Opinion

James Giago Davies: We've become too proud of our ignorance

Thursday, February 23, 2017

James Giago Davies

Never too late to start wising up
We are the Third World of the First World
By James Giago Davies
Native Sun News Today Columnist
nativesunnews.today

Most Americans are not stupid. It is easy to think they are when you look at the TV they watch, their obsession with sports and celebrity, their ability to say shockingly stupid things like, “Hey, look, Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings!” Or, the Vietnam officer to the journalist: “It became necessary to destroy the village to save it.” My personal favorite, after the Air Force investigator asked the woman how she knew it was a UFO: “It had UFO written on the side of it.”

Okay, there is some genuine stupid in much of those responses, but mostly there is ignorance in that Americans are the most poorly educated First World country in the world, hands down. We are more poorly educated than many Second World countries. Really, when it comes to education we are the Third World of the First World. How did we get so dumb we still think we’re smart?

There are lots of theories, but there is no doubt that we are proud of our ignorance, we actually hold it up as proof we are extra smart, and the real stupid people are the smart ones in the universities.

That’s anti-intellectualism, and it is a respected mentality, that crosses social lines nothing else can. Whether White, Black or Reservation Brown, you will find anti-intellectualism alive and kicking, spreading like a wildfire through your rank-and-file. We all want to feel smart, informed. You can ask a person questions he should know like when was the War of 1812 fought, how far away is the sun, what year did South Dakota become a state? He can’t tell you, but still considers himself an expert when it comes to politics and religion. Don’t you dare try to argue with them, they got it all figured out.

People get this really serious, self-important look when they are about to talk smart talk, and you can only roll your eyes, because you know nothing coming out of that mouth will even remotely resemble smart.

H.L. Mencken said this back in the 1920’s, and it is even truer today: “The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality.”

We are taught what to think not how to think. We memorize answers but lack the critical thinking skills to apply that information to real life circumstances.