Opinion> David Harsanyi> We Re With Stupid

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We're With Stupid

Republicans are generally convinced that Democrats are a bunch of self-destructive naive Commies. Democrats, conversely, assume a healthy majority of Republicans boast the IQs of spotted toads.

Well, the good folks at the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press recently measured the political acumen of more than 3,000 adults and found that we're equally uninformed and both ridiculously ill-equipped to vote.

Participants in this ruthlessly useless poll were asked three relatively simple questions: 1. Name the controlling party of the U.S. House of Representatives. 2. Name the U.S. secretary of state. 3. Name Great Britain's prime minister.

If you answered "the defendants," "that neocon chick" and "J. Gordon Brown," you're a member of an elite 18 percent of Americans who hit it on the nose. Geeks. The rest of us can only assume you're not watching nearly enough network television. Really, who cares about the prime minister of Britain?

And because most of us are hopelessly dense — at least, that's the rationalization we hear every time a Republican is elected — it is interesting to note that viewers of Fox News' partisan slugfest, "Hannity & Colmes," scored only 2 percent below those smarty-pants who listen to NPR.

In fact, habitual listeners of Rush Limbaugh, in larger numbers than erudite readers of The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, could explain who is in charge of Congress.

But let's agree that wide-ranging declarations are counterproductive and never, ever should be used. My question is: Are we really dumber and less informed than our recent ancestors?

With our unlimited access to instantaneous information via the Internets, shouldn't we be able to rattle off the Indonesian finance minister's name (Sri Mulyani Indrawati!) at the drop of a hat? Or is it simply that we compartmentalize information and focus on what interests us most — and by compartmentalize, I mean dispense with politics and maps.

In 1989, after all, according to an earlier Pew poll, 74 percent of Americans could name the vice president (Dan Quayle?).

Today far fewer are able to name Darth Cheney.

Another recent poll (of which, for the sake of the republic, I am highly skeptical) claims that one out of five Americans — many doubtlessly holding deep-seated reservations about the situation on the Afghan border — can't locate the United States on a map.

This poll inadvertently birthed one of the most comical moments of meta-stupidity in this young century: Miss Teen South Carolina trying to explain why Americans aren't smarter. "I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don't have maps and uh …" and so on and so on.

The video became a worldwide viral sensation and a useful tool in explaining the supreme idiocy of U.S. America's youth. Or not.

Some of us may cling to the comforting belief that this nation once teemed with scholarly beauty queens, but it probably never has been so.

Moreover, the notion that Americans are apathetic because they fail to share verve for public and international policy is also a myth. We all know an engineer or doctor who can't name his congressman, much less the prime minister of Canada (um …?).

And though it's difficult for some choice citizens to believe, not everyone is captivated by government, nor does everyone stake his existence on its success. This attitude doesn't make people apathetic; it makes them normal.

Now, I've been lectured numerous times on the awe-inspiring intelligence of the generation preceding mine. (I intend to deliver the same speech to my own offspring.) You have to wonder, though; should the children of "The Gong Show" generation be lecturing the children of the "American Idol" one?

Hardly.

David Harsanyi is a columnist at The Denver Post and the author of "Nanny State." Visit his Web site at www.DavidHarsanyi.com. To find out more about David Harsanyi and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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Sir;...As this country was constituted the people; the common people were denied political power, and it has grown worse from that point till today. We were denied power because we were tired, unwashed, and uneducated. By our leaders we were considered a mob, and denied our democracy for which many had worked and numbers had died. The real tragedy is not that, as bad as it was. An aristocracy can often govern as sensibly as a democracy. The real tragedy, and the thing that is killing this country is that having been denied political power because we were uneducated, we were kept uneducated in order to deny us power. Who would not vote for education if it were within their power? Everyone would vote for that, but I have yet to see it on the ballot...Sure we can educate children as long as the right decides what will be taught, again with an eye to continued ignorance. What did we do to the Negroes? What did we do the the Native Americans. What have we put every immigrant through? What human rights have we denied to labor in the name of profit??? The schools are silent to our children on so much, and now exhaust themselves trying to deny the right of the religions to dominate class time with more absolute garbage passed as science... Are we prepared to vote??? Look at how much time we give to politics.... Is that for fun??? We don't have a choice. And still we must choose bad from worse... When do we get to decide??? When are the issues laid before the voters so they can consent??? We all work such terrible long hours for so little pay because we are denied democracy... It is not just education we are denied, but at the very moment when government and economy are both tipping and teetering toward destruction we must give poitics our greatest attention -when we have already given the boss the best of everything... Until we have democracy we will not have education. Nor will we have rights, justice, or liberty... The want of democracy means the want of opportunity, and fair wages, and even the respect we are due from our fellow citizens...The fact no one can deny, is that it does not matter... Everybody knows we have no real control over our government... We take the hushpuppies it throws us along with the crap... We know we have no choice, but that only lowers the hope and raises the fear. Everyone is insecure... What was that old Jim Morrison line- The future's uncetain and the end is always near... We are right to keep our eyes on the road and our hands upon the wheel... No one can say what is going to happen, but we all know things can't go on like they are....Thanks...Sweeney

Comment: #1
Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Sun Oct 19, 2008 8:31 PM

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