.
Besides fundamentalist religion, perhaps the most potent reason intellectuals struggle in elections is that intellectualism has been equated with subversion. The brief flirtation of some thinkers with communism a long time ago has been used to create an impression in the public mind that all intellectuals are communists. Almost every day men such as Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly rage against the "liberal elites" destroying America.
The spectre of pointy-headed alien subversives was crucial to the election of Reagan and Bush. A genuine intellectual elite - like the neocons (some of them former communists) surrounding Bush - has managed to pitch the political conflict as a battle between ordinary Americans and an over-educated pinko establishment. Any attempt to challenge the ideas of the rightwing elite has been successfully branded as elitism.
Obama has a lot to offer the US, but none of this will stop if he wins. Until the great failures of the US education system are reversed or religious fundamentalism withers, there will be political opportunities for people, like Bush and Palin, who flaunt their ignorance.
163 Comments so far
Show AllAnd 4 out 3 Americans have trouble with fractions.
'(:-o)
The level of political discourse and the intellectual capacity of the leaders in any polity, including our own, is of course of critical importance. But the comments made in this article (and, if the article does it justice, in the Susan Jacoby book to which the article refers), strike me as profoundly superficial and therefore of no value to understanding the facts, let alone doing something about them.
The ball is in your court.
Joe
Washington has been dominated by numbskulls at least since the 1970s when I worked briefly in Congress. I think it might be related to the Peter Principle but on a national socio-political basic. Another theory is that since drug use in the highest in DC than anywhere else (Drug use rises with income) then perhaps they're all addled.
Charlie Jackson
Texans for Peace
http://www.texansforpeace.org
Give them back their smoking cigarette rights and everyone will be calmer and maybe get off drugs...
Not so fast George. While I agree with the facts you've presented, I believe you need to take the next intellectual step. Did Americans just choose to be stupid or were we subjected to one of the greatest psychological experiments on this earth. As far as bad habits, it seems the United States has followed closely in the footsteps of your great country, a foolhardy imperialism that I don't think you've quite shaken. Should the world ever forgive this folly? Nor can our emulation and association with the Bank of England be termed beneficial to humankind, can it George? Fools are being spread pretty equally and prolifically around the globe. If you don't believe in conspiracies, maybe it's you who hasn't been properly educated. I see mostly nonsense in the BBC, and you guys seem quite eager to lap up what your foolhardy leaders spew out, as well. I never thought I'd be defending average American intelligence. But, George, you're English, for Christ's sake. Quit splitting hairs.
Mr. Monbiot:
When right wingers sneer at "Elites" they don't mean "smart people." The mean "water boys for the ruling class." Please note the difference.
Children who are homeschooled do BETTER on standardized tests than children who are taught in public schools, and they also do just fine socially. It is also a mistake to associate homeschooling with right wing politics and religious fundamentalism. Many homeschooling parents hail from the left: ALL of the home schooled kids I know have hippie parents. Whatever their political or religious bent they tend to be high-energy, intelligent and dedicated. They do not follow "the herd."
The U.S. school system takes bright, high energy children and turns them into compliant sheep. Ever since the (federal) Department of Education was established (was it the 1970's?) the critical thinking skills of the average American have deteriorated. Gee, perhaps the problem is really the U.S. school system(s)? Perhaps the answer is more home schooling!
It is also a mistake to associate right wing politics with ignorance. The NeoCons are not "real" conservatives in any case. They are NEO-BOLSHEVIKS under cover, the intellectual spawn of Trotsky (look at its founders!). Dr. Ron Paul is a real right winger, brilliant, sensible and therefore blackballed and maligned by the corporate controlled media. God forbid Americans find out that their "Federal Reserve" bank is neither Federal nor Reserve, and that Central Banking is one of the two main planks of the Communist Manifesto.
I hear the whining from Republicans: Obama leading us to socialism? News flash! The U.S.A. has been a socialist country since 1913. BOTH parties in US politics have been taken over by lovers of central planning and control, and now we are bent over against our will, wincing, waiting to have EU "Communitarianism" shoved up our collective backsides. Like the stupid sheep we've been trained to be, Americans are running from one form of global imperialism (right wing corporatism) to another form of global imperialism (left wing Fabian socialism). Scratch the surface and they're not all that different: A small technocratic elite controlling the masses with propaganda. Oh, goodie. Don't mind me; I think I'll take a pass.
Yeah I agree, fundamentalist world religions are the problem, that's why the communists eliminated them in the old eastern bloc. Their new proxie, the liberals are doing a pretty good job in the west now. I expect the EU to nullify fundamentalism soon, good riddance. But the real problem is that those "stupid" (authors terminology) muslims just cling to their religion (and guns). I have to disagree about the dumbing down of the US though, its a planned operation from the top down using the American public school system . And Mixing 20 million third worlders who can't understand English doesn't help the stats either.
I don't agree that fundamentalist religion makes you stupid. I think you have to be stupid to embrace fundamentalist religion. It's like television. It doesn't empty your brain, but it is a place where people with empty brains can go and not have to think for themselves. Perhaps if it were outlawed people would go back to school or read a book, but I doubt it. More likely they would drink beer or get into fist fights or just sit there and drool. When minds are given over exclusively, at an early age, to sports and soldiery and booze and buggery, there is no hope for them or for their children. We live in a culture which does not value education. It is hard to know what to do. You can't inject education into a culture which rejects it, yet education is the only way to repair a culture of dumbness.
Back in 1963, scarcely 20 years after we bombed Dresden into rubble, I met a German student at a Chinese language summer session in Ann Arbor. Enno. She liked Americans okay, but she couldn't get over how stupid we were. I remember her pronouncement, delivered with a contemptuous leer almost by way of greeting: You schtoopid Americans. This has been the candid view of Europeans like Monbiot for over 50 years in my experience, but rather than shaming us into teaching our children to use their brains it has created an entrenched anti-intellectual hostility which has now reached critical mass and is reflected in the choices of our electorate. Defiant ignorance. Dumb as hell and proud of it.
This is unfortunate, but too often true. I play poker frequently with a group of acquaintances of various ages, and I'm amazed at the words I use that some people don't understand - words that were common in my home while I was growing up. I used to think that intellectual curiosity and love of language were universal until I got away from my family.
Of course, there are other wonderful things about so many Americans that I truly love, like generosity, kindness, and a willingness to get up in the middle of the night for a friend. But, somehow, our culture seems to squelch intellectual curiosity and love of learning for its own sake.
During the last election, I read a personal account of someone who was in France. This person apparently commented that most Americans don't understand Kerry's economic policies, and a 12 year old French boy overheard it. His reaction was to say, "Kerry's policies are much like Clintons, no?" Find a 12 year old American who would respond that way, and you've got a kid who is probably "gifted." And highly unusual.
The sneering at "elitist" intelligence is ugly and unproductive for America. But as a country, we are quite young. Perhaps this is simply a form of national adolescence that we will outgrow. In the meantime people with emotional or intellectual vacuums will probably continue to turn to fundamentalist religion to fill the void.
