Taking Pride- in Being Ignorant

Earlier this month, Sen. McCain and his party honchos made fun of Sen. Obama when the latter suggested that, based on studies, proper tuneups and correctly inflated tires could reduce energy consumption. Sen. McCain's GOP folks sent out "Obama" tire pressure gauges to reporters, saying THAT was Sen. Obama's energy plan. Sen. Obama gave a studied response to this attack, and summarized it by saying that "Now two points, one, they know they're lying about what my energy plan is, but the other thing is they're making fun of a step that every expert says would absolutely reduce our oil consumption by 3 to 4 percent. It’s like these guys take pride in being ignorant."

That, in essence, is the greatest achievement of Karl Rove, George W. Bush and their associates. They have succeeded in not only exploiting people's ignorance, but have made ignorance a proud badge. Some examples:

• Exploiting people's ignorance of other religions and constantly tying Saddam Hussein to 9/11, when they knew it was false.
• Making faith, rather than reasoning, a key factor in hiring and in funding. The so called "faith based initiatives" and "faith based education" were given much greater prominence, and science was ridiculed.
• Blaming the growth of China and India for the rise in oil prices. The crooks never explained to the ignorant Americans how much energy the U.S. consumes per person, and why this is unsustainable.
• Bush made it appear cool that he did not read much, was not inquisitive, and went to bed early.
  

Paul Krugman wrote an Op-Ed in the NYT today about this topic, titled the "Know-Nothing Politics." He says that "What I mean, instead, is that know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”........Let’s also not forget that for years President Bush was the center of a cult of personality that lionized him as a real-world Forrest Gump, a simple man who prevails through his gut instincts and moral superiority. “Mr. Bush is the triumph of the seemingly average American man,” declared Peggy Noonan, writing in The Wall Street Journal in 2004. “He’s not an intellectual. Intellectuals start all the trouble in the world.”"

A large part of the public that knows better has chosen to keep silent as these operatives make continued ignorance a cause for celebration. It is no wonder that companies are outsourcing "knowledge work" to people who try to investigate rather than be ignorant. Until the public is educated enough to learn the value of knowledge and curiosity, one can only expect dire results.