Sunday, November 21, 2010

You want fries with that?


A triple whammy in today’s NYT....

A feature story on page 1 reports on how today’s kids are so besotted with technology – addicted to texting, video games, etc. – that they don’t pay any attention to their studies. It’s no wonder our international standing in education is slipping, and our jobs are going overseas....

Meanwhile, Tom Friedman’s column, with no acknowledgement of the news story, talks about the very hole we’ve dug for ourselves in education....

But the capper comes in the adjacent column by Frank Rich about the popularity of Sarah Palin as both political and media figure. Because what he observes is that “it’s anti-elitism that most defines angry populism in this moment, and, as David Frum, another Bush alumnus (and Palin critic), has pointed out, populist rage on the right is aimed at the educated, not the wealthy.”

Swell. Not only are we getting more stupid, we have a grassroots movement spreading the word that it’s “in” to be stupid. I’d say we were a nation of sheep, except that would be an insult to sheep. At least they’re productive. But how many kids today know that’s where wool comes from? (Or even what wool is?)

So who’s going to rescue the next generation? Not the fundamentalists; they want the Word of God to be swallowed unquestioningly. Not the Republicans; they want to cut funding to education. Not the teabaggers; they equate good grades with elitism. And don’t expect the kids to bootstrap themselves; they’re too hooked in to their iPhones to give a shit.

I once had a doctor whose examination room was decorated with photos of bums with cigarettes, bearing captions like “Smoking is Debonair.” So let’s expose kids to pictures of middle-agers flipping burgers with the message “Texting beats studying any day.” But I guess if we expect them to notice, we’d better send it to their phones.


Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Atheists Unite! (or not...)


I wasn’t entirely surprised by the article in today’s NYT about freethinkers advertising their [lack of] beliefs. I’d already been aware of the Freedom from Religion Foundation’s campaign putting up billboards in major metropolitan areas with messages like “Imagine No Religion” and “Sleep In On Sundays.” Now it seems that other groups like the American Humanist Association and American Atheists are joining the competition for “market share” among disbelievers, now that our numbers have grown.

As an agnostic (and decidedly not an atheist – I find the Tao far too unfathomable to presume to make any claims about it, yea or nay), I’ve been somewhat wary of confrontation. Even though I’m totally opposed to the intrusion of religion in public life, I don’t think in-your-face messages do much except preach to the choir and antagonize believers. So when I got a mailing a couple of years ago asking me to donate to the FfRF, I gave it some thought, had them send me a sample newsletter, and decided I didn’t really relate to their agenda. I just didn’t see billboards as a sensible use of donors’ money. Instead, I chose to support Americans United for Separation of Church and State and their mission to maintain a level playing field through lobbying and the courts.

But this new campaign of the AHA has made me prick up my ears, because what they’re doing is pointing out religious texts that “advocate fear, intolerance, hate and ignorance.” And that’s a good thing, because it’s more potentially constructive to make believers realize how misguided their belief system is than to simply throw razzberries at them. I look at it as judicious blend of FfRF’s confrontationalism with AU’s rational approach. (BTW, I’ve often wondered why neither FfRF or AU is listed as a member of the umbrella organization Secular Coalition for America; maybe they’re too jealous of market share.)

So sure, I still take the position “whatever gets you through the night” when it comes to not hassling believers too much, just as long as they don’t try to inflict their nightmare on me. But if I were a better human being – a humanist, perhaps – maybe I’d give some thought to pointing out to them how what they believe is truly disruptive. Because if people would only shed their misguided beliefs, maybe we’d all get a better night’s sleep


Wednesday, November 3, 2010

S&M, Republican Style


You have to hand it to the Republicans, they know how to work a crowd.

This had already been pointed out by Thomas Frank in What’s the Matter with Kansas? And you’d think that once people had this explained to them they might slap their foreheads and say “How could we have been so gullible!”

But one should never underestimate the stupidity of the American electorate. The GOP didn’t need to use social issues to get what they wanted in the midterm elections. As ever, “it’s the economy, stupid.”

Forget the smoke and mirrors; it’s all done with rhetoric. The Republicans want to shoot down health insurance reform, so they cry “big government!” and “socialism!” – despite the fact that most Americans would never want to give up Social Security or Medicare. When their target is spending, they cry “deficit!” – despite the fact that entitlements and defense carry the load, and that the GAO estimates that Obamacare will actually reduce it. When the issue is taxes, their battle charge is “cut!” – despite the fact that extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans will only add to the deficit. The trick is to raise only one issue at a time so as not to reveal how one argument shoots down the other, which is appropriate for the average voter’s attention span. And as Charles Pierce points out in Idiot America, if something is repeated often enough and with sufficient gravitas, it’s accepted as truth.

The bottom line is, this agenda doesn’t serve “the American people” that the GOP constantly invokes. It benefits big business and the wealthy. Just like it’s always been.

Come to think of it, it is all smoke and mirrors. Wielded so deftly that most people don’t even know it. Except that, as with most s&m, the victim is saying “don
t stop, hurt me more.”