Except that it somehow seems my parents generation is more interested in being articulate and literate than my own. I was recently on a date where a guy told me he was put off because of the big words I used, this was in response to me saying I was "ambivalent" about something.
Sounds like you are not ambivalent about him.
Joe
Have you ever watched the "Tonight Show" with Jay Leno asking simple questions of average, normal-looking people out on the street? They can't answer and give the dumbest answers --- and everyone thinks it's funny and cute. At first I thought it was all staged, but it's for real. Pathetic.
Mr. Monbiot is right that we have an uninformed citizenry, on the whole. Some are informed, too many are not. His commentary about Fundamentalism has some truth in it as does his commentary about our education system. This is widely accepted. But his prescriptions are pretty fundamentalist themselves, tending to the simplistic and to a certitude which is both wrong and irritating. Looking for ills, like anti-intellectualism, which does exist, and an often irrational and uninformed citizenry, his prescription of a more nationalized educational system is simplistic, probably wrong and rife with unintended consequences.
There is a need to take off the gloves with fundamentalists who see our war in Iraq and the treatment of Palestinians as justified by the Bible, and there is a need to make our education system better.
But both the diagnosis and the prescription need to go further to address our political system and how it produces "numbskulls" (all politicians are not, of course) and policies which are not only not productive but anti-social and to acknowledge there is a very active educational system going on now outside the walls of schoolrooms which misinforms and manipulates ordinary, busy working folks. It occurs not only out of a need to turn citizens into mindless, pleasure seeking consumers, but to mislead them to support policies and actions which are reflected in our militarism, triumphalism, exceptionalism and acceptance of a dog eat dog economic system.
In that, our children, and even evangelical christians are its victims.
The biggest problem is APATHY. For example, ask 3 Americans to find Iraq on a map, what the 3 branches of gov't are, and how to spell Afghanistan. After all three fail at one or more of these questions and you give them the answers, they're likely to say, "Who cares?" and MEAN it. There's a dearth of intellectual curiosity in America, and THAT is the real problem. Let's hope Obama can not only help improve formal education in America, but to challenge Americans to use their heads!
LeeAnnG
I believe you are right. It's like the old question asked of college students, "Is the problem on campus ignorance or apathy?" to which students answered, "I don't know and I don't care."
Fortunately, current events seem to have sparked a bit of caring in the general populace. People are standing in line to vote early, voter registration is at a modern high, and I hear folks discussing politics and the economy in grocery store lines and waiting rooms. When the economic stability of the middle and working classes becomes endangered, people sit up and take notice. One can only hope this trend continues - not the economic instability, of course, but the increased interest in the affairs of the world.
I read your post above about your Republican father being against the Vietnam War, which was promoted by a Democratic president, and his support for the Iraq invasion, which was started by a Republican. I feel fortunate in having come from a very liberal, leftwing family. My own father was a free thinker who mostly supported Democrats and, to my knowledge, never voted for a Republican. However, he was against the Vietnam War and was opposed to the Iraq fiasco until he died in 2004.
I very much admire your ability to see the issues for yourself. I am my father's child, and I don't know if I'd have the insights to overcome his influence had he been a conservative or rightwinger.
"It appears to general observation, that revolutions create genius and talents; but those events do no more than bring them forward. There is existing in man, a mass of sense lying in a dormant state, and which, unless something excites it to action, will descend with him, in that condition, to the grave. As it is to the advantage of society that the whole of its faculties should be employed, the construction of government ought to be such as to bring forward, by a quiet and regular operation, all that extent of capacity which never fails to appear in revolutions."
Tom Paine has no statue in Washington DC.
He was far too radical for the rich who took over the USA after the Revolution.
Read what he wrote. http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/D/1776-1800/paine/ROM/rofm04.htm
Yep, we are so backwards that we are about to elect a black president in a landslide. Exactly how many black leaders have there been in EU countries? Why not just admit how jealous you are? Come next Wednesday, we're once again going to be the greatest (i.e. most progressive) country in the world. I'm gonna go out and buy the hugest American flag I can find!
Tim,
The first convoy of African slaves arrived on these shores in the early 1600s (frighteningly soon after the first English settlers) and Africans came by the shipload thereafter. Black people have been here for almost 4 centuries. Discounting the few black people who (mostly jumping ship) settled over the centuries in Europe and were easily assimilated because of the smallness of their numbers (and the fact that they were all working men and easily maried local women), black people only began to move to Europe in large numbers in the 1950s and they still are much smaller minorities than they are in the USA. As it is, the countries that have sizable black populations, though still smuch smaller than in the US, have far higher representation in their national legislatures and in other public offices than we have.
If you think that electing a half black president is a sign of progress, you're suffering from delusion. Obama is an opportunist who voted to fund the war, voted for the bailout and the FISA bill, he's ready to bomb Pakistan and escalate Afghanistan. He's an Uncle Tom who'll bend backwards for his white masters at every chance if elected. Don't be fooled by his pretty rhetoric.
And tell us why Europe would be jealous of decaying America. Why would the land that produced Beethoven, Mozart and Da Vinci be jealous of the people who came up with The Brady Bunch and Paris Hilton?
Why would Europe be jealous of the country that houses the majority of the world's domestic serial killers, the world's greatest polluter, the greatest consumer of illegal drugs, the greatest exporter of arms, the greatest sponsor and financier of terror and guerrilla, the most brutal imperial force in history, not to mention the fattest, the least educated and the most sexually repressed (and repressing) population in the developed world?
Answer: because here it's possible to be born in Hawaii to a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, be educated in Indonesia, have the middle name "Hussein," and still be elected to the highest office in the land. It's not possible for a similar thing to happen in any European country. So you're upset that a country you look down on is more progessive than you are.
The fact that something hasn't happened yet doesn't mean that it couldn't have happened.
Try to be logical.
How irrelevant to be born in Hawaii to a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, educated in Indonesia and having the middle name "Hussein" if you're running as a light replica of George W. Bush.
As if Obama got this far because he was born in Hawaii to a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, educated in Indonesia and with a middle name "Hussein" LOLOL! He got this far because he's a pro-corporate, pro-war and anti-labor opportunist who's to the right of Richard Nixon and has received millions in contributions from Wall Street.
That concatenation of circumstances is very unlikely to happen anywhere more than once in a blue moon!
You seem to have internalized white privilege.
As an American, I resemble that remark!
The U.S. has many more black (actually Obama is a mixed race person) people than the EU has, so there's no need to crow so loudly and say the EU people are "jealous." The Europeans want Obama to win.
*********************************************************************
Knowledge and good schools and teachers aren't #1 in the U.S. Sports, getting drunk, keeping track of celebrities, American Idol, and having a good time are. I find it incredible that people were saying Obama was not born in the U.S. and therefore he is "not qualified" to run for president, that he's a "Muslim," "Arab," etc. He was born in Hawaii, one of the states, but people don't know that? LOL
If how religious a candidate is sooo important, let's elect the Dalai Lama. He's very high up there spiritually which is proven by his actions and not just what he says. Unfortunately for us, monks don't get much involved with politics, but isn't that the way it's supposed to be? Religion and politics are supposed to be kept separate. Pretending to be religious in order to get votes is pretty dishonest.
