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agentX
Joined: 12 Oct 2007
Location: Jeolla province
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 Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 6:16 am Post subject: OP-ED: America the Illiterate |
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http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/11/10-6
Very scary and somewhat shocking OP-ED about the level of literacy in the US.
Yes foreigners, the vast majority of our countrymen are MORONS! We know already. Feel free to use this article on anyone who gets a little too high and mighty, if you want.
Note: text in () are my thoughts, not the author's.
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Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Published on Monday, November 10, 2008 by TruthDig.com
America the Illiterate
by Chris Hedges
We live in two Americas. One America, now the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world. It can cope with complexity and has the intellectual tools to separate illusion from truth)Obama voters). The other America, which constitutes the majority, exists in a non-reality-based belief system. This America, dependent on skillfully manipulated images for information, has severed itself from the literate, print-based culture. It cannot differentiate between lies and truth. It is informed by simplistic, childish narratives and clich�s. It is thrown into confusion by ambiguity, nuance and self-reflection(McCain/Palin voters). This divide, more than race, class or gender, more than rural or urban, believer or nonbeliever, red state or blue state, has split the country into radically distinct, unbridgeable and antagonistic entities.
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.
The illiterate rarely vote, and when they do vote they do so without the ability to make decisions based on textual information. American political campaigns, which have learned to speak in the comforting epistemology of images, eschew real ideas and policy for cheap slogans and reassuring personal narratives. Political propaganda now masquerades as ideology(FOX NEWS). Political campaigns have become an experience. They do not require cognitive or self-critical skills. They are designed to ignite pseudo-religious feelings of euphoria, empowerment and collective salvation. Campaigns that succeed are carefully constructed psychological instruments that manipulate fickle public moods, emotions and impulses, many of which are subliminal. They create a public ecstasy that annuls individuality and fosters a state of mindlessness. They thrust us into an eternal present. They cater to a nation that now lives in a state of permanent amnesia. It is style and story, not content or history or reality, which inform our politics and our lives. We prefer happy illusions("The Fundamentals of Our Economy Are Strong"). And it works because so much of the American electorate, including those who should know better, blindly cast ballots for slogans, smiles, the cheerful family tableaux, narratives and the perceived sincerity and the attractiveness of candidates. We confuse how we feel with knowledge.
The illiterate and semi-literate, once the campaigns are over, remain powerless. They still cannot protect their children from dysfunctional public schools. They still cannot understand predatory loan deals, the intricacies of mortgage papers, credit card agreements and equity lines of credit that drive them into foreclosures and bankruptcies (That's more the bank's fault than the consumer). They still struggle with the most basic chores of daily life from reading instructions on medicine bottles to filling out bank forms, car loan documents and unemployment benefit and insurance papers. They watch helplessly and without comprehension as hundreds of thousands of jobs are shed. They are hostages to brands. Brands come with images and slogans. Images and slogans are all they understand. Many eat at fast food restaurants not only because it is cheap but because they can order from pictures rather than menus. And those who serve them, also semi-literate or illiterate, punch in orders on cash registers whose keys are marked with symbols and pictures. This is our brave new world.(Holy shit! So that's why it takes 5 minutes to get a goddamn cheeseburger!)
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(Bush II). Most of all they need a story, a narrative. The reality of the narrative is irrelevant(Ain't dat da truf). It can be completely at odds with the facts. The consistency and emotional appeal of the story are paramount. The most essential skill in political theater and the consumer culture is artifice. Those who are best at artifice succeed. Those who have not mastered the art of artifice fail(Nadar should've hired Michael Bay for communications director). In an age of images and entertainment, in an age of instant emotional gratification, we do not seek or want honesty. We ask to be indulged and entertained by clich�s, stereotypes and mythic narratives that tell us we can be whomever we want to be, that we live in the greatest country on Earth, that we are endowed with superior moral and physical qualities and that our glorious future is preordained, either because of our attributes as Americans or because we are blessed by God or both(there are a LOT of smart Americans who believe this horseshit as well).
The ability to magnify these simple and childish lies, to repeat them and have surrogates repeat them in endless loops of news cycles, gives these lies the aura of an uncontested truth. We are repeatedly fed words or phrases like yes we can, maverick, change, pro-life, hope or war on terror. It feels good not to think. All we have to do is visualize what we want, believe in ourselves and summon those hidden inner resources, whether divine or national, that make the world conform to our desires. Reality is never an impediment to our advancement.
