While I am only the grandchild and great-grandchild of immigrants, a certain amount of my ancestors' values rubbed off on me.
First and foremost they believed in knowledge. It could have been knowledge about anything - a trade, the natural world, a language, history, politics, mathematics. Being free young people, we could pretty much choose our fields of interest. "Study hard and be smart," they might have said. "Smarter than we are." When we began to surpass them in book learning, they would tease us by calling us "Professor," or "Doctor," often in Italian, but their faces also beamed with pride and joy.
None of my grandparents went beyond the 8th grade, and my parents only graduated from high school, although my father had "some college." Even though they were all staunch Catholics, I never heard them speak of creationism, or doubt the theory of evolution. Science and medicine were practically worshiped. History took the silver medal; we were from a culture that was 2700 years old, after all. And speaking well, utilizing good grammar and elegant words, earned even more kudos. It was shameful to be ignorant. Better to keep silent rather than betray your own stupidity.
Now, however, in the dangerously right wing Republican Party, there has somehow grown up a pride in ignorance, misinformation, and lack of awareness. Even so radical a commentator as William Kristol warned the New Know Nothings in 2006 in The Weekly Standard against "turning the GOP into an anti-immigration, Know-Nothing party..." adding, "It could easily dash Republican hopes of becoming a long-term governing party. How many Republicans will have the courage to stand up and prevent the yahoos from driving the party off a cliff?”
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I thought this blog was spot on. "Better to keep silent rather than betray your own stupidity " was a great line and so true. I've been tossing this notion around and I'm wondering if the government and monster corporations have any role at all in the dumbing down of this country. The dumber the populace, all the better to move wealth. The more ignorant a country as a whole, the easier it is to be left alone to do your Enron thing, or your Goldman's thing. Why do people vote against their own interests? And isn't that convenient? Why can't kids get the lower level education here that kids are getting in other countries? Is this just how we want it? Does it serve a purpose to be this hillbilly-ified? I think it does. It's cynical of me, eh?
ReplyDeleteI wasn't always this cynical, you know...
-Anne
Here's an article from the BBC on just this topic. Click to read Why Do People Vote Against Their Own Interests?--->>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8474611.stm
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