I believe Obama was born in Kenya, and then brought back to Hawaii as a newborn
A nation that is 'bankrupt' all around. The land of opportunity...for the literate and the illetirate.
Who are the illetirate?
Here a just a few examples of the ignorance of school administators:
The head of the English department in one school took down the schedule of BBC Shakespeare plays from the bulletin board in the English office because he didn't think anyone would be interested. He also did not know that Nick Adams was a Hemingway character and thought Antigone (which he pronounced Antigoan) was written by Shakespeare. (This was not in West Virginia!)
One principal "corrected" my sentence, "This misbehavior results in the student's having to stay after school." He circled the apostrophe in "student's" because he didn't know that gerunds get a possessive.
Another principal circled the periods inside all of the quotes in a handbook I'd edited and put a little arrow to show the period outside the quotes. (In England, the period does go outside, but not in America.)
Yet another principal wanted me to put the following sentence in his handbook, "If a student needs to go home, they must report to the office and wait for their parent." When I told him that was grammatically incorrect, his answer was that English was never his strong subject. Wow! I never would have guessed.
An elementary school principal came into my office and complimented me on my always having a book to read at lunchtime because, as he told me, he never reads. How can a person encourage children to read if he never reads?
If I had a dollar for every time I heard an "educator" use the pronoun "I" as the object in a sentence just because it followed the word "and," I'd be wealthy. (For example, they say, "Come in the office and talk to Mary and I.")
We have a TV station to announce school activities for which I do the layouts. I get requests for Bingo games, for fall Cheerleading Practice, to support our Team, and to invite parents to Spaghetti Dinners. (These are not headlines, just phrases with the wrong capitalization.)
Yes, religion does play a part in dumbing down the population, but until we get actual scholars to administrate our schools, we will continue to get citizens who are illiterate and unable to speak or write the language.
"If a student needs to go home, they must report to the office and wait for their parent."
Grammar was formulated when "he" ostensibly stood for everyone. Now so much research has shown that in children's minds, "he" is actually pictured as a boy, "man" is visualized as a male, not as a generic adult. Therefore you should say "he or she" or the "rights of humans" rather than "the rights of man" so girls are included.
The sentence could be corrected to say: If a student needs to go home, he or she must report to the office and wait for his or her parent." That is ungainly, especially when repeated through a long document.
One could also say "If students need to go home, they must report to the office and wait for their parents." Not quite correct either.
We need a gender neutral word to replace "he" just as "people" or "humans" can replace "man".
Joe
You are nitpicking. What you are stating is correct, but really, is it THAT important? How about a little bit more natural curiosity for world/current events? How about a being little more informed about the political system in America? How about standing up for what is right, and condemning that which is wrong? How about helping the downtrodden rather than the wealthy? THESE are the things that are important! (Feel free to correct my grammar).
I can see why you said that. Grammatical nittery seems petty. However I do not think the gender assumptions that underlie our grammar are trivial. Women have been and are still often delegated to an invisible state in world affairs. But I agree, the grammar issue off topic here.
I don't think you have enough information to make a correct judgement about my natural curiosity, information seeking habits, political stances or allegiances. You might be surprised to know that I agree with you about what is important.
Joe
LeeAnnG
I agree that it's nitpicking to a certain degree. However, when so-called educators cannot use or write their native language, it's a strong indicator that there is something very wrong. And when this becomes endemic, it's even more so. When school principals freely admit that they never read books, when they mangle their grammar, spelling, and punctuation far more often than they get it right, when words cease to mean anything specific, it's just the tip of the iceberg.
School administrators often have very little interest in what's going on in the world; they are ignorant of history, geography, and current events. And what's really bizarre is that so many of the same people - not necessarily educators - who can barely speak coherently believe that English should be our "official" language, as if using adverbs where adjectives are needed along with sentences like, "Grandma was wanting to go to the store" is superior to other languages.
I do understand that the pronoun "he" used to indicate any human, and now we are at a loss for one that means "he or she" without using the dreaded he/she or (even worse) s/he. "They" or "their" may, finally, be the alternative that sticks. Incidentally, I changed the sentence in the handbook (discussed in the response to my post) to "A student who needs to leave must report to the office and wait for a parent or guardian." But this is just a temporary patch for whatever is needed.
Shakespeare made up words that are now a vibrant part of English, so I am also quite aware that languages must change and grow or eventually become obsolete. For example, the word "dilapidated" originally meant a stone structure that was falling apart. It's still a great word, but it has departed from its origins.
Of course, schools need to support natural curiosity about all subjects and nurture creative thinking. But it is not necessary to choose between teaching correct English and current events, history, geography, critical thinking and the basics of our political system. It can all be done together, but not as long as those who decide what our children are supposed to learn are ignorant and lack the requisite curiosity themselves.
I agree with everything you said here.
I've been working for a school system for 22 years, and I was also married to a teacher for 25 years, so I have a pretty close association with American public schools. My ex taught in two different school districts in PA and one in WV, one son attended PA schools and the other WV schools. (Interestingly, the education in the WV schools was better overall from my experience.)
In general, I've found that one big problem with education is the lack of intellect among school administrators. I agree with Stone concerning the emphasis on athletics and the idea that the majority of administrators are jocks. Several years ago, a group of new administrators came into one of the local high schools, and all they were overheard to talk about was how the football team would do.
I do editing for all the county's handbooks, and it's just amazing how dreadful the writing of administators is from principals up to the superintendent. They can't spell, they misuse punctuation, they use the passive tense or future tense when the present tense is correct, and they have no idea which nouns are proper and which are not. For example, the majority of them think "high school" is a proper noun.
It's not surprising that so many posters think "it's" is a possessive, that "Clinton's" is a plural, that people feel "badly" (one wouldn't say "I feel terribly" or "I feel happily"), and that "alot" is a word.
The intelligence and skill that goes into good teaching are not well understood or respected by those who control the purse strings. This is partly because they don't care enough to find it. They think public education is for losers; the worthy elect can afford private school.
Teaching is historically a girly profession, thus it must be easy to do and it does not require high pay. If teaching were valued as it should be, teachers would get the pay of engineers or doctors. Teaching colleges would be high status institutions.
Joe
I forget the quote but it is something like - great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss each other.
I think it was Lincoln who said, If the facts are on your side, argue facts, if the law is on your side, argue law, if neither facts or law is on your side attack your opponent.
These two statements really explain the crux of American politics.
I always look for the politicians that discuss neither facts nor ideas and vote to keep them out of office. In this presidential election that means I cast my vote to keep McCain (old white haired dude) and Palin (high maintenance trailer trash) out of office.
