Happy and Cretinous | Forums

[leitmotiv]

From the NYT article, author Susan Jacoby (The Age of American Unreason) sees "anti-intellectualism...and anti-rationialism...have fused in a particularly insidious way. Not only are citizens ignorant about essential scientific, civic and cultural knowledge...but they also don't think it matters."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/books/14dumb.html?ex=...rtner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[leitmotiv]

From the NYT article, author Susan Jacoby (The Age of American Unreason) sees "anti-intellectualism...and anti-rationialism...have fused in a particularly insidious way. Not only are citizens ignorant about essential scientific, civic and cultural knowledge...but they also don't think it matters."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/books/14dumb.html?ex=...rtner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[MEGILE]

[MEGILE]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> Such, uh, lack of global awareness is the kind of thing that drives Susan Jacoby, author of "The Age of American Unreason,"� up a wall. Ms. Jacoby is one of a number of writers with new books that bemoan the state of American culture. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Please go out into the European populace, and ask them to name half of the States of the USA.

[MEGILE]

Bleh.

America is a huge country with a massive population.

That famous German was wrong.

America has all the geniuses and nincompoops.

[leitmotiv]

H.L. Mencken, the great American journalist of the first half of the 20th century, filled volumes with his contempt for the idiocy of the American public. I think he would croak from apoplexy to have to see the moronic inferno which now exists---from the ranks of the uber-rich (Paris Hilton and Britney---brain stem functions operating on good days) to the vast mob below.

[leitmotiv]

In my lifetime what I have seen in the U.S. has been lack of knowledge going from a need which one felt should be remedied to "who cares?" There is a complacent and defiant self-pleasure in stupidity which is something new. The consequences are legion---from girls who value only their sexual power, to violent male vegetables who fill the vast ranks of our gangs. We are paying a ferocious price culturally and in every other way imaginable. From my experience teaching, I say let's go back to the way of the early 20th century, if the dufuses don't want to learn, let them drop out at 13, and spend the rest of their lives in dead-end jobs or prisons. Good riddance. These fools are only cluttering our schools, and lowering the quality of education of those who want to learn. There is one thing I have learned from teaching---you absolutely cannot force the unwilling to learn. There is a disconnect somewhere in American thinking where we believe that 12 years of expensive public education will "somehow" penetrate the brains of even those hostile to it. No dice, no way. 100 Years ago immigrants and the poor believed fervently in the American educational system as the great elevator to the top of our society---and it worked. It was the genius of America. This is no longer the way it is here for many reasons, and most of the true reasons for this situation are unpalatable to many. We are either going to see clearly or go down because you can't be the top dog long if the humans in the nation are stupid as a brick.

[roybaty]

I many times fear the U.S. has achieved and perhaps exceeded "the critical mass of stupid" and the resulting curve of the stupid is beyond control until there is a social/political/economic upheaval

[leitmotiv]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by roybaty:
I many times fear the U.S. has achieved and perhaps exceeded "the critical mass of stupid" and the resulting curve of the stupid is beyond control until there is a social/political/economic upheaval </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well put.

[Schwarz.13]

Unfortunately the UK is not much better than America these days (we are top of the league in Europe for obesity, heart disease, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, alcohol-related deaths etc. etc. ad nauseum)

The majority of people in the UK seem to be brain dead with little or no idea/interest in history, geography, culture, international or even home affairs.

These people seem to subsist on a diet of fast food, reality TV, trashy celebrity-gossip magazines (instead of books) and would consider knowing the model numbers of the latest mobile phones more important than any knowledge of history, culture etc.

I say we get together and start a new country!