Hmmmm I can haz ideaz now?

One of the most frustrating aspects of the recent election and the general long term warfare of confronting weird ass republican myths is the way you actually have to listen to them as if they are based on fact and respond in kind. After about the three hundredth time of hearing for example the “Obama is a Muslim” meme or “Obama is a communist” concern what I actually wanted to say was: Are you fucking stupid, illiterate, have you read a book or newspaper in the last twenty years,do you actually ever have your own fucking thoughts or ideas or does that proposition just scare you so much you would rather not make the effort and rent a  damaged brain with all the other stupid fucks who say that same shit. And Jesus H Christ people actually ask me why I haven’t become a citizen yet. I mean I am of very average intelligence and often think my homeland is populated by the blandly average people and you want to know why I am hesitating to join land of the blatantly intellectually lazy?

But I didn’t do any of that. Nope. Partially because Hey it doesn’t win them over and partially because I knew I was not operating from a position of intellectual superiority but chatting with people who had a complete and absolute lack of curiosity about most of the universe. If we really do have massive economic realignment they are going to be shocked, surprised and act like a rabid mob.

Chris Hedges argues that the divide is actually between not Red vs Blue but between being literate and post literate and you can read the article  here.

He notes….

There are over 42 million American adults, 20 percent of whom hold high school diplomas, who cannot read, as well as the 50 million who read at a fourth- or fifth-grade level. Nearly a third of the nation’s population is illiterate or barely literate. And their numbers are growing by an estimated 2 million a year. But even those who are supposedly literate retreat in huge numbers into this image-based existence. A third of high school graduates, along with 42 percent of college graduates, never read a book after they finish school. Eighty percent of the families in the United States last year did not buy a book.

I admit he doesn’t cite his statistics but if one agrees with the premise the idea that one does or does not have some form of “education” doesn’t have a significant impact. My grandparents both had a grade six and grade eight education respectively. They were infused will notions about how reading made one a better person, that one had a vague obligation to know a few things. And I imagine reading must have been a nice escape for say my grandfather who worked a shitty and dangerous job oiling the equipment at a steel plant that no longer exists. Nor did he complain about it. Compared to losing the family farm and then working on it for the new owner it must have seemed not all that bad. Compared to fighting in tanks in Africa, it must have seemed reasonable. He wasn’t much of a talker about that experience but told my grandmother that they were “death tins.”

As a result political campaigns reflect a certain vacant quality…

Political leaders in our post-literate society no longer need to be competent, sincere or honest. They only need to appear to have these qualities. Most of all they need a story, a narrative. The reality of the narrative is irrelevant. It can be completely at odds with the facts.

Everything in essence becomes entertainment and must be presented as such in order to be consumed and validated.

In our post-literate world, because ideas are inaccessible, there is a need for constant stimulus. News, political debate, theater, art and books are judged not on the power of their ideas but on their ability to entertain. Cultural products that force us to examine ourselves and our society are condemned as elitist and impenetrable. Hannah Arendt warned that the marketization of culture leads to its degradation, that this marketization creates a new celebrity class of intellectuals who, although well read and informed themselves, see their role in society as persuading the masses that “Hamlet” can be as entertaining as “The Lion King” and perhaps as educational. “Culture,” she wrote, “is being destroyed in order to yield entertainment.”

“There are many great authors of the past who have survived centuries of oblivion and neglect,” Arendt wrote, “but it is still an open question whether they will be able to survive an entertaining version of what they have to say.”

What interests me is what if in changing economic times those cultural products become less affordable? It was pointed out to me in another essay by a commenter who never lies that Americans are more likely to watch say more TV with leisure time than say create great art or take up a stimulating hobby. If we really have to give up our cable TV and celebrity reality diversions will be become more curious or simply more mute? Hedges thinks as things get worse, so will a vast part of our consumer culture…

The core values of our open society, the ability to think for oneself, to draw independent conclusions, to express dissent when judgment and common sense indicate something is wrong, to be self-critical, to challenge authority, to understand historical facts, to separate truth from lies, to advocate for change and to acknowledge that there are other views, different ways of being, that are morally and socially acceptable, are dying. Obama used hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign funds to appeal to and manipulate this illiteracy and irrationalism to his advantage, but these forces will prove to be his most deadly nemesis once they collide with the awful reality that awaits us.

The debate itself about the vapid nature of our culture is nothing new. And in many cases has been appropriated by right wing elites to justify why only they can be trusted to make the difficult decisions. But it makes me wonder if those who have already opted out of consuming mainstream media culture are in fact the best prepared to survive trying times. My mother who says when the digital changes come to TV she just isn’t going to buy one and doesn’t want me wasting money to get her one will do remarkably better despite advancing age and other economic issues pressurizing her than many others.

I am not wistful for the good old days either, I don’t want to go back to the 1950’s but I am very curious about where going forward will take us all. We are a nation lacking critical thinking skills at a time when they might be pretty fucking handy.