I am also convinced that McCain will not survive 4 years in adequate health to be an effective President. Palin's apparent qualification is that old Republican perverts can reduce their viagra dose when they think about her.
The columnist makes some good points, but misses two. In fact, as Richard Hofstadter has documented, anti-intellectualism is in the blood of American politics from the start. The myth of the rugged frontiersman fearlessly conquering wilderness and savages precedes Lincoln, and populist disparagement of intelletual elites became most visible in Andrew Jackson's White House.
Also, one cannot seperate American Christian fundamentalism from the phenomenon of radical Islamic fundamentalism. They both erupted in the 19070's after building momentum in the turmoil of the 1960's. Perhaps Europe escaped a lot of that because they escaped the social and political turmoil of that era; but one only need look at Russia and China to see the same phenomena repeating now.
Other than that, I thank the columnist for a cogent and thoughtful look at an aspect of our political life too often ignored.
Patriots defend the constitution!
Foxwizard is right--and I'm horrified at how many people don't know this--about America's history of anti-intellectualism. However, anti-intellectualism has never in my lifetime (I'm 64) been a feature of European life. Intellect has always been valued there--just check out the people they elect--and it has nothing to do with the assumed placidity of Europe in the 60s. Don't forget the Brigate Rossa, Baader-Meinhof and the I.R.A. in Northern Ireland & England, but none of these very violent movements was anti-intellectual and, more tellingly, neither were the people who took them down.
Neither is Islam opposed to science; the two co-existed long before that co-existence was accepted in Christianity. The kind of suicidal fanaticism we find among some Muslims today is quite specifically a response, not to the wonders of advanced science and technology, but to the dispossession of Arabs of those wonders, effectively, first by the Turks and then by aggressive colonization of the Middle East (Israel)and the propping up of corrupt and cruel dictators in the oil states there (take your pick).
The American Know-Nothings of today are as they were a century and a half ago: lost souls who are stuck with a very hierarchical (class-ridden) society but having been fed the pretence of equality. They hate but they don't know why; all they know is who--and that is anyone who can be pointed to (by those who control them) as--in the latest word--"elites." It used to be "egg-heads," before that "snobs." And, yes, they are uneducated and stupid, but their religion conspires with their society to keep them so. How stupid can you be to take the word of some TV preacher in a $10,000 suit that some guy on public employee's salary is an elitist because he doesn't believe that Christ had a pet baby dinasaur?
But it all comes down to Divide and Rule. Caesar knew it; Marx knew it. It's just that Americans continue to take comfort in Olde Tyme religion when Europe has moved on, and that, too, has a lot to do with American history.
Bring America Back !!!!
**Must take issue with Monbiot's theories.......there's an old saying:
==='a little education is a very dangerous thing===so we combine that one
with: 'absolute power corrupts absolutely'===ah, there is the receipe
for the gibbering idiots who have long learned how to subvert and
destroy the Democracy fashioned by our forefathers.
***For example, the Republicans did actually learn from Watergate. They
learned how to do it better, and how not to get caught !! Whereas Nixon
gave over the White House tapes, Bush and Cheney just refuse to testify
and destroy emails and evidence because they are the King and his Prince.
***Mainstream Media become cheerleaders and educators to sound wardrums
to send the Nation on an invasion into a defenseless soverign Iraq! The
so-called Government and Media pound the public senses with the idiocy
that a cave-dwelling boogieman named bin Laden, and 19 flight school
dropouts concocted and pulled off the most technically proficient attacks
on Sept 11, 2001. They never educate the public about the real TRUTH of
what happened that day.
*The next very likely Presidential title holder has already pledged to lead
a Crusade into the caves and mounts of Tora Bora, to seek out and behead
that boogieman bin laden. He is under the impression that King George the
current dragon-slayer looked in all the wrong places. Somebody better
educate Barak Obama that there never were any dragons, just fairy tales !!
Obama has already purchased the Brooklyn Bridge, even before the Inaugural
Ball is over !!!!
***Another old saying is that you cannot legislate Morality==therefore it
does not become a tool of the US educational system. Because our educational
system is functioning well, but is producing exactly WRONG results.
****Monbiot would do a lot better to concentrate on our US Legal System,
which is precisely what has failed===war criminals are still in control
of our White House, and their Neocon Enablers are escaping without being
convicted or punished or impeached !!!!! But, they have managed to collect
most of the blithering idiots into one big bag called the Department of
Homeland Security !!!!!
The powers that be used 911 to create Homeland Security to enable spying on the populace and to create more cops to better keep the rest of us under their heels, whereas they SHOULD have made what we already had (FBI, CIA, ATF, INS, etc) work more efficiently.
I wish that a list of organizations working to correct the topic at hand would be presented at the end of an article such as this which is poignant, insightful and profoundly important. That way we wouldn't be left hanging on a "it's hopeless" line like, "Until the great failures of the US education system are reversed or religious fundamentalism withers, there will be political opportunities for people, like Bush and Palin, who flaunt their ignorance." While this statement is true, it's also grim. It would be nice to be given a suggestion of what to do, who to send a check to, who to get information from, and some indication that the problem is being actively addressed by capable people.
Prime blame lies on those who voted for Bush,hence helping the Supreme Court plant him in office. His first act was to reverse our aid to family planning to appease a radical religeous right. His team has fabricated science to wage unprecedented war on the environment. He neglected the warning signs for 9/11, and then executed character assassinations against those who opposed his policies--remember Senator Cleland, a triple amputtee Viet Vet who was labeled unpatriotic and unseated because he sponsored an investigation into the causes of 9/11 which Bush opposed. His deception to drag us into a ill conceived and unnecesary war, which now has stirred up a powder keg in the Mideast may rank as our worst foreign policy blunder in history. The list goes on.
AFTER THESE UNPRECEDENTED ABUSES, HE THEN WON A SECOND TERM--THIS DEFIES LOGIC(even thopugh that election was also stolen). The age old expression "we get the government we deserve" applies here, and includes even those who voted against Bush for standing by and tolerated such unprecedented abuses to our government
But what do you think is the underlying reason WHY so many people voted for him? Yes, Bush has been super bad for our country, that's common knowledge. But what has happened to our culture that would allow such a person to serve as president (even if not elected by popular vote)? Could it be that our education system is been deliberately dumbed down so people would be easily brainwashed? Is it because religious fundamentalism is rampant? I think the author of this article does a great job of beginning to root out the underlying issues. However, he didn't put enough emphasis on HOW education has gotten so bad in our country. Carnegie, Rockefeller and Ford got together and spent more $$$ on the education system in this country than the US Government did. They wrote a mission statement about how they wanted to dumb down education in order to create a mindless droning workforce with no individuality that would do what they're told. Now, a century later, the Republicans and fundamentalist Christians are reaping the harvest.
