If America were filled with smart people w/ great critical thinking skills

[Bouncy Ball]

(and a good watchdog media would help in that regard), this is what would happen:

1. The last name "bush" would be political poison for the next 200 years or so. Anyone related to them wouldn't be able to get elected city dogcatcher.

2. Anyone even REMOTELY associated with the Nixon, Reagan, Poppy or Slippy McFalls-A-Lot administrations would be pariahs in DC and in state and local governments all over the land. The "free market" would turn their backs on them, too, with their books sitting dusty in clearance bins and no one offering any consulting or speechifying jobs. Americans would finally realize the worst of the worst that have caused our most horrible problems are ALL cronies of those administrations.

3. Which would lead Americans to re-think the republican party altogether. They'd realize (through their critical thinking skills and loads of information) that there must be something very rotten at the core of a political party that produced such horrible people and events.

Can you add anything to the list?

[Fenris]

1. America is a nation of mediocre intellect.

Read your Tocqueville. He makes that point in the beginning. Except he seems to think it serves us well. Maybe it did then, but...;)

[LiberalEsto]

2. We're not stupid - most are simply miseducated

A lot of what goes on in the nation's public schools is simply social indoctrination -- pledge of allegiance, line up, do this, do that. Creativity is generally stifled, and critical thiking is discouraged. So much time is taken up with teaching kids to do well on tests, that there's no time for anything else.

And the rest of the brain gets filled up with moronic tv, moronic films, etc. Forget about books, they're so 20th century.

[Bouncy Ball]

6. We are taught too much WHAT to think, not HOW to think.

[Telly Savalas]

7. I went to a public school and call me arrogant...

but I think I came out alright.

The problem isn't that people aren't taught critical thinking skills, but rather that they consciously choose not to use them.

[LiberalEsto]

12. I graduated from a public high school in 1969

back when people were actually taught to read and write and spell and reason and all those fancy things....and I thought I received an excellent education.

[bridgit]

3. as a gestalt, the american landscape is flat-out strewn...

with vast ignorance & delusion imo; there are bright, individual moments, but too oft times fleeting in sum total.

[killbotfactory]

4. For years the our government has used the media of foreign gov'ts

To support coups and other such things.

The people responsible for this kind of "realpolitik" saw the success of their efforts and decided to use the US media this way. Hence the push for deregulation.

It's no wonder people are misinformed or ignorant about these criminals. They've poisoned the media to suit their purpose.

[FloridaPat]

5. Two comments about the average American mind.

1. When I was in college in Penn State, one of my classes was a mock Senate. Now you would think that 50 students from Penna would mostly think the same and agree about a lot of things. I was suprised how little agreement there was. That was in the 60's when people were smarter.

2. I was think just this week - we really only a one party system. Where the hell is the opposition party? What are the Democrats doing? Pretty much nothing for the last 25 years. I am almost willing to believe they are paid for by the repubs just to let us think we have a 2 party system. The repubs have spent the last 5 years with * at the helm destroying this country. Poinst blank question - what can the average person do anymore? Writing our representives is pretty much worthless. So is voting. Too many people are scounging around for enough money to feed and clothe themselves and family to take off from work and demonstration and protest our government. Then enemy is now the government. We have no one in power on our side.

There has to be a way out of this mess, and the Democratic party doesn't look like the exit.

[geniph]

8. Slippy McFalls-A-Lot?

bwahahahaha! That's the first time I've seen that one. I may steal it.

[mnhtnbb]

10. Check out this poster

Merry Christmas 2008 you can get it in a t-shirt, too


All blue, except Texas



http://www.cafepress.com/cp/browse/?Ntt=Merry+Christmas+2008&Nao=1&No=1&Nty=1&N=0&Ntk=All&x=30&y=12&pp=

[Qibing Zero]

9. It's not just the people

The problem is that the smartest people in the country are NOT in positions to use their talents. The people running our government, for the most part, are just simply unfit. Sadly, it's getting worse, not better.

[gumby]

11. For some reason,

I thought of what may be one the most disgusting articles ever written.

Sally Quinn, 1998, WOPO http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/quinn110298.htm

Get in the way-back machine and see how these "elites" operate.