A sign of the times: Depressing survey results show how extremely stupid America has become

[Aragorn]

Article by Michael Snyder, Economic Collapse Blog, Tue, 29 Mar 2016 13:07 UTC. Posted at sott.net

Disclaimer: Don't shoot me over the title of this thread. It literally is the title of the article at sott.net.

"Ten years ago, a major Hollywood film entitled Idiocracy was released, and it was an excellent metaphor for what would happen to America over the course of the next decade. In the movie, an "average American" wakes up 500 years in the future only to discover that he is the most intelligent person by far in the "dumbed down" society that he suddenly finds himself in. Sadly, I truly believe that if people of average intellect from the 1950s and 1960s were transported to 2016, they would likely be considered mental giants compared to the rest of us.

We have a country where criminals are being paid $1000 a month not to shoot people, and the highest paid public employee in more than half the states is a football coach. Hardly anyone takes time to read a book anymore, and yet the average American spends 302 minutes a day watching television. 75 percent of our young adults cannot find Israel on a map of the Middle East, but they sure know how to find smut on the Internet. It may be hard to believe, but there are more than 4 million adult websites on the Internet today, and they get more traffic than Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined.

What in the world has happened to us? How is it possible that we have become so stupid? According to a brand new report that was recently released, almost 10 percent of our college graduates believe that Judge Judy is on the Supreme Court... "

Click here to continue reading the full article...

[bsbray]

It seems to be a phenomenon not just confined to the US. Our education systems are degraded and designed to dumb people down, on purpose it seems.

As an example, here's a French guy on a television show (copied from an American television show) who apparently thinks that the Sun orbits the Earth:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvQBIeYb4cQ



What's really sad is when he polls the audience for their advice.

I think the host is stupefied but trying not to give away the answer, lol.

[Dreamtimer]

So we can all just get the 'I'm with Stupid' t-shirts and it won't matter who we're with....

I know a lot of really smart people and there was a lot of competition in college and the job market. The dumb decisions to send good blue collar jobs away from the country were not made by poorly educated people.

I know a lot of smart people who are willfully ignorant.

Are we still attracting smart people from around the world to come here? Are we still innovating? Have we gone too far with our financial shenanigans?

[Aragorn]

It seems to be a phenomenon not just confined to the US.

Indeed not. It is happening all over the western world, and I'm particularly seeing this over in Europe as well. It is highly ironic, but while the EU currently still outruns the USA in terms of average intelligence and average level of knowledge, the European politicians and corporations are doing their very best to make Europe into a facsimile of the United States of Acronyms.

Our education systems are degraded and designed to dumb people down, on purpose it seems.

Yes, but what can you expect — at least, speaking of the USA concretely now — when more than half of the gross national income is spent on the military-industrial complex, rather than on education (or any other initiative that would truly benefit society)?

On the other hand, it's not just the lack of education. The corporate sector — which includes anything from the advertising sector over to the supposedly serious news networks — is definitely playing into those cards. Disinformation, propaganda and mindless entertainment galore. A dumb society is a malleable society, and that's the objective of every oligarchy.

As an example, here's a French guy on a television show (copied from an American television show) who apparently thinks that the Sun orbits the Earth:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvQBIeYb4cQ



What's really sad is when he polls the audience for their advice.

I think the host is stupefied but trying not to give away the answer, lol.

It really surprises me that he needs a whole three minutes to come up with an answer, and not only is it the wrong one, but more than half of the audience also voted for that very same wrong answer.

It's a bit ironic that programs such as these are entertaining — in a cynical way — for a whole other reason than what the producers had in mind.

[Cearna]

OK, I'm old and we didn't learn anywhere near the topics this generation are learning, after all, my education began in post Second World War years, and we were most definitely taught to be good English citizens (in Australia)) learning little of our own heritage, however, my great Aunt kept one of my composition books from my eight year old self, which was written in ink not printed and covered an entire page on my pet cat which I had never had at any time, and in High school our exams in most subjects were an expectation of at least essay length and type 2-3 pages long answers on any given question (which is probably why my posts are so long) this was expected right through to the leaving certificate, which for me was when I was 16 1/2 years old (I was a year younger than the rest).

Nowadays to do the Higher school certificate at usually about 18 years old (which I was when I began to teach in 1958), they now do assessment tasks throughout the last years some of which might be exams, some can be using research and as long as they do well in these, they may not need to do much in the final exam in order to pass. That final exam is now 1-11/2 hour, we used to do 3 hours for every subject, and in my subjects they now do several multiple choice questions, some short answer questions of a sentence up to a few lines long, and 1 or 2 long answers of up to 1/2 a page. The content of the work we covered is now considerably dumbed down to the reader than I used to have to teach to before this new system came in and before that the advanced courses used to be closer to University level. the teachers coming through from the Universities after 22 years of study knew far less, were far less capable in out practical subjects than we older generation teachers were. We had been highly trained in a great many areas of cooking, sewing, home management, and much more than these newer supposedly more knowledgable young teachers were, we almost had to train them on the job, which was OK at a corespondence school, but what was happening in the schools I don't know, I just know that when I went back for 1 day in a school as a casual teacher, I was horrified and that was the last time I ever wanted to try that again.