Back in the fifties and sixties I was the average American teenage dumbnick. Then I was sent to Prairie Bible Institute, a fundamentalist school for missionaries in Alberta Canada. They also had a high school, and I was enrolled there for my junior year. I developed excellent study habits while there and was turned on to learning by a staff of excellent teachers. The fundamentalism made me start questioning things, and when I returned to the United States for my senior year I made straight "A"s and started reading 'serious' literature. I've been an avid reader and knowledge seeker ever since. I owe it all to that one year in the Canadian Provencal school system. What a difference from it's American counterpart.
LeeAnnG
Except that "it's" is not a possessive.
Easy mistake to make. When you write (or type) "it's", doesn't it almost always need the '? You are correct, but pretty minor point there...
LeeAnnG
It is a minor point, but it's a mistake that many, many, many people make. No, "it's" does not almost always need an apostrophe. It only needs it when it's a contraction.
Obviously US schools don't do a very good job of teaching writing. Otherwise a lot of people wouldn't think "alot" is a word, would know that "come visit John and I" is incorrect - even if the word "and" is located in the sentence, would understand that plurals don't get an apostrophe, that people don't feel "badly," (the same as they don't feel "happily" or "miserably") and would know the difference between "secession" and "succession." Many more people might know the difference between the subject of a sentence, when "I," "he," or "she" is used and the object of a sentence when "me," "him," or "her" is used. For example, my boss, who used to be a school principal, would not start sentences with the phrase, "The trouble between she and the secretary..."
In addition, if schools were doing their job, people like Goldwater's granddaughter wouldn't write sentences that start with, "Myself, and some of my cousins..." as if "I" isn't a word you use in the beginning of a sentence. "Myself" used to have a real meaning - it indicated that one was doing something alone or was actually alone, as in "I will do it myself" or "I was sitting by myself." Now people use "I" as the object of the sentence when "and" is present and "myself" as the subject when "and" is present. How did that happen?
I come from a family who loves the use of language, so I suppose I am more of a grammar cop than is usually appreciated. But I often do wish correct grammar and writing were more in vogue. I'd love it if people started saying, "the team played well" instead of "the team played good." But this will not happen as long as the attitude toward grammar is "but if you understand what I meant, it's good enough."
I agree with most (if not all) of what you're saying, but the best thing you can do is to set the example and hope that it "catches".
For instance, I have a friend who is a very good conversationalist. How is that, you might ask? Well, he asks questions about what YOU like instead of only talking about what HE likes, but more importantly (I believe) are the little things he does (or doesn't do) like interrupt, or, if you interrupt him he ALLOWS it, and goes with the conversation and does NOT go right back to where he was when you interrupted him. He does not swear, and he's got a wicked sense of humor. He has set the example for me and I try to emulate him but it takes work, and you have to CARE about improving, and that's the crux of it, giving a da*n about improving, or at least in this case improving one's conversational skills, including of course improvement in the grammar department!
LeeAnnG
Great points. There certainly is much more to communication than good grammar. Your friend sounds wonderful.
Sorry for the "it's". I should be more careful. I'd like to blame it on age, but I've always been a bit careless. I said I was turned on to learning but my spelling and grammar have always been a bit off. I wish computers had a grammar correct as well as a spelling correct.
"...particular fundamentalist religion - makes you stupid."
Oookayyy, explain Cornell West? MLK? I could go on and on.
Religious extremism maybe. Religion itself? No. I don't know of any positive social change that came out of atheism and attacking religion and religious people wholesale.
I would think it would have to do with our substandard schools that help ensure that the next generations of movers and shakers only come from affluent backgrounds.
I doubt inner city or rural kids are having trouble learning because most of them believe in God. I believe it would have more to do with how they're being taught, how "gifted" kids are segregated within the schools and given more time and resources, how the rest are being taught merely to be good consumers, the lack of truth-telling, particularly when it comes to teaching history, and simply the poor quality of life that most American workers endure.
It's hard to grasp algebra when you're hungry or worrying about getting shot.
As far as calling the elites "Gibbering Numbskulls" man is he too kind, dangerously so.
Does anyone really think that the past 8 or 80 years or hell multiply by 5, have been the result of poor decision-making? If the elites are stupid, they are stupid like foxes. If they truly do worship a God, it's Mammon.
No, they're smart people, devilishly so. You can have a brain like a supercomputer. Without a conscience, you're a ticking time bomb.
Give me an ethical person of average intelligence over a unethical person with a geniius IQ anyday.
"Most Americans are really self-absorbed. They have little interest in something unless it affects their life directly in a very visible way."
Well, maybe it's because they don't feel that they can afford to worry about anything else other than how to keep afloat.
"When I arrived in Eastern Europe, I was bombarded with questions from people who were genuinely curious about the US. When I came back to the US, it was a stark contrast. Almost nobody had any interest in Eastern Europe at all. It was really sad."
Of course it's that way. The US has more power and influence than any nation in Eastern Europe. What the US does or doesn't do has more of an effect on them. We're a superpower, the richest nation on Earth. Not that I'm defending Empire, but it's hard for someone in Poland to ignore what is going on with the US. On the other hand, when does Poland come up in the American newsmedia.
Kane Jeeves-where have Hartman and Press ever insinuated that those who aren't Christians are hellbound?
Religion and Progress can co-exist. They don't have to be enemies. Faith and reason can live in their separate realms.
Maybe the reason why articles such as these rankle me so is because I am a blue-collar working person and have never been wealthy. There's something so smug about thinking that the majority of people are dumb and immoral and that you're better than them because you supposedly are not.
If anything I consider myself a progressive because I am a populist not because I think that I am smarter than most people. Articles such as these absolutely play into the hands of those who push the notion that most liberals, progressives, whatever you wanna call us, ARE in fact elitists. Meanwhile, there's nothing at all elitist about peace, justice, and ecology. Damnit, the polls bear out the fact that most Americans generally side with the left when you break it down.
To expand upon dfairley's post, I read in Zinn's People's History that the majority of the people for the Vietnam war were upper-middle class college grads, whereas poor people w/o degrees mostly were against the war, which shatters the notion that workers and poor people are a bunch of Archie Bunkers.
Eh, what the fuck do I know?
"I read in Zinn's People's History that the majority of the people for the Vietnam war were upper-middle class college grads, whereas poor people w/o degrees mostly were against the war, which shatters the notion that workers and poor people are a bunch of Archie Bunkers."
The poor had a lot more to lose; they and their children, fathers and relatives were the ones being sent over to fight and suffer and die while the upper classes were reaping all the benefits of a "healthy" economy (created by the war). Also, don't forget politics and relativity. My father was a WWII veteran of the south Pacific, was a diehard republican, and HATED the Vietnam war and HATED LJB. To top it off, my older brother was of perfect draft age and had a low draft number, so by politics and relativity my father was dead-set againt "that stupid war." By contrast, once the Iraq war exploded he was all for it. A republican president started it and by 2003 his sons were in their early 50's, so hey, all's good! GO, SHOCK AND AWE!!!
Religious fundamentalism and extremism are one and the same. It’s just semantics.
