Dumbed Down Culture

"Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?"--George W. Bush.

This question is indeed rarely asked, because perhaps the American or even the whole North American culture is in fact getting more and more stupid, dumbed-down and ignorant. Our culture has become so blind and self-centered that the people in our culture have lost all interest in the world around them and close their eyes on issues that really need attention, they rather sit with their hands folded on their chest and preoccupy themselves with who will be kicked off the island in Survivor or Britney's newborn child; or for instance, even shove their nose into other people's lives by reading memoirs because their, Britney's and the