We are truly in an "Age of Ignorance"

[chervilant]

52. Wow.

We humans are innately curious. We are creative creatures. Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs suggests that our drive to create is as important to our existence as food, water, and shelter. An essential component of our creative drive is the commensurate need to be recognized for our contributions. ALL of us have the capacity to create (save for a very few whose mental processes are hampered by disease or injury). ALL of us thrive on recognition (e.g., we don’t need to be told we’re stupid or slow).

If we look at contemporary research on timed IQ tests, we find that most of the participating research subjects score 'near genius' if the timed element of the test is removed. I contend that this research substantiates the fact that all human beings possess fully functioning, fully capable brains (again, save for a very few whose brains have been damaged or are hampered by disease or drug use). According to contemporary research, including research conducted to assess current educational methodologies, we humans all learn in different ways, and at different paces.

Now, consider this: our species has evolved a system of education that conflates hierarchy with intellect. The faster you can solve a complex problem, the 'smarter' you are perceived to be. If you are a child of privilege, your IQ may only be limited by your own intellectual laziness (Dubyah comes readily to mind...). However, if you are a child living in poverty, solving complex academic problems is likely subsumed by the daily rigors of simply surviving. If your primary language is not English, solving complex academic problems may be impossible until you learn to speak a new language. In all these instances, your IQ could be off the charts, but who would know?

Worse yet, our vaunted system of public education is structured to convince two-thirds to three-quarters of us that we have average or below average intellects. Can you say "self-fulfilling prophecy"? Might you be one of those unfortunates who grew up believing that an average intellect was your unenviable albatross? Must we blame those among us who bought into this stultifying, hierarchical definition of IQ?

In The Age of American Unreason, Susan Jacoby notes that

America is now ill with a powerful mutant strain of intertwined ignorance, anti-rationalism, and anti-intellectualism...the virulence of the current outbreak is inseparable from an unmindfulness that is, paradoxically, both aggressive and passive. This condition is aggressively promoted by everyone, from politicians to media executives, whose livelihood depends on a public that derives its opinions from sound bites and blogs, and it is passively accepted by a public in thrall to the serpent promising effortless enjoyment from the fruit of the tree of infotainment.

If our species is to evolve beyond this "Age of American Unreason," we must not buy into the specious argument that 'conservative' individuals are likely to possess 'low IQs' and/or have the tendency to be prejudiced, while ‘liberal’ individuals are likely to be ‘intellectual snobs.’ We must refuse to snarf these divisive red herrings. We must change the dialogue.

I have to confess that I have been teetering on the edge of bitter misanthropy these last six years--angrily and impotently watching a democratic administration continue the Bush administration's hedonistic obeisance to the vile Corporate Megalomaniacs who've usurped our media, our politics and our global economy. I’ve felt alienated from the countless bloggers online who revel in hate- and fear- mongering, who gleefully hurl invectives and indulge in name-calling, using the vilest vulgar epithets to vilify those with whom they disagree.

I admit that I almost made the same mistake these vile Corporate Megalomaniacs have made: I had concluded that the last sixty years of co-opted public education had strangled our citizens' critical thinking skills beyond redemption. I thought that the vast majority of us had become complacent little automatons, completely devoted to wanton consumerism. I thought our species had devolved into spiteful, narcissistic, hedonistic brats. #Occupy (and OPs like yours) changed my mind: I have hope we can change our dialogue and our likely future.


(In addition to Jacoby's The Age of American Unreason, I highly recommend Jerry Mander's Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, Richard Hofstadter's The Paranoid Style in American Politics, and Marilyn French's Beyond Power.)