American Idiot

Way back in the Fifties, America woke up one morning to an alarming beeping sound. Not from an alarm clock, but a little satellite sent to space by the Soviets called Sputnik. We were shocked that our biggest enemy had proven that they were better than us. How could a country that could barely be called a second world country be so advanced that they could send something to orbit above our heads?

America panicked.  Fingers were pointed trying to lay blame, but the ultimate result was that our country made a big push in math and science. In education. We began to spend more money on education, and stressed to our next generations how important having said education was to our country’s future.

And it worked. In a matter of years we sent Americans to the moon.

So did America keep on this upward spiral of knowledge?  Nope.

Republicans decided it was more important that those with wealth should be able to make even more money. Starting with Reagan they began cutting away at funding for anything that would advance our culture and society. They drastically cut taxes to the rich and in turn slashed spending on education, the arts and social programs designed to aid the welfare of society.

This concept creeped down to the local level too and shortly state legislatures were cutting back on their funding to public schools and universities. This resulted in the cost to students skyrocketing and to get an advanced degree now meant the person would be saddled with debt for years to come.

People of lower social status and wealth recognized this de-emphasizing of education and began to respond in kind. They began to embrace the idea that not being smart was not a bad thing, even something to be admired and exalted.  I remember during the George W, years his devotes bragged about being “knuckle draggers.”  When I worked in a local school district, I remember kids from the lower social-economic class who would tease other kids for wanting to do well in class by calling them "school girl/boy."

 It grew even more with the Trump campaign that had crowds of angry white men shouting how proud they were to be deplorables. He purposely targeted the feeble-minded by playing to their prejudices and promising to enrich them—even though he didn't care for the lower classes at all and sought little more than a new means to enrich his personal bank account.

The GOP recognized this change in thinking and soon coyly changed the perspective of “elites” from those of wealth who looked down on the lower classes, to those who were intellectually advanced. Now the so called elites are the educated.  Sound familiar? That's because dictators often put the intelligent up against the wall first. That's why you'd see book burnings in Nazi Germany as well as professors in jail for not following the party line (also popular in the Soviet Union.

So are we destined to become the decaying society satirically portrayed in the movie “Idiocracy?” A country so stupid they don't even know you use water to grow plants, not some popular fizzy soda? A place so brain-numbed that it votes in leaders who are better at flexing muscles than their brain? As it stands, I'd say very likely.

Ahhh, James Thurber (he was smart)