Opinion: The Dumbing Down of America

Photo byPixabay Image - by Stevepb

“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the universe.” Albert Einstein

If you want to know what a child is thinking, watch their face.

The truth shines through and if they’re interested, alarmed, or quietly confused by what adults are up to – it’s all there to be viewed.

Wouldn’t it be great if that part of us never changed?

In America, we have a history of assigning importance and high praise to institutions and people in superior positions. Not because they deserve it but because we’ve somehow become infatuated with celebrity in all its forms.

We’ve come to believe that athletes are heroes and represent what is good about America.

That billionaires are inherently good and decent and have our best interests (jobs & future employment) in mind.

That actors who portray fictional characters on the big screen, somehow come into possession of those same characteristics themselves.

Like Ronald Reagan the actor, being believed a great leader simply for his ability to act like one.

We honor the decisions and importance of Supreme Court Justices because they are issued forth from a position of power and prestige accorded the institution and by default everyone who resides within it.

Or like corporations having the same rights accorded a human being – freedom of speech as an example – even though, under ideal conditions, a “corporation” would be incapable of answering a simple question.

We listen with rapt attention to political leaders who espouse beliefs and support positions that under normal everyday conditions would elicit laughter and disbelief.

Why?

Where America Came From

Because America, over the past three centuries has fallen victim to the same hierarchical system that prompted millions of immigrants to leave Europe behind and start over right here.

Hierarchical in the sense that not everyone is the same. That there are those that are obviously different and more important.

Someone who possesses a house, a horse, and 100 pounds is by then current standards, a cut above the rest.

Those that live on estates, employ others, and possess power beyond what the average person has or perceives as desirable, are thus of a higher order. Not kinder or smarter – simply better.

Better being a subjective concept, but not so distant as to be unrecognizable. Better means being able to be more, have more, and do more, compared to everyone else.

If you eat at finer restaurants, have finer more elegant clothing, live in grander quarters, and do not “work” for a living then you are by default, someone who appears to understand the way the system works and should be respected and envied.

And in this case, envy is an emotion that is permitted as long as what one envies is better than what one currently has.

America has evolved its system of admiration alongside its systems of government. Believing that those trained in the law (lawyers) are naturally suited to a position where laws are created.

Or that those who have lived their lives shaping others – coaches in all athletic fields for example – are thus capable of shaping things far removed from the stadiums.

Why else do we vote into office, bodybuilders who become actors who possessed supernatural abilities on screen that were somehow transferable to real life?

Why else would we support a candidate for a senatorial position whose prowess on the football field is assumed to be transferable to Washington and the job of helping to run our country?

Americans are not stupid by birth or by choice but by inclination. Stupid is shown more in what we do than in who we are.

Definition of stupid

• b: given to unintelligent decisions or acts: acting in an unintelligent or careless manner, senseless. From - stupere – to be amazed.

They are made careless by a process that we’ve all become subjected to, especially of late. The erosion of truth and its replacement by irrelevant and often false information.

And by the slow and lengthy process of losing one’s affection and belief in oneself, as they experience all manner of reasons why others just seem to be better than they are.

When money, fame, and possessions become a valid measure (sometimes the only one) of who a person is, how do we compete against someone who appears to have it all?

Thus, over time, we become accustomed to giving way to those that have more.

We look away from those that sound right and focus more on those that look right.

Why else would we listen to someone who we normally would not like, associate with or allow our daughters to marry?

Stupid is a state of mind – in many cases, just temporary.

In its simplest terms, it is the momentary absence of pertinent information and the ability to process it, resulting in decisions or points of view that are not supportable and yet are believed above all others.

• Believing that vanilla ice cream is the best ice cream over chocolate or Rocky Road is not proof of stupidity. It’s simply a personal preference.
• Believing that Superman is stronger and better than Batman is also a personal preference – though watching Superman push an asteroid out of Earth’s orbit might sway anyone.
• Believing that all vaccines are works of the devil, or were created in dark, dank, laboratories in communist countries, or are genetically altering one’s DNA is not stupid because we might disagree with it but because it is based on unsupported information or claims that are held in place despite provable scientific information to the contrary.

Holding onto stupid and refusing to let the truth in is dangerous.

Our history is scattered with false narratives and restricted information kept away from others who needed it to make rational decisions.

Racism came about because of stupid.

Going back hundreds of years there were numerous essays, books, and scientific treatises by people in high positions, and trusted scholars, who stated categorically that white people were superior to black people and people of color.

People who benefited from this information believed in it. Those that disbelieved it through personal observation or kindness of heart, fought against it.

But this “fact” has been held onto for centuries.

It is stupid because it lacks any basis in fact. Its premise is unsupportable by any measure.

It was declared by those who needed it to be believed, in order to support practices and institutions that were already in place – like slavery and Jim Crow laws.

The only way it has held up over the years is by people repeating it, acting as if it were true, telling others they were wrong for disagreeing, and generally not allowing the light of truth to expose the lie.

Stupid is almost always held in place because it is beneficial to someone.

With the 2022 mid-term election behind us, though favorable in many ways, there were still decisions made that left us questioning how and why decisions are actually being made. With newly elected candidates still believing that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

Because it was? Because it is provable?

No, because it supports an agenda.

It is easier to propagate a lie than accept a truth that is unwanted.

The same local election process, machines, and personnel that “properly” elected those same people who now claim the former president lost illegally, make no mention of how an apparatus could do both of these things.

They make no statement of fact or provide supporting evidence. They simply state that it’s the truth.

Like those who stated in the 1700s and 1800s that all blacks were inferior, the truth is a hindrance.

Stupid takes over not by the strength of position but by the lack of it.

Stupid can only exist if correct information is carefully removed from the equation.

A German propaganda machine that spread lies about the Jews in 1930s Germany, over and over again, eventually got most Germans to believe that there was a big problem that required a final solution. And thus, an agenda removed its greatest barrier to being achieved – the people themselves.

That was and is a historical example of stupid.

When Justice Antonin Scalia stated that a corporation had a right to free speech which could take the form of political donations (Citizens United) how is this not one of the greatest moments of stupid in American jurisprudence, masquerading as a measured legal decision?

An entity, a corporation that has no corporeal existence in fact – unlike an actual human being – and which cannot be persuaded to answer a question or offer an opinion on its own, somehow possesses the right of free speech.

Agenda – politically motivated executives and boards of directors (humans) now possess the right and power to pump billions into political campaigns and thus influence and co-opt the political process, while assigning this “right” to the corporation.

A hammer is not stupid if it strikes a thumb.

A decision made is not stupid simply because others disagree with it.

Any of these things become stupid only when rational thought and relevant data that prove the opposite is intentionally ignored and/or invalidated.

Solution?

Know the truth. Seek it out. Understand it. And ensure that others know it as well. Truth is the only antidote to what is ailing America right now.

“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.”
― Søren Kierkegaard