The Princeton Review analyzed the transcripts of the Gore-Bush debates, the Clinton-Bush-Perot debates of 1992, the Kennedy-Nixon debates of 1960 and the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. It reviewed these transcripts using a standard vocabulary test that indicates the minimum educational standard needed for a reader to grasp the text. During the 2000 debates George W. Bush spoke at a sixth-grade level (6.7)[What about in 2004?] and Al Gore at a seventh-grade level (7.6). In the 1992 debates Bill Clinton spoke at a seventh-grade level (7.6), while George H.W. Bush spoke at a sixth-grade level (6. , as did H. Ross Perot (6.3). In the debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon the candidates spoke in language used by 10th-graders. In the debates of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas the scores were respectively 11.2 and 12.0. In short, today�s political rhetoric is designed to be comprehensible to a 10-year-old child or an adult with a sixth-grade reading level. It is fitted to this level of comprehension because most Americans speak, think and are entertained at this level. This is why serious film and theater and other serious artistic expression, as well as newspapers and books, are being pushed to the margins of American society. Voltaire was the most famous man of the 18th century. Today the most famous �person� is Mickey Mouse(#2: Jesus. #3 Peyton Manning. #4 Britney Spears)
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(Damn Librul Media). 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.�(I don't see this as a problem; Imagine Macbeth with Russians, Zombies, Aliens, and Nuclear weapons. Can you say "$330 million box office gross"?)
�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.�
The change from a print-based to an image-based society has transformed our nation. Huge segments of our population, especially those who live in the embrace of the Christian Right(Reich) and the consumer culture, are completely unmoored from reality. They lack the capacity to search for truth and cope rationally with our mounting social and economic ills. They seek clarity, entertainment and order. They are willing to use force to impose this clarity on others, especially those who do not speak as they speak and think as they think(People running off with political signs in other people's yards). All the traditional tools of democracies, including dispassionate scientific and historical truth, facts, news and rational debate, are useless instruments in a world that lacks the capacity to use them.
As we descend into a devastating economic crisis, one that Barack Obama cannot halt, there will be tens of millions of Americans who will be ruthlessly thrust aside. As their houses are foreclosed, as their jobs are lost, as they are forced to declare bankruptcy and watch their communities collapse, they will retreat even further into irrational fantasy. They will be led toward glittering and self-destructive illusions by our modern Pied Pipers�our corporate advertisers, our charlatan preachers, our television news celebrities, our self-help gurus, our entertainment industry and our political demagogues�who will offer increasingly absurd forms of escapism.
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 (Is this spelled right? It comes up wrong in my Firefux browser) to his advantage, but these forces will prove to be his most deadly nemesis once they collide with the awful reality that awaits us.
Copyright � 2008 Truthdig, L.L.C. |
Sounds like the USA could use some EFL (English as a First Language) teachers.
This is a multi-generational issue that didn't happen overnight and won't be solved overnight. Too bad the American attention span is only 7 to 8 minutes, so framing the solution will be difficult. That is, if you want to bother telling them. Sometimes, deception is the better part of valor.
While you guys are doing that, I'm gonna talk to Michael Bay about that MacBeth idea. |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 6:56 am Post subject: |
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Do political candidates in other countries eschew simple slogans and sound-bites in their campaigns? I was under the impression that this behavior is imprinted into the DNA of politicians everywhere.
As far as the reported U.S. literacy rate goes, that is truly depressing. America obviously needs to address this problem forthwith.
OTOH, while I have no doubt a real problem exists, perhaps immigration can skew these types of statistics, as many with English literacy problems (children and adults alike) may not have grown up in the U.S. school system or came into it too late to make much of a difference. Doesn't make it less of a problem for society, however (btw, that wasn't an anti-immigration jab).
In any event, I'd be interested in seeing the methodology of the statistical research supporting the article (not saying I would understand it, necessarily, but 'what the hey?'). |
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Cheonmunka
Joined: 04 Jun 2004
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| Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 3:38 pm Post subject: |
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Man. thats to long. Noone can't read that long stuff. Besides in anycase however, ive gotta go. I have a class and there waiting for me to start.
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Eighty percent of the families in the United States last year did not buy a book.
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Maybe they are not so stupid, they use libraries.
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| We are repeatedly fed words or phrases like yes we can, maverick, change, pro-life, hope or war on terror. |
I'll give another one: 'Commander in Chief.'  |
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samcheokguy
Joined: 02 Nov 2008
Location: Samcheok G-do
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| Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 6:02 pm Post subject: |
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| great. people who vote for McCain are illiterate now? until Modern times, people admitted great minds could exist at either end of the political spectrum. No one has denied that Lenin and Thatcher were both smart people. But today conservatives=stupid. Buckley was a pedantic jerk but he wasn't stupid. |
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nathanrutledge
Joined: 01 May 2008
Location: Marakesh
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| Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 6:28 pm Post subject: |
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| samcheokguy wrote: |
| great. people who vote for McCain are illiterate now? until Modern times, people admitted great minds could exist at either end of the political spectrum. No one has denied that Lenin and Thatcher were both smart people. But today conservatives=stupid. Buckley was a pedantic jerk but he wasn't stupid. |
What does "pedantic" mean? lets keep this to a 6th grade level please.  |
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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 7:24 pm Post subject: |
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I find a lot n dat RtikL hard 2 swallow. howevR, ther iz a dearth of intell... hu cARz, wot iz a prob iz info & d digestion & discussion of dat. America iz t% insular 4 itz own gud.
thx,
DD
http://eflclassroom.ning.com |
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Bigfeet
Joined: 29 May 2008
Location: Grrrrr.....
