Bread and circuses.

The last few times I flew this last year, none of the shops in the terminals have magazines. Maybe People, or gossip rags, but nothing worth reading at all.

I understand that this print media is dying, but it saddens me all the same.

This is obvious and disturbing to people of other cultures who are often indoctrinated from birth of the value of the life of the mind, of education and culture. I picked up on it in high school. My cousin, who came from Cuba at age 15 remarked upon it immediately upon arriving. It is so obvious, except to Americans themselves.

Still, Americans aren’t intrinsically any dumber or smarter than anyone else, and the best of us soon learn the rules of the game and pick our friends accordingly, as well as learn the way to behave to avoid social ostracism, if not outright bullying.

I believe I know the reason for this. From day one, settlers and immigrants to “the colonies” arrived here after centuries of economic and social oppression by a landed (and well educated) aristocracy. But the New World offered economic opportunity (particular property) to all social classes, and there was relatively less political bullying by an aristocratic elite. The outward signs of aristocracy (fancy manners, education, cultured accents) were rejected, even by those who came by them naturally. In England, the upper classes had posh accents; here, people tended to speak in gutter or rural patois, even if they knew better. To someone who speaks good English, but was brought up with another tongue in rural Dixie, this is painfully obvious. You’d be surprised how quickly I can slip into a redneck accent when I have to.

There is no shortage of smart people in America, they’ve just learned to keep it to themselves, and their social influence is more restricted. Those who choose to exercise their influence over others quickly learn to hide the outward signs of whatever intelligence they may have.

There are 200 million Americans who have inhabited schoolrooms at some time in their lives and who will admit that they know how to read… but most decent periodicals believe they are doing amazingly well if they have circulation of half a million. It may be that only 1 per cent—or less—of Americans make a stab at exercising their right to know. And if they try to do anything on that basis they are quite likely to be accused of being elitists.

― Isaac Asimov

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”

― Isaac Asimov

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness…

The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance”

― Carl Sagan

The introduction of writing allowed the propagation of systematized ideology in the form of religious texts like the Old and New Testaments, the Koran, etc. The printing press and increased popular literacy added to the ease with which new ideas can arise and spread.

Today we have mass media and digital communications, both literal and electronic tied together with an almost intantaneous network of communications devices and infrastructure. As the freedom to communicate increase, so does the cost decrease. In the twentieth century, particularly, the rise of Communist and Fascist political propaganda and commercial advertising, the techniques were perfected. It was almost inevitable.

Yeah, I’m tempted to put the blame on American anti-intellectualism and commercial infatuation, but its happening all over. You could even say it is an inevitable result of the growth of freedom. The more people are allowed to speak, the more likely they are to lie, and the special interests will exploit the ecosystem to promote their own agendas. The only way to completely eliminate the Lie is to impose an Official Truth.