[sandy]

Well it seems to me this dumbing down process has been going on for centuries and thus the older the historical territories the longer the stupidity, especially under the guise of academia's origins.................just saying

[bsbray]

Cearna, what my grandma says about her own public education when she was young backs up what you say. She says that she learned to write in shorthand, which has since gone the way of the dodo for maybe everyone except stenographers, but other than that we still learn all the same subjects today and much more besides. So maybe it's more complicated than just what is or isn't being taught. I think the methods that employed to teach kids, like the rote and brainless memorization of facts with no critical thinking involved, is a big factor. This new "common core" stuff is just the latest example of a way to try to teach the same old knowledge while screwing around with kids' heads in the process.

Another factor in this may be our increased awareness of the ignorance of the general masses on a lot of common stuff. Maybe lots/most people were always this ignorant in the modern era, and we just never really paid much attention until now. In the past, when young democracies such as the US and France were being criticized, the general ignorance of the masses seems to have been taken for granted by critics of democracy, and even by some of our own founding fathers. And if you go back to medieval times, of course the great majority of people then were illiterate and believed in so many mythical fantasies that we now know are totally wrong, they may as well have been living in some kind of fantastical parallel universe. Even the most educated people thought the Earth was the center of the universe, and that mice just spontaneously manifested if you threw some food crumbs and scraps of cloth in a corner.

Speaking of governments, one thing that really impresses me is how monarchies have convinced people to keep them into the year 2016. They are completely medieval institutions themselves, based on the idea that monarchs are literally born with divine favor from God to rule over all of their "subjects." That kind of view doesn't have much of a place in the modern world, except maybe in some Islamic states of the Middle East. Maybe constitutions have been put in place and their power has been limited, but to keep them around at all as anything other than a quaint curiosity is ridiculous.

[Cearna]

Oh yes indeed bsbray, agree with all you say. A lot depends on howyou learn. I learnt something about this when I was learning more about pyschic abilities. One of the things we were asked to do was to sit in pair crosslegged on the floor listening to specifically organised music and sounds , facing a partner, and the partner was to watch the other ones eyes, to see did they go upwards, side to side or downwards, this was to check how we function do we see - eyes go upwards, hear - eyes go side to side, or feel - eyes go downwards towards what my Reiki Master called the emotional radio area or the stomach region. I went to a lecture regarding this in teaching method, some learn by listening or hearing, some by seeing and some by feeling a response, now if you only teach the one way say by making some one read a book and do a summary as we did in history then two thirds of the class may be missing out on an actual learning experience, which is probably why people now prefer to learn via the sight /hearing/feeling of things such as youtube videos, however, you may only remember some bits of it.

I notice that on this forum, for example to have a longer post such as mine usually are, people most often do not read the entire thing but skim it quickly to pick out bits they either like or do not like, then the answer (if any are only usually on your feelings about ta particular bit that you either take to heart or have exception to, but the answers are often not on the entire story. As a teacher, I was trained to write the entire story or the bits of information do not string together for entire understanding. Eg if in textiles I wanted to explain why wool stretches when wet, in my notes I needed to explain about amorphous region within the fibre that are further apart and do not cling in crystalline regions where the polarity bonds give it extra strength - thus wool allows water to go in to the fibre and pull the bonds apart and thus allows for stretching. This explains how, but you could also just say wool stretches when wet. As a person you would look and say WHAT? if you had no idea about any of the first explanation unless you knew about bonds, and amorphous and crystalline regions and just say what a load of b/s but as a homemaker your feelings may be invoked by the fact that you already knew wool stretches when wet and may write an answer to me.

If you have a photographic memory you may be able to give a reply if you have seen and noted that information, do you actually understand it? maybe not. I learnt at an early age, that I was not expected to do well and that suited me fine because what I wanted to do was read books. I learnt, that if I sat quietly in class and listened very carefully to what was said, I would think at the time, ok this means that ands tucked the this means that into my mind to come back as needed, so when it was time to bring it back in study time, I was not going to waste my valuable reading book time on study, so I read my notes on the way to school, before the exam, and in that study time brought back this means that and that's what I wrote, enough to get half marks which was all I was expected to get. This method would work in class better these days, because they now want to know, this means that,but during my time as an examiner for the State run exams for the Higher School Certificate I discovered to mark they look for a spcif wording mainly the use of terms, and this still does not cover this means that too well.