Beyond that, most organized religions actually do tend to discourage independent thought. Those who believe in their particular god without letting the dogma of the church control their minds are more likely to see the possibility of god and science living in peaceful coexistence.
There is no way to Peace. Peace is the Way.
"Give me an ethical person of average intelligence over a unethical person with a geniius IQ anyday". Agreed. (Ethical person still needs information.)
"the majority of the people for the Vietnam war were upper-middle class college grads, whereas poor people w/o degrees mostly were against the war, which shatters the notion that workers and poor people are a bunch of Archie Bunkers" As a person who went from one of these worlds to the other, and continues to straddle both, I find this statement to be largely true. Although generally more religious, poorer people have more generosity and fewer illusions about how power works in the world.
Joe
...a thoughtful comment. I don't know what all the snarling above was about.
I will give it to you straight.
Stick to what you know as a 'blue collar' worker. Be happy with what you have.
Stay out of things you know nothing about, i.e. 'Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one.'
What are you talking about?
I will give it to you straight.
Stick to what you know as a 'blue collar' worker. Be happy with what you have.
Stay out of things you know nothing about, i.e. 'Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one.'
You forgot something; make sure you keep your head buried in the sand!
The main thing about this article is that Fundamentalist Christians are at fault in the dumbing down of America. No mention was made of people who are religious, just fundamentally so. In America, a fundamentalist is simply a nice way of saying they are extremists.
I am a life-long far-left LIBERAL and this article speaks both to me and about me. I am not elitist in any sense of the word except that I am a member of the most elite fighting force the world has ever known.
And your observation of Zinn's work as somehow indicating workers and poor people are what? "Archie Bunkers" is just simply nonsense. Of course the majority of Americans with college degrees were in favor of the war in Vietnam. At first. After it bacame the endless quagmire, they began to oppose it. After we came home and told our WWII college educated parents what the Vietnam war was really like, they began to oppose it. During the Vietnam war most of the fighting was done by workers and poor people because they had no chance to avoid service as did many upper class kids whose families could afford to keep them in college until the war passed their age cohort.
Religion and Progress CAN coexist, yes. Fundamentalist Religion and Progress cannot. Simple. Faith and Reason CAN live in their separate realms. Faith and Reason CANNOT live in their separate realms with the extremism of Fundamental Christians around. They simply will not allow it. Take a look at the ongoing battles against Progress in Kansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and rural Pennsylvania. These battles are not being fought between rational Christians and Progressive thinkers. They are being waged between extremist Fundamentalist Christians and the REST of the world. And the rest of the world be damned as far as they are concerned.
What the fuck do you know? Very little by your post.
Please reread Rockyhills comment about Zinn and "Archie Bunkers". I believe he was talking about "dispelling the notion" of workers and the poor all being a bunch of Archie Bunkers.
Having lived overseas, I believe Americans are stupid not because of our education system or religion, but rather our culture.
Here is what I see as the most harmful elements of American culture.
1. Most Americans are really self-absorbed. They have little interest in something unless it affects their life directly in a very visible way. When I arrived in Eastern Europe, I was bombarded with questions from people who were genuinely curious about the US. When I came back to the US, it was a stark contrast. Almost nobody had any interest in Eastern Europe at all. It was really sad.
2. Intellectualism has been severed from the American collective image of masculinity. It's not manly to be a scientist, philosopher or writer. It's manly to be a football player and to be in the Marines. If the jock is getting all the hot girls, natural selection says we are going to end up in a culture where everybody wants to be the jock. We're there. Go to any American middle or high school and watch a pep assembly. Our country cares passionately about sports. Academics? Research? Art? Not so much. I know that people are nuts about sports in many countries, but only here in the US is a football player regarded as more of a man than a scientist.
3. Entertainment and escapism prevent people from reflecting on reality and improving their lives. Americans spend way too much time entertaining themselves, and precious little time "enriching" themselves. Idle time that people used to fill with hobbies are increasingly being wasted away in front of the television and playing video games. People used to gain knowledge during their free time.
http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/50767.html
“Last year, an international study confirmed what American teachers already know: They're poorly paid. The average starting salary for an American high school teacher is roughly $32,000; with 15 years of experience, it goes up to $44,000.
In Germany, new teachers begin at $45,000! That's right: In their first year, German teachers earn more than Americans who have been toiling for a decade and a half.”
Are there many jobs more important than those of the people who educate our children?
Here's the best part.
http://blogs.payscale.com/ask_dr_salary/2007/06/salary-for-teac.html
“The paper reported that Texas high school football coaches in Class 5A and 4A schools (that's 950 students or more) earn an average salary of $73,804, while the average salary for teachers in those same schools is about $42,400 (as mentioned on ESPN.com).”
Does that make any sense? Well of course. Anybody knows that a football player is worth more than a doctor, teacher, paleontologist, archaeologist or physicist.
There is no way to Peace. Peace is the Way.
This is absolutely true. But Americans have been subjected more than any others to the Culture of Commerce-through-Perpetual-Advertising. No-one can watch American TV or listen to American talk radio without being made stupider than they were. Unfortunately they are also made to believe that that is the right way to be, that, in "the real world"--which Americans are taught to prize while watching non-stop lies and believing them--all they need to know comes at them in 10-second sound-bites. And as being a "guy you could have a beer with" is the sine qua non of American-hood, and as that is also the way Americans choose their political leaders, they choose the brain-dead, psychopathic alcoholic George W. Bush rather than, say Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy or George Brown.
Excellent!
This is true and very well observed, particularly of well paid or middle class Americans. At high tech jobs I had, the people from South America, Asia and Europe knew history, followed the news religiously on the net and read books. You could hold a conversation with them. Americans had little interest beyond self. The Americans talked about sports and shopping until you could just quietly implode from the tedium. It was all self-absorption and lack of curiousity, as you say.
Joe
Many thanks for this comment. It's all absolutely true.
Yes, and it it goes way beyond a lack interest in other peoples and places, aside from USAn football/hockey/baseball, their car of pickup truck, their 4-wheeled thing for the woods (who walks?), and what's on their I-pod, most Americans have absolutely no interests or serious enriching pastimes at all, if they can't buy it at some awful corporate big box, it doesn't interest them.
I have trouble even bothering striking up a conversation with anyone anymore aside from foreigners. USAns have little interest in anything that is important to me and I fine little to pique me in their limited range of interests.
Sioux Rose
EUARTO: Right on observations! I'd add that this macho image is very significant because it means there will always be a ready fodder of warriors. And nothing pleases the MIC establishment (a/k/a Mars rules) more than that!
I'm sure other observations could be added, but you definitely nail 2 key ones.
If the sadness were bittersweet I'd give up number one, but the other two I have to question. To me, and this was recently coo-berated by Dr. Fred Ettner (Robert Mendelson protege; 3,500 home and hospital birth deliveries) addressing a human development organization, that the problem is as much a feminine one. Ettner related his experience of the 1970's and his association with two women's movements: NOW, which survives today, and another based on natural childbirth and feeding and direct care/economy didn't survive the 80's. It has been my observation in the Detroit area that women now can be Governor, go off to war and watch naked men dance in Windsor, but can they stew up a batch of Hippocrates Soup or know when to put garlic in the recipe? Doubtful. How many mothers and fathers don't have songs they sing with their children...well, now we're back to bittersweet.