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| Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 6:15 am Post subject: Re: OP-ED: America the Illiterate |
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| agentX wrote: |
This is a multi-generational issue that didn't happen overnight and won't be solved overnight. |
This issue won't be fixed overnight because it never happened. When was there a time when Americans were significantly more literate than they are right now? My guess is never.
Back in Lincoln's time a significantly higher proportion of the people was illiterate. Press consisted almost entirely of print and people that couldn't read could not follow politics closely. They depended on friends and other people for information, not the press. So Lincoln spoke at a higher level simply because the people that could understand him, mostly by reading print, were the educated.
Political speech for the masses has been dumbed down simply because a higher proportion of the people can follow politics these days through TV and not just by reading. The more people you try to appeal to, the simpler you have to make the message. |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 6:58 am Post subject: Re: OP-ED: America the Illiterate |
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| Bigfeet wrote: |
| agentX wrote: |
This is a multi-generational issue that didn't happen overnight and won't be solved overnight. |
This issue won't be fixed overnight because it never happened. When was there a time when Americans were significantly more literate than they are right now? My guess is never.
Back in Lincoln's time a significantly higher proportion of the people was illiterate. Press consisted almost entirely of print and people that couldn't read could not follow politics closely. They depended on friends and other people for information, not the press. So Lincoln spoke at a higher level simply because the people that could understand him, mostly by reading print, were the educated.
Political speech for the masses has been dumbed down simply because a higher proportion of the people can follow politics these days through TV and not just by reading. The more people you try to appeal to, the simpler you have to make the message. |
I read that so many people who dropped out of high school at grade 9 were often more literate than people who finished school recently.
Frankly, I believe that since people were encouraged to sound more sophisticated in the past. The language has been dumbed down so much. Look at the music we listen to these days. It's not really sophisticated at all. Even the cartoons from decades ago sounded sophisticated. Of course, the little kid in Family Guy is an exception:) |
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blaseblasphemener
Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Location: There's a voice, keeps on calling me, down the road, that's where I'll always be
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| Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 9:37 pm Post subject: |
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| samcheokguy wrote: |
| great. people who vote for McCain are illiterate now? until Modern times, people admitted great minds could exist at either end of the political spectrum. No one has denied that Lenin and Thatcher were both smart people. But today conservatives=stupid. Buckley was a pedantic jerk but he wasn't stupid. |
Yes, and what about the 50 million blacks in America? 95% voted chose Obama; how many of them fit into the illiterate/barely literate demographic? |
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canuckistan
Mod Team
Joined: 17 Jun 2003
Location: Training future GS competitors.....
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| Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 11:39 pm Post subject: |
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| Look at the music we listen to these days. It's not really sophisticated at all. |
Look at the intellectual level of American TV these days.
And people/kids sit in front of the idiot box for hours and hours every week.
Average household: 8 hours and 11 minutes per day in 2005
http://blogs.zdnet.com/ITFacts/?p=9871
P.S. TV is limited to 2 hours per week in our house. That's it.
Want healthy (in the head as well), normal, active, literate kids that can really, really read and really, really write? And have great imaginations? Turn off the TV and throw out the XBox, Playstation, and GameBoy. And their computer most of the time unless supervised.
They'll not only survive, they'll thrive.
It's like I said to a neighbour--would you allow someone to come into your living room and show your kids murders, rapes, and other violence as well as show them how to be really rude, smart-alecky brats?
Of course not!
So turn off the *beeping* TV and video games--most of it is the worst form of mind-dulling pollution you could ever expose a kid to. |
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amandaz
Joined: 05 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 12:39 am Post subject: |
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| Luckily, I grew up without television. When my dad finally did let us watch TV we knew that what was on it was fake. To this day I am still pretty sensitive to violence in movies because I was never desensitized to it (even though I know its not real). I truly believe children should not be allowed to watch television until they are old enough to be able to process what they are seeing. Life is full of things that inspire the mind and spark the imagination, especially books! American parents need to wake up and figure out their kids are being brainwashed. |
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Bigfeet
Joined: 29 May 2008
Location: Grrrrr.....
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| Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 1:47 am Post subject: |
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TV is the devil. It's a mind-control device that tries to get you, especially kids, to buy things that you don't need. It's the main tool of consumerism.
I told my brother to keep his kid away from TVs for at least a few years because doctors recommended it. He ignored my advice and at the ripe age of 3 or 4 my nephew could name every car's make by looking at its emblem. 
Notice how people look like vegetables when they're watching TV. There's no interaction going on, it's all one-way. Twenty minutes will fly by and you will feel like you've gotten older but no wiser.
I haven't owned a TV in at least a dozen years and try not to watch them, especially the commercials. I got cable TV in my apt as part of the Internet package a few months ago and have yet to turn the TV on. I have no idea how many channels it has or what's showing on there. One of my goals is not to turn the TV on, even once, while I'm here. |
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