The Dumbification of …. Or, as the Elephant Grunts

A recent article  on a San Francisco-based web site has this this caption

American kids, dumber than dirt
Warning: The next generation might just be the biggest pile of idiots in U.S. history

 The article states:

No, my friend takes it all a full step — or rather, leap — further. It is not merely a sad slide. It is not just a general dumbing down. It is far uglier than that.

We are, as far as urban public education is concerned, essentially at rock bottom. We are now at a point where we are essentially churning out ignorant teens who are becoming ignorant adults and society as a whole will pay dearly, very soon, and if you think the hordes of easily terrified, mindless fundamentalist evangelical Christian lemmings have been bad for the soul of this country, just wait.

And

Most affluent parents in America — and many more who aren’t — now put their kids in private schools from day one, and the smart ones give their kids no TV and minimal junk food and no video games. (Of course, this in no way guarantees a smart, attuned kid, but compared to the odds of success in the public school system, it sure seems to help).

The article ends:

As for the rest, well, the dystopian evidence seems overwhelming indeed, to the point where it might be no stretch at all to say the biggest threat facing America is perhaps not global warming, not perpetual warmongering, not garbage food or low-level radiation or way too much Lindsay Lohan, but a populace far too ignorant to know how to properly manage any of it, much less change it all for the better.

What, too fatalistic? Don’t worry. Soon enough, no one will know what the word even means.

Not surprisingly, there’s a firestorm of commentary – 462 comments as of this morning.

Almost 40 years ago, the late Pierre Elliott Trudeau said about Canadian-U.S. relations:

“Living next to you,” Trudeau told an American audience in a speech to the National Press Club in 1969, “is like sleeping with an elephant; no matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.”

I suppose this means we in Canada will have less trouble understanding the grunts . . . unless, of course, we’re dumbing down equally. Nobody would suggest that, would they?

Pardon me, I have to leave now, there’s somebody calling mself Outis at the door who wants to sell me something.