Living With Stupidity

Political consultant and TV analyst James Carville hit the nail on the head with a recent comment in response to a CNN question about his thought on the controversy related to President Obama addressing school children. He began his thoughts by saying that the fact is that in America we have a large number of stupid people and we just have to accept that fact and work with it. He was kind enought not to make any analysis of why we have so many stupid people. Let me offer an explanation or explanations.

One reason is that we do not have any profound experience with the world outside America. Only about 11% of our citizens have Passports indicating a decided lack of experience outside our boundaries. We do not have enough experience outside our own to have a sense of the world as it is or to gain the knowledge that exists outside our reality. Another reason would be fear, mostly promoted by politically motivated actors chief of whom would be the radio talk show folks who make a living on spreading lies and generating fear and then anger.

Ideologies create stupidity because they invite those who are true believers to block out all data, reality and experience which does not fit the ideology. Fundamental religion does the same. We have plenty of both.

I think Carville's comments are almost indisputable and the rest of the world would line up behind him in support. Just ask people who have to receive the tourists we do send around the world. Most of the tourists will wise up with some experience and those who are stupid just do not go out again because they are offended that people in other nations do not recognize their inalienable right to consider themselves smarter and better than the rest of the world.

What is disturbing about Carville's comments is that he suggests that we have to begin to factor this stupidity into how we live, work for good government and pursue what is good for the nation. I wonder whay his strategies would be for doing this. Maybe we could go back to a poll tax that would eliminate the stupid people from voting or we could try to make a vaccine against stupidity since there seems to be an epidemic of it, especially since President Obama assumed the office of the presidency. i would suggest that if we could identify the gene that was responsible for people believing the creationist explanation of nature or develop a test that would expose social/political/religous tendencies that lead to such a belief we would have the basis for at least identifying who these stupid people are. But, I would suggest therapy and a good dose of whatever methods work against brainwashing rather then eliminating them from intervention in our political and social processes.

The problem is that there are so many of them. We are, after all, the nation that elected George Bush twice. I am not suggesting that everyone who disagrees with the President..or for that matter, with me...is stupid. Open, informed and critical debate demands that we have differing views and the assumption that none of us has all the wisdom available. We need this debate and we need each other to have the debate. Truth is, that one question can have several good answers. Stupidity of the kind Carville is talking about is exactly the lack of an open mind and and an inquiring spirit. Stupid people do not debate or go into dialogue. Rather, they want to quiet all other voices and suppress the free exchange of ideas. You cannot do this, anymore, by overtly arresting or imprisoning or otherwise physically restraining those who have opposing ideas, at least not, for the moment in our country. So, you just make sure that you don't hear anything - you shout or you pull your child out of school for those sessions which might be presided over by someone you know you don't agree with.

Back to reality, the question remains of what to do. It is a serious question because there is a danger and there is precedent for the fact that occassionally, these stupid people, although I hope they are not in the majority, take control of the country. Even more often they raise enough fuss to keep us from making wise decisions. In a democracy it is possible that the stupid people will control the balance of power to sway decisions or even actually run the country. As power is something of an aphrodisiac, someone will always think of how to put together a winner political coalition like united the stupid with the confused, the fearful and those who are just wrong and those who are mean. Or has somebody already done this?

Anyway, we need some suggestions from Carville on how to develop strategies to ensure that the stupid do not take over the country. I suppose one possible antidote would be to continue good, open, intelligent debate of issues although the current debate on health care in America does not seem to have achieved this goal.

The great American answer to all things is citizen action, so I would suppose that Carville has in mind that we all put a grain of sand on the seashore to build a beach (or a beachead against the debilitating effects of stupidty). For my part I will be producing bumper stickers that say: Combat Stupidity: Don't Send Your Children to School!!!