So educationalists go through a series of cycles on what is best eitheer for themselves or some phase the world is going through at the time, but as my helper says when we go shopping, it doesn't produce plumbers, electricians, and trades people any more, it produces IT experts, because that is where the money is.

[Dreamtimer]

I worry about the loss of trades. The loss of specialized skills. Since I was a kid I've talked with my dad about how dependent we are on the system we live in and how vulnerable we would be if it broke down. He was basically certain that people would work together to make things as durable as possible because 'no-one wants chaos'. I'm not sure he was right about that last part...

My experience teaching left me incredibly frustrated at the curriculum expectations combined with so much class time lost to test-taking. It was ridiculous.

[Aianawa]

The Prussian Kings and allies created and set up this education system well after Nepolian defeated them.

[Gale Frierson]

As a former teacher (of Jr. & Sr. High School) English, French, and German (plus a little Russian), I can say from first-hand experience that there's a lot of truth in much of the above. We are (and have been for some time, a dumbed-down, drugged out population). That, I believe is on purpose. It makes us easier to control. Controlling ourselves--such as in driving responsibly--is good. But being controlled by others whose agenda is uncertain, as far as we're concerned may not be good. Everything in the Universe is for use--all is basically in and of itself good, but the use to which it may be put can be either good or bad. (A little Hermes Trismegistus thrown in for good measure.--Nothing new--that's from 35,000 years ago). Que sera, sera? NO WAY!

[Dreamtimer]

Cara Saint Louis, who wrote Dangerous Imagination, Silent Assimilation with Kautz-Vella, has spoken extensively about the Tavistick Institute and the Prussian role in the development of our modern educational system. She did some Bases stuff. She's a Waldorf Teacher as well.

[lcam88]

Waldorf methodology is very ideal; it can even be described as a lifestyle.

Indeed it is quite difficult for non-Waldorf families to have their children accepted in these schools status-quo, especially where I live; I understand family to be quite fundamental in the school; and with government educational requirements here, the controversial nature creates quite a bit of difficulty for schools. => high prices.

I had to put my child in a school working constructivism for practical reasons.

Learning to think for ones self is something government rather see discouraged, here anyway.

They prefer the paradigm of "fills in the correct oval from the selection" and move on. Thinking of options not in the selection is out of the question. Those standardized tests we all take are quite a "sign of the times" in and of themselves. Even teachers are encouraged not to think for themselves and get punished when they do.

[bsbray]

I worry about the loss of trades. The loss of specialized skills. Since I was a kid I've talked with my dad about how dependent we are on the system we live in and how vulnerable we would be if it broke down. He was basically certain that people would work together to make things as durable as possible because 'no-one wants chaos'. I'm not sure he was right about that last part...

Is your dad a baby boomer? Sounds like he's from the generation that put in all the hard work to give us the infrastructure we're still living off of today. My family members who came up back have much more of a "if it's broke, then by God I'll fix it" kind of attitude. Things most people take for granted today like building and maintaining roads and bridges, electrical grids, running water, even just household repair stuff. These things used to be much more local efforts that involved entire communities.

Now I live in Virginia and I have seen this state contract people out of Tennessee just to come clear fallen trees out of roads after wind storms (those "derechos" we've had recently). In the 1950's, if there were even any trees left after all the firewood was cut, the people living in the area would voluntarily get out and cut and move it all out of the roads themselves. Now we contract people from another state to come do it for us?

In 1984, Orwell says that the "proles" (proletariats, ie rednecks) would be the last hope of humanity simply because of their lack of education/indoctrination.

[Dreamtimer]

You're absolutely right bsbray. And even though my Dad was always a businessman he and my mom formed a citizens committee in our town to stop developers from a badly planned project. They succeeded. The development that eventually happened was much better suited to the location than the high density which had been originally planned. This was in the 80's, when I was already a teenager.

We also have a Community Association where we live which is active and encourages involvement in the issues of the area.

And I see the road and snow clearing crews that caravan on the highways. We're near I95. You can see the matching plates and vehicles. And they come from all over.

My Dad has always praised me for my positive attitude and does to this day. (Not a great many others do). He was in the generation that was so hard working and was also so lucky. So much was new and opportunities abounded. We could and should still be that way but profit among other things seems to have gotten in the way...

I know what seems like a lot of people who have home or alternate schooled their children. My son was Montessori. I thought of homeschooling but couldn't quite swing it. It's often but not always for religious reasons. For me it was to spare him the very stressful experience of public schools. Our parents sent us to public schools though they could've afforded private. They wanted to use the tax dollars and they wanted us to be in school with our fellow Americans, so to speak. My brother has also sent his kids to public school though they did choose a charter school. He also wanted them to socialize in public school ways. He eventually put his daughter in a high-end private school to help her entry into top notch colleges.

A college degree was already losing mileage when I graduated...