But let's touch on 3: isn't this a state of denial, a sort of pool in creative limbo awaiting what Joseph Campbell described as an "elite experience", maybe from a ZZ Hopper riff, or perhaps through some kind of immaculate transmutation (a.k.a. all this Palin and others talk about "special needs" children)?
UK-Bill
The only thing wrong with a Southern Baptist is that they don't hold them under long enough.
"This tragedy has been assisted by the American fetishisation of self-education."
If I have one bone to pick with this article, it is with this.
Presently, business dictates what is taught in schools. Not the classics nor reasoning nor rational thought nor questioning, but what our future workers must learn in order to sit in cubicles for 8 hours a day doing what they must to keep the system going.
My kids were mostly home schooled, and I'm damn glad of it!
If we want to change this system and beat back fundamentalism, we must teach our children how to think and reason and question. This is not happening in our public schools nor our universities. Sad to say.
... and then we have our illustrious and prohibitively expensive Ivy League that, with the other elite schools, subtly bow to social Darwinism while they produce flocks of ignoramuses like George W. and Milton Friedman to malign and pervert and distort the intent of our founding documents and STILL declare that anyone who does not have a degree from their vaunted halls is not intellectually evolved enough to be listened to. These are the fools who have destroyed public education, the economy, the ability of our largest corporations to create workable solutions to the evolution of energy use and transportation. They have made sure that we have invented incredible advancements in the field of medicine and then insured that fewer and fewer of the people are able to benefit from them. They are applauding or fretting ineffectually about their stock earnings while the constitution is torn to shreds and their military and secret services are kidnapping people who have been robbed of their cultures and livelihoods by ivy league classmates who throw the same people into secret gulags that even the noble and well-educated denizens of the high-faluting psychological association took several years to decline to be a part of.
The problem does not just lie in the nature of the imbecilic (imbecilic?)de-education of working people and the gradual de-funding of government supported higher education (once highly affordable to almost anyone with a high school diploma and now beyond the reach of the children of most median income families) by the same jerk-offs who graduated from those elite bastions of education so that they would be more able to fund devastating wars for control of fossil fuels, exorbitant wages for themselves and the same top executives who were proponents of those cuts while they protected and built on their ridiculous mega profitability mentality by de-employing whole cities elsewhere to resurrect the grand tradition of the sweatshop outside of our borders where they can more effectively prevent any kind of oversight and labor protection in places where education is even less an expectation than it is becoming here. No wonder people flocked to religious schools. The public ones are crumbling beneath over-regulated curriculums and test after test after test for the same researchers at those same elite schools that need to have something to do and apparently have no understanding that to be educated one must be exposed to educators... not just the subject of tests and statisticians.
"...but he (Reagan) had found a formula for avoiding tough political issues and making his opponents look like wonks."
I'd say Reagan's (Bush/Palin) type of success is founded on the emotional attachment formed, and not by "making his opponents look like wonks". Part of the author's Jacoby quote is revealing, "...threaten the social order." - though their posturing of angry arrogance is intimidating, the fascist Dominator is a house of cards with a foundation of fear.
Until a greater percentage (currently what, 2-3%?) of the general population can better navigate the emotional pitch of debate and argument, fascist bullying energy, apprenticed since the sandbox and playground, the so called "imbeciles" will dominate much of the conversation.
Instead of name calling ("numbskulls"; the home field advantage of the Dominators of fascist society), our energies would be better served through exploring the emotional component of the how of argument.
snydly
But there IS genius in the R party----albeit from the dark side: Rove and Cheney.
It is called the dumbing of America, most voters appear to vote for politicians based on every parameter except for thier qualifications. Maybe we should have the football, basketball, soccer, baseball etc players tag thier jerseys with current events and editorials from Common Dreams so the audiance will be sure to see it.
The Reece commission in 1953 discovered that the Tax Exempt Foundations in which the super rich place their money to protect against taxes is one of the mechanisms through which the elitists have subverted America.
Education was given a priority by the Carnegie and Rockefeller Foundations. He who controls history controls the present. Universities have been corrupted by endowments from the foundations. The elitists also recognized the necesssity of controlling media and publishing, and over the last 100 years have asssumed almost complete control.
In order to control foreign policy, the Council on Foreign Relations was established. Anyone entering the state department since 1921 was selected from among CFR membership who were indoctrinated in the elitists world view of world government.
Science has also been corrupted. Eisenhower warned about this in 1961 at the same time he warned about the MIC. Federal government grants are now essential to scientific research, along with grants from the Tax Free Foundations and corporations that they own. The science journals that publish papers have been acquired by the elites, and so only papers that reflect the "consensus" on political issues like AGW can get published. So this has led to various pseudo-science gaining credibility and those who speak out against the fraud are called denialists, much like Galileo was deemed a heretic when he claimed the earth was not the center of the universe.
The elitists have their own religion and world view, adopted from Plato, who was influenced by the occult views of Alexandrian, Babylonian and Persian religions. In Platos world view, global domination by elite rulers who would be considered as Gods was the best form of a republic. It would be perfectly acceptable to lie to those they rule for social control. More recently Leo Strauss advocated the noble lie since the masses could not be expected to accept the truth.
Most people do not know that China discovered America long before Columbus began his voyage. In fact, the Chinese triggered the Renaissance when they travelled to Italy and brought with them world maps and technology. The maps were so that the Europeans could travel to China and pay tribute to the Emperor, and showed the Americas. In fact they also travelled to Greenland in the 14th century and found it much greener than it is today.
Since the end of the dark ages, the illuminated ones have sought a NWO that would lead to One World Government free of superstitous religion, and one that would be led by the elite. Many of the wars that have been fought over the last 500 years have been wars to weaken religous rule. In the 20th century the wars were to eliminate large numbers of religous people such as the Torah following Jews and Eastern Christians and create an anti-religous form of government called Communism which by the end of WW II had controlled 1/2 the world and led to a perpetual state of War called the Cold War, now replaced with the GWOT so we could focus on the Muslim populations.
This is setting the stage New Age religion would be one where man evolves to be God and is in harmony with nature. The green movement is driving this agenda using bad science to convince the masses. However, not all of man would evolve, those who do not are considered as beasts. This is shown in the neo-malthusian beliefs that the herd should be culled since we are overpopulated and earth can not sustain such a large population. This belief had given us the Eugenics movement in the 1920's and 1930's which still exists, but under different names.
Plato also endorsed eugenics and believed only those deemed worthy should have children, that children should be wards of the state, and that defective children should be killed.
The path both parties are taking us on, called Globalization, will lead to such a New World Order as envisioned by Plato and Marx.
