November 07, 2004
The Stupidification of America
I am not really opposed to organized religions, even though I think that when everything is considered they have been detrimental to human development. I am not taking away their contributions to arts and culture, but overall religion has been the most dangerous of oppressors because it imposes its tyranny in the most obscene way: it assumes moral superiority. Still, I believe in freedom of conscience and as long as religions and its followers don't try to proselytize their values I stay quiet. Unfortunately religious orthodoxy is as militant as ever so I must speak..
Below is another example of the stupidity and hubris of the ?moral majority?. On the one hand they complain that their jobs are being exported to other countries, and in the other they are teaching that the world was created in six days. It is one thing to teach their children their religious dogma and mysticism in the context of their religious practices but to teach it as fact will only result them staying in a state of ignorance and economic marginalization. But then again maybe I am wrong, after all their King: Bush, reach the presidency. I found it amusing and a bit disturbing when not too long ago when giving a speech at a Louisiana University he bragged to C-students not to be discouraged with grades as he, one of them, had become President. Then again most C-students don?t come from wealth and privilege
Wisconsin district to teach more than evolution
GRANTSBURG, Wisconsin (AP) -- School officials have revised the science curriculum to allow the teaching of creationism, prompting an outcry from more than 300 educators who urged that the decision be reversed.
Members of Grantsburg's school board believed that a state law governing the teaching of evolution was too restrictive. The science curriculum "should not be totally inclusive of just one scientific theory," said Joni Burgin, superintendent of the district of 1,000 students in northwest Wisconsin.
Last month, when the board examined its science curriculum, language was added calling for "various models/theories" of origin to be incorporated.
The decision provoked more than 300 biology and religious studies faculty members to write a letter last week urging the Grantsburg board to reverse the policy. It follows a letter sent previously by 43 deans at Wisconsin public universities.
"Insisting that teachers teach alternative theories of origin in biology classes takes time away from real learning, confuses some students and is a misuse of limited class time and public funds," said Don Waller, a botanist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Wisconsin law mandates that evolution be taught, but school districts are free to create their own curricular standards, said Joe Donovan, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Instruction.
There have been scattered efforts around the nation for other school boards to adopt similar measures. Last month the Dover Area School Board in Pennsylvania voted to require the teaching of alternative theories to evolution, including "intelligent design" -- the idea that life is too complex to have developed without a creator.
The state education board in Kansas was heavily criticized in 1999 when it deleted most references to evolution. The decision was reversed in 2001.
In March, the Ohio Board of Education narrowly approved a lesson plan that some critics contended opens the door to teaching creationism.
November 05, 2004
H.L Mencken
Bush?s reelection kind of reminded me why I am a cynic, well..using the modern definition of the word, someone who believes that people actions are motivated by self interest. Of course, in the case of Bush as president, is only the perception of these people that it is in their best interest to have him as president. How many outside the oil industry can say that they are better off today than they were four years ago? The bottom line is that if you were voting to re-elect a president you would be naive to think that the second four years are going to be any better than the first four. So the question goes back why did all this people who are not likely to be better off today than four years ago vote for more of the same. The short answer is they are stupid. The long answer is pretty much the same, they are stupid. Thinking about this it reminded me of an old quote I heard long ago:
?No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.? and a corollary ?Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.? H. L. Mencken
I looked it up and thought, wow! Although simplistic, it pretty much expresses a reality. It doesn?t explain it but states it as an eternal truth. I looked up other stuff by H.L. Mencken and I found a lot of what he said both interesting and fun. Here are few:
?Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.? Given that Evangelical Christians were a big part of Bush?s success makes this very poignant
?I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone.? Did anyone say Iraq?
?It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.? They have difficulty believing in evolution too
?Man weeps to think that he will die so soon; woman, that she was born so long ago.?
[This one is just a funny observation]
?Most people want security in this world, not liberty.?
The second most likely reason why people voted for Bush
?The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.?
Hmm, did anyone say WMD?s, this one is too easy, but I guess the concept is well explored and understood: it was a key part of Orwel?s 1984, and for that matter of that movie ?Wag the Dog?.
Anyways he was very outspoken in an era in which evangelicals ruled...hold-on that is just like now. In 1931, the legislature of the state of Arkansas passed a motion to pray for Mencken's soul. He died in 1956.
