Rick Raw: Dumbing of America Reaches Crisis Level– Anti-intellectualism is Rampant

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

"It’s a confederacy of dunces," John Kennedy Toole

They’re out there in droves–the dumb acting fools. They include the bad drivers, philandering politicians, incompetent service workers, and red necks. Also included are the hordes of people who abuse fertility services by having 5 to 8 to 14 kids. Most doltish are college students who clearly haven’t been learning anything in their years of higher education except drinking beer and having sex.

It’s a full blown crisis of anti-intellectualism. Jay Leno’s popular segment "Jaywalking," which exposes blatant stupidity from mostly college students, is just a microcosm of the big picture.

Yes, the dumbing of America is epidemic and soon we’ll have an entire population of nitwits. In contrast, other countries are now surpassing the United States in intellectualism and educational achievement.

Generally, Americans go about their daily duties oblivious to anything but their narrow little world. For many citizens, learning stopped after college or high school. More shockingly, many Americans have let themselves go by avoiding exercise and becoming obese. Many people, including me, are TV addicts, spending many hours rotting their brains watching television. I compensate by hours of writing and learning.

Of course, now we have many other mind numbing distractions including smart phones, iPods, laptops, desktops, the Internet, and the availability of paid for downloadable music. We twitter, E-mail, write messages on our Face book pages, and talk endlessly on our cell phones. There’s too much mindless chatter going through the air.

All these communication devices have a positive side. Anyone can research anything via the Internet or wirelessly through the air on our smart phones and laptops. Infinite information is at our fingertips, but many people choose to seek out useless data, such as Paris Hilton’s latest exploits.

Yes, I’m guilty of occasionally watching TruTv’s "The World’s Dumbest" with the D-list celebrities making humorous commentary. In an odd way, this only substantiates my case that mindlessness is viral in America. It’s like a dumb bomb of invisible stupid gas has fallen on our country.

So, am I exaggerating the problem? No, I don’t think so. Every day I see drivers on the roads do the stupidest things. I see people driving while texting, or reading with the text on the steering wheel. Everyone is talking on cell hones while driving (I’m guilty of this one, although I try to pull over in a safe place to talk). I see drivers suddenly make a turn without using their turn signals, and I see drivers traveling way too slow or way too fast for the road conditions.

More annoyingly, my pet peeve is drivers who race up to the intersection like their not going to stop and then they suddenly slam on their brakes, but inch ahead. Idiots! Frankly, I think most people take their driving skills for granted until they get in a serious accident.

If one has been driving for many years, then it’s a good idea to take a defensive driving course, especially for seniors. Yes, that applies to me at 68. And yes, I did take a defensive driving course some years ago. But I try to remind myself to drive carefully and defensively. But, like so many people, I occasionally let my mind wander while driving. One moment of the loss of concentration can be disastrous.

It’s a given that politicians can’t be trusted or relied upon to do their jobs as our representatives. However, the rash of philandering politicians has recently reached ridiculous proportions. The rogues gallery of loutish, lying, cheating lawmakers include Newt Gingrich, Senator and former Presidential Candidate John Edwards, Senator Ensign, N.J. Governor McGreevey, N.Y.Governor Spitzer, and most recently S.C. Governor Sanford. And the king of the philanders is, of course, ex-president Bill Clinton.

Clinton created a new class of cheaters. For twelve years as Governor of Arkansas, Clinton carried on a sordid affair with Jennifer Flowers. His audacity was legendary when he fooled around with intern Monica Lewinski in the White House. However, Clinton survived the scandal because he was smart and was doing a great job as president. "I did not have sex with that woman," is fall-down funny in the glare of history.

Philanderers like Eliot Spitzer was not only a liar and cheated on his wife with a series of expensive call girls, but he was a hypocrite by busting the same call girl services he was using in NYC. His level of betrayal rightly caused him to lose everything.

Newt Gingrich was carrying on an affair while his wife was fighting cancer in the hospital, which made his betrayal that much more egregious. The latest rogue to be caught is Governor Sanford who went AWOL from his job, flew to Argentina to have sex with his mistress, and told everyone he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail. Right.

All the advances in electronic technology are a double edged sword. They open up the world of knowledge to our fingertips. These devices can be a great learning tool. However, they can be a major distraction to the continuation of learning after our formal education.

My humble advice for my fellow Americans (and myself) is to wake up to the bigger world beyond their daily life. Read the Internet news sites and pay attention to current events. Continue learning new things about science and history. After all, life itself is a learning experience. Sure, we live–we die–who cares? It’s what happens in between that matters.