THE POSTMODERN DARK AGE

        In case everybody missed it, aside from Saturday's hoopla over Earth Day, there was something better that went mostly unnoticed on Sunday.

     I certainly did my part on this one; visiting the few remaining bookstores in the area and collecting a few more of the words and experiences of Dead White Males (along with a cookbook or two 😇). 

   When we actually had functional schools in the United States, we were taught to respect books. Today in the Prozac Nation, reading is actually discouraged. In one of the first posts at this blog---seven years ago---we detailed the disgraceful results of one of the last comprehensive studies done on American literacy. Since that report was released, nothing has been done to address the problem. In fact, our Elites praise cultures that burn books, while stigmatizing ones which promote literacy. In a culture where memes and aphorisms pass for reasoned argument and stand-up comics and sportscasters pass for great intellectuals, 400+ page theses are not going to be held in much of anything but contempt. 

   It's not just reading which has suffered; apparently writing is apparently no longer considered a subject of any major importance. The other day, I wrote a note to some elderly woman and she complimented my handwriting, then added: "You know, they don't teach that cursive writing in school any more."

     Postmodern America has truly become a breeding-ground for morons. The amount of time it seems like many of us expend trying to explain basic concepts like 'why there are only two genders' and 'why the Earth isn't flat' is really shocking when one thinks about it. The stupidity cuts across political spectrums too. The Left looks up to complete idiots like Yuval Harari, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and Richard Carrier; while the Right has mental midgets like Victor Hanson, Dennis Prager, and Doug Wilson. Both freely indulge in pseudoscience too; the Scientism of the Left is well-documented; but the Right's embrasure of foolishness like Evolutionary Psychology and Racial Theories are just as bad.

    Despite what many Americans seem to believe, Critical Thinking skills are an outgrowth of Literacy. The reason that public schools (at least used to) try and get children to read an early age was because scientists (real ones) knew that abstract reasoning begins to develop around age 12. Some of the Academic charlatans on the Right tout their universities with "Great Books Series." In reality, we were reading Homeric poems around 4th Grade and Cicero and Pliny in High School. Late in High School and early in college, English studies advanced beyond Grammar and Literature to studies like Linguistics, Philology, Logic, Rhetoric, etc.---courses which taught literary analysis. I recall taking courses late in high school where we analyzed advertising, speeches, propaganda and so forth. None of this is taught outside a few mostly Catholic parochial schools and colleges; and the Junta would be delighted to close most of them down. 

    

    In America, we've always had our share of dorks; but one of our advantages was that we lacked a hereditary monarchy of inbreds which gave the general population a wide latitude of freedom of the mind. We benefited greatly from immigration of people with intelligence who couldn't rise above the restrictions and social limitations by the nobility's hired flatterers in the churches and universities. This changed after WW2 for two major reasons:

   1. The advent of television, which dumbed down audiences and pandered to the lowest common denominator to make them more susceptible to advertising.

   2. A major push during the post-war period to turn higher education into a commodity as opposed to a profession.

   Like a lot of our problems today, widespread ignorance and overt anti-intellectualism is promoted because vested interests profit from it. Obviously it is in the interests of both the political and economic Oligarchy to rule over a majority incapable of critical thought. Just as intellect and innovation were dangerous to Ruling Classes of old Europe; their successors in the Uniparty and on Wall Street likewise consider them dangerous. This is why control of the schools became important and since the mid-20th Century we've increasingly seen American parents abdicate such responsibilities, leaving their offspring to participate in the great Paper Chase.

   Thus, the average university today is really nothing more than a pay-to-play scam and so-called 'Academics' often find themselves pressured to support (or become willing accomplices of) the interests of their benefactors, including governments and private entities that fund grants. In fact, it is widely argued that this is trained into them in education, as the same pressures are exerted by teachers and professors upon their students. So the cycle of corruption and ignorance continues. 

   Sadly, this is a problem with no easy solution. The aforementioned cycle is one that is self-reinforcing. Though ignorance and illiteracy contribute to social deterioration, the corrupt system upon which it is erected depends upon public gullibility and credulousness for its support. What we need is a new Enlightenment of some sort; one that extols knowledge and opposes fraud. Whether we have it in us to accomplish this is an open question.