Ah yes, the ignorati. The great unwashed of American politics. Dim-witted, proudly ignorant, suspicious of anything they view as being dismissive or disdainful of their dim selves, eager to accept any politician who, in their view, is just as stupid as they are. Commonly associated with the term "I want a President that I can have a beer with."
In recent years the ignorati have been quite influential, having elected the President for six of the last seven elections. And I will say this: Ignore the polls saying that Obama is ahead. Because 50% of Americans are below average. And "average" ain't so smart, given the dumbing down of education over the past thirty years. Any rational, reasoning man could see that Barack Obama is a clearly the superior candidate compared to Cranky McDepends and his sidekick Caribou "Dinosaurs walked the earth with Man 6,000 years ago" Barbie. But if we had a rational, reasoning electorate... (shrug).
The fact that the world is billions of years old and that the dinosaurs died roughly 60 million years before the first human being walked the world are matters of science, verifiable via experiments and observation. Palin may have faith that the world is only 6,000 years old and that dinosaurs co-existed with man. But the only way she can maintain that faith is by rejecting science and all of its benefits, such as this computer that you and I are communicating with. Frankly, that is a scary thought to me, because we have already experimented with having a President who believes in faith rather than observable objective reality as the mechanism for organizing government, and it hasn't worked out very well...
So now we have the clear chance of having a President within the next four years who rejects modern science, who rejects objective reality in favor of superstition. Forty years ago, scientists and engineers and people who dealt with observable reality were respected here in the United States. Today, they are reviled as "atheistic" and "elitist", made fun of as "nerds" and "geeks", and our young people flock to become mortgage bankers and real estate salesmen rather than scientists and engineers. This also corresponds with the decline of the United States as the leader of the free world and an economic superpower, to the point where the US can't even build ocean liners and cargo vessels any more. Coincidence? Nope. That's what happens to a nation that rejects observable objective reality and decides to base itself on faith instead. When our nation was led by practical pragmatic reality-oriented people, it thrived. Now, dominated by the ignorati who view those practical pragmatic reality-oriented people as heretics and "elitists", it declines. Coincidence? Nope.
Personally, I am not too eager to meet my new Chinese overlords, but meet them I shall. Did you know that China's president is an engineer? Maybe that explains why China is growing and thriving while the United States is declining. The U.S. elects people who reject science and objective reality. China selects people who do not. I don't think I'll like living under Chinese rule, it is a harsh and unforgiving rule, but that's what is going to happen if the U.S. keeps electing people who reject science and objective reality. I'll laugh and laugh and laugh, but it'll be more of a gallows laugh because it will be the end of a once-promising dream, the dream of a nation built upon freedom and liberty... but what can I say. Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. This situation is, apparently, what the common people want. Getting it good and hard yet?
-- Badtux the Reality-based Penguin
Willful ignorance has plagued societies. One of the reasons that despotic governments, Monarchies, and any other authoritarian governments is that people give them the power. People also cling to beliefs very well, look at Constitutional Monarchies. The Monarch is basically a figurehead but is still kept around because it makes people feel good.
ReplyDeleteThe small town I grew up in is a prime example of people clinging to guns, religion, and superstitious beliefs because that is what they know and it makes them feel good to hang on to those beliefs.
Cranky McDepends and his sidekick Caribou "Dinosaurs walked the earth with Man 6,000 years ago" Barbie
ReplyDeleteyup, you betcha
This concept of the electorate as a bunch of imbecilic nose-pickers is exactly why Greek philosophers often hated the concept of democracy as a governing form. They knew the power of the demagogue too well. (Off to sedate myself..having done the Freudian typo of putting DOMogogue down on first draft!)
ReplyDeleteI have not believed in the efficacy of democracy for decades. Every election, EVERY one is a contest of whom can pander better to the larger number of whoms. Even the best- intentioned cannot escape the panderfest. The fact that there are so many willfully ignorant in this country is heart-breaking to those of us who love the ideas on which the US was founded (by rational and observant thinkers). I see and hear them every day. We deserve to fail for we are a greedy and perverse people who wallow in self-righteous ignorance. I wish I could leave, but I'm too old and poor to be of any value to any other country.
ReplyDelete