Articles such as these should be avoided. Monbiot is nothing but a propagandist for the elitists who provide you with a false reality so they can continue marching along unimpeded to their NWO.
Re education, since many people here are doubting that Monbiot is right on that front: I haven't attended a US high school or college, so what I am able to add is merely what I've observed over the years:
1) The anecdotal incidents with Americans and their lack of education are legendary around the world.
I've witnessed anything from "Do they have TV where you live?" to people constantly asking me - when I was a tour guide for Americans in Europe every summer in my student days - how much every palace or castle or monument or painting or artefact would be. Other guides taught me to answer "priceless" every time, since I was not at all prepared for that kind of question. Nobody in Europe ever asks that. But that was seemingly the only thing they could relate to. They basically had no clue what they were seeing and where they actually were, they knew nothing, I mean NOTHING. I didn't know where to start.
I never experienced anything of the kind with Canadians - to diffuse the notion that being from across the Atlantic makes a difference. They occasionally even got a little miffed when I was trying to explain some things in a language I'd use for toddlers, but which I had had to turn to using when dealing with Americans, the Canadians several times protested and said:"Hey, do you think we are STUPID?"
2) Correct me if I am wrong, but from what I gathered when people were telling me about their careers in teaching in the US, you go to a college. For the first two years you take all sorts of courses (this part basically amounts to the education you get in senior high school in Europe, from what I found out) and only for the last two years are you actually taught what you yourself are going to teach kids in elementary education. That sounds like just 2 years of job-relevant education to me. Is this true?
That's half the time or even less of the time you need to study in Europe to be able to get near just about any pupil anywhere.
3) I went to regular public schools in my country. Only the rich dumb-asses had to go to private schools, the public schools were too difficult for them - this has changed in the meantime, I hear. But I still like the thought.
All my teachers had at least a master's degree, most of them had a Ph.D.
4) "Teacher" is synonymous with "so curious that they are a nuisance, they constantly want to know everything" where I live. The American high school teachers I have dealt with privately were the most uncurious people I've had as guests in my life.
5) It is very endearing that the US think that most pupils are theoretically university material, i.e. all have to go to school for 12 years in order to theoretically qualify for college afterwards.
But the school systems where non-academically inclined kids can leave school after 8 or 9 years with a diploma and learn a trade instead are more realistic IMO. These poor American kids are locked up in a school until they are 18 - or else they are "drop-outs, where they could be learning a craft or trade that interests them at 15 instead of wasting time. WITH a diploma. As a result, US high schools have to have a very low common academic denominator.
6) I just have an unspectacular degree. But the only ones who happen to be my peers knowledgewise are university professors in America (who of course know a lot more than I do in whatever they specialize in, but I am talking about general knowledge). And this is definitely not the case in Europe.
So something just went horribly wrong.
"For the first two years you take all sorts of courses (this part basically amounts to the education you get in senior high school in Europe, from what I found out) and only for the last two years are you actually taught what you yourself are going to teach kids in elementary education. That sounds like just 2 years of job-relevant education to me. Is this true?"
Very true!
In most courses of study, a master's degree in the US would barely qualify (probably often not qualify), as a Bachelor's degree in Europe. I realized this when, with a bachelor's degree in geology, I went to work in the oil field in Venezuela, and my colleagues were largely a mix from the UK, Venezuela, and Colombia. I was humbled by the ovbviously superior education of the Brits. In many cases, the educational level of the Venezuelans was better. And I was above-average for a USAn. I had thought I had gotten the best education in the world. Some of the bachelor-degreed USAns I worked with had difficulty with the simple calculations (i.e volume of cylinder) we had to do on the job. The poorly educated ones were also the most boorish and arrogant ones - refusing to learn even the most rudimentary Spanish - and routinely referring to the Venezuelans as "the Spicks". They were great embarrassments to me.
In following years, the anger borne of this humiliation that led me to realize that the great USAn exceptionalist mythology of it being "the best" in everything was a dreadful lie! So I read and dug deeper, and only found more dreadful lies. My political perspectives today are a result of my experiences in those days.
Here, here! The crackpot preachers have always seen a sucker bent over in front of every alter, whether made of gold or just a maroon bedsheet draped over a old broomstick in some sweaty tent. To give legitimacy to those crooks is unconscionable. Accrding to the potato-nosed snotty-but-all-we've-got comedian, Bill Mahr, there are 40 million of us who don't buy the sky-god shuck. WE need to push it; push back...all the time.
Why push back? Who cares as long as religion and state are kept separate? Now THAT I agree to push back against, but otherwise what you are promoting is just as bad as the fundamentalists beating up on the gays. Think about it...
Only 40 million? If that's true then things are far worse than I thought.
There is no way to Peace. Peace is the Way.
Alan MacDonald
Two words; ---- Harrison Bergeron. (Vonnegut's 1961 story made into a film)
Americans are being dumbed down and controlled through what should be called the "Distraction Industries" (including everything across the spectrum from motorized adult toys, like skidoos, and jetskis, to FOX TV and reality shows, to NASCAR and WWF) --- it's all distraction, all the time.
My students watching the film were struck by the similarity of the fictional picking of the Governor of Connecticut in Vonnegut's film and the reality of 'selecting' Palin.
Other films provide similar insight. Who could be surprised that we are led by a mouth-breathing, beer drinking buddy, slacker of a president, if they had seen Peter Sellers' performance as Chauncy the gardener in "Being There"?
Reality has indeed imitated fiction.
Thanks dfairly for pointing out the deficiency of this article. There are persons with very high levels of technical education, including, especially, medical doctors, who voted for Bush. I have personally met them, and there are others with engineering degrees and PhDs in scientific fields who are religious fundamentalists of various faiths and persuasions. Condoleeza Rice has a PhD. and was a high-level administrator at one of the premier technological universities in the country, and although she is not a religious fundamentalist, she obviously supports Bush. Monbiot should also remember that at least fifty percent of the electorate did not vote for Bush, when the popular vote went for Gore in the first critical instance. The scene is very complicated when we try to elucidate what we mean by "education."
What do we mean by "education?"
Grown up to Chakra Four at least!
How do you do that? I'm beginning to agree with C. Myss that the step between the 3rd and 4th Chakra is the most difficult to make. But once there dose it not become energetically obvious that to demean one's opponent and enemy depletes one's energy flow, thus standing up for what one is for, while holding one's enemy in compassion (which can include pity), being the way to go evolutionarily so?
"How did politics in the US come to be dominated by people who make a virtue out of ignorance?"
How did torture-tainment "Saw V" do over $30 million opening weekend? How is the number zero for average number of books Americans read a year? How is "Two And A Half Men" still - still! - the number one network "comedy"? How does FOX "news" still garner the highest cable ratings? How is the WWF still even in existence and, worse, still the top rated cable "entertainment" program?
Plus, the corporate paymasters play a huge role as well - the prefer dumbf**k politicians who can't read and/or understand the bills they write but who love free golf trips and home repairs and other trivial goodies...