Citizen Stupid
Commentary: Just how ignorant is the average American voter?
July 1, 2008
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[Introduction by Tom Engelhardt]
The buck stops… well, where does it stop? And who popularized that phrase, anyway? Herbert Hoover, J. Edgar Hoover, Harry S. Truman, George Washington, or none of the above?
Wait, don't answer! The odds are—as Rick Shenkman, award-winning investigative journalist and founder of the always provocative website History News Network, tells us in his new book Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth about the American Voter—you'll be wrong. And when you realize the depths of the ignorance so many Americans take into the voting booth, you may indeed wonder, as Shenkman does to great effect in his new book, where indeed the buck stops.
So here we are heading toward another July 4th, that glorious day when American independence was declared and the Liberty Bell rang out to the world—the first of which didn't happen on July 4th, the second of which was made up "out of whole cloth" in the nineteenth century in a book for children (but you knew that!). Think of today's post as a bit of counter-programming to our yearly summer celebration of history, a way to ponder what exactly, in the 8th year of the reign of our latest King George, any of us have to celebrate. Consider instead the state of our national brain, preview Shenkman's new book (which should set anyone's mind spinning), and, while you're at it, watch his recent interview with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show by clicking here. Tom Engelhardt
How Ignorant Are We?
The Voters Choose… but on the Basis of What?
By Rick Shenkman
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."—Thomas Jefferson
Just how stupid are we? Pretty stupid, it would seem, when we come across headlines like this: "Homer Simpson, Yes—1st Amendment 'Doh,' Survey Finds" (Associated Press 3/1/06).
"About 1 in 4 Americans can name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment (freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly and petition for redress of grievances.) But more than half of Americans can name at least two members of the fictional cartoon family, according to a survey.
"The study by the new McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum found that 22 percent of Americans could name all five Simpson family members, compared with just 1 in 1,000 people who could name all five First Amendment freedoms."
But what does it mean exactly to say that American voters are stupid? About this there is unfortunately no consensus. Like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, who confessed not knowing how to define pornography, we are apt simply to throw up our hands in frustration and say: We know it when we see it. But unless we attempt a definition of some sort, we risk incoherence, dooming our investigation of stupidity from the outset. Stupidity cannot mean, as Humpty Dumpty would have it, whatever we say it means.
Five defining characteristics of stupidity, it seems to me, are readily apparent. First, is sheer ignorance: Ignorance of critical facts about important events in the news, and ignorance of how our government functions and who's in charge. Second, is negligence: The disinclination to seek reliable sources of information about important news events. Third, is wooden-headedness, as the historian Barbara Tuchman defined it: The inclination to believe what we want to believe regardless of the facts. Fourth, is shortsightedness: The support of public policies that are mutually contradictory, or contrary to the country's long-term interests. Fifth, and finally, is a broad category I call bone-headedness, for want of a better name: The susceptibility to meaningless phrases, stereotypes, irrational biases, and simplistic diagnoses and solutions that play on our hopes and fears.
American Ignorance
Taking up the first of our definitions of stupidity, how ignorant are we? Ask the political scientists and you will be told that there is damning, hard evidence pointing incontrovertibly to the conclusion that millions are embarrassingly ill-informed and that they do not care that they are. There is enough evidence that one could almost conclude—though admittedly this is a stretch—that we are living in an Age of Ignorance.
Surprised? My guess is most people would be. The general impression seems to be that we are living in an age in which people are particularly knowledgeable. Many students tell me that they are the most well-informed generation in history.
Why are we so deluded? The error can be traced to our mistaking unprecedented access to information with the actual consumption of it. Our access is indeed phenomenal. George Washington had to wait two weeks to discover that he had been elected president of the United States. That's how long it took for the news to travel from New York, where the Electoral College votes were counted, to reach him at home in Mount Vernon, Virginia. Americans living in the interior regions had to wait even longer, some up to two months. Now we can watch developments as they occur halfway around the world in real time. It is little wonder then that students boast of their knowledge. Unlike their parents, who were forced to rely mainly on newspapers and the network news shows to find out what was happening in the world, they can flip on CNN and Fox or consult the Internet.
But in fact only a small percentage of people take advantage of the great new resources at hand. In 2005, the Pew Research Center surveyed the news habits of some 3,000 Americans age 18 and older. The researchers found that 59% on a regular basis get at least some news from local TV, 47% from national TV news shows, and just 23% from the Internet.
Anecdotal evidence suggested for years that Americans were not particularly well-informed. As foreign visitors long ago observed, Americans are vastly inferior in their knowledge of world geography compared with Europeans. (The old joke is that "War is God's way of teaching Americans geography.") But it was never clear until the postwar period how ignorant Americans are. For it was only then that social scientists began measuring in a systematic manner what Americans actually know. The results were devastating.
The most comprehensive surveys, the National Election Studies (NES), were carried out by the University of Michigan beginning in the late 1940s. What these studies showed was that Americans fall into three categories with regard to their political knowledge. A tiny percentage know a lot about politics, up to 50%-60% know enough to answer very simple questions, and the rest know next to nothing.
Contrary to expectations, by many measures the surveys showed the level of ignorance remaining constant over time. In the 1990s, political scientists Michael X. Delli Carpini and Scott Keeter concluded that there was statistically little difference between the knowledge of the parents of the Silent Generation of the 1950s, the parents of the Baby Boomers of the 1960s, and American parents today. (By some measures, Americans are dumber today than their parents of a generation ago.)
Some of the numbers are hard to fathom in a country in which for at least a century all children have been required by law to attend grade school or be home-schooled. Even if people do not closely follow the news, one would expect them to be able to answer basic civics questions, but only a small minority can.
In 1986, only 30% knew that Roe v. Wade was the Supreme Court decision that ruled abortion legal more than a decade earlier. In 1991, Americans were asked how long the term of a United States senator is. Just 25% correctly answered six years. How many senators are there? A poll a few years ago found that only 20% know that there are 100 senators, though the number has remained constant for the last half century (and is easy to remember). Encouragingly, today the number of Americans who can correctly identify and name the three branches of government is up to 40%.
But does the current generation lack basic knowledge? Certainly. As an instructor for college English courses, however, I must say that I sometimes worry that the cause may not be lack of interest so much as cynicism towards and a deep suspicion of the political process, and a corresponding indifference towards its exact workings. In addition, many college students today have jobs while attending school, and stay in school longer, making it hard to pay attention to the news. And the poor, whose parents were usually poor, face low job prospects, even if they don't drift away from high school before graduation, or prison, given the "war on drugs." Yet, I must admit that a large problem is probably just bread and circuses: why worry about what they can't control when they can stay up all night playing video games?
When my son attended Washington State University, part of his work study program had to do with conducting workshops for entering students who were incapable of passing a basic test of composition. When I was visiting the campus, I sat in on one of his groups. These undergraduates could barely craft a coherent sentence, yet they saw nothing wrong with their lack of what should be a basic skill.
The fascinating part of the experience lay in the fact that every single one of these students had completed Advanced Placement courses in English .... with high grades.
Parents want high grades and low workloads for their children. Over 75% of the parents with whom I have spoken over the past ten years hold some level of belief that there is little of any value in the academic curriculum. The entire point of high grades is to facilitate moving on to the next level of education.
When people are paid to stand up in a seminar and propose that anything worth saying must be said within 30 seconds, we are not likely to get better.
And none of it is new. In the 1950's, a Presidential candidate was doomed when his opponent characterized him as an "egghead". Students of the time were told: "Good citizens do not want to be treated like privileged characters."
In programs for the 12 - 20 demographic, the cool kids have problems with classwork. The ones who do the work and get the grades are the figures of fun.
We can have a nation that values intelligence and academic accomplishment, or we can continue with what we have.
dumber than dumb
how do you think we got into this war
ignorance
instead americans want to blame the politicans
mirror time in america
during the vietnam war over 80% of americans did not know who the viet cong were
even mc cain has no idea who we are fighting in iraq
nations usually deserve their leaders
We are the dummies who have been taken to the river by our politicians at every election cycle, yet prevented from drinking any water.
How many times have we heard those shrewd politicians telling us: The American People want this or want that? They pretend to take cues from us, but ultimately vote for the interest of their handlers in Corporate America, because they know that we couldn’t tell the difference. This political deception will go on so long as the average American lives in this sad state of ignorance.
One statistic in the article stood out: 81% of surveyed knew about Pearl Harbor and nearly 70% knew about the Holocaust, yet only 1 in 4 knew about the five basic freedoms guaranteed by the constitution. This illustrates how good trained animals we have come to be. They can systemically ingrain in us selective knowledge which fits the propaganda of one special interest group or another, while withholding what make us better citizens in more vibrant democracy. Knowledge of the Holocaust is very useful in drawing our sympathy for Israel, thus billions of our tax money can be given to a racist, religious extremist state that is committing its own holocaust against the Palestinians. Feeding us selectively about Pearl Harbor will serve well the Military Industrial Complex who wants us to believe that we live in very hostile world that is ready to jump and destroy us. They don’t tell us, for example, that our defense spending is larger than the next 20 countries after us combined. Few Americans know how many democratically elected leaders we have overthrown and how many dictators we have installed around the globe who had murdered thousands of their own citizens at the order of our CIA. We, often, have been the victimizers not the victims.
Yes, the best experts at exploiting our ignorance are those whom we elected to represent us. George Bush and his Neocons were masters at exploiting our ignorance by taking us to war based on deception that we could not detect at the time. They gutted our Habeas Corpus right and civil liberties, with the help of Congress, by passing the Patriot Act. The sad fact about all of this is that they have treated us no better than trained animals in the process. Do you recall the color scheme they used to scare us with into submission: Yellow, Orange and Red colors flashing in our faces at airports, federal and state buildings? This scare tactics worked, we have elected a puppet master to a second term and now we are paying the price of our great ignorance.
Britney and Paris are more important than national and global issues?
What about only serving fast food at schools instead of healthy meals?
Instant gratification vs. working hard for what you want?
What about a young generation that has no manners and no respect for others?
Give a kid a "timeout" instead of a spanking? WTF!?!?!
Turn of the video games and tell them to get outside.
Turn off the TV and tell them to get a hooby.
Don't we as a society promote stupity, ignorance and laziness in our every day actions?
How about YOU be the change you want in the world. It starts with you and how you teach others by your actions.
I'm a liberal, but a liberal who doesn't choose to demonize the rest of the electorate as a bunch of ignorant bastards. As a former teacher, I've worked with the broken education system. You want to reform America? Reform the horrid education system, which teaches everyone they can be President, and where the students learn nothing.
The greatest blunders we liberals took part in is the destruction of the American education system. And it's our socially-aware, politically correct fault.
Wake up. Our education system is apartheid on a massive scale.
Michael
http://shambollocks.blogspot.com/
My guess is that former Senator Boren in his book, "A letter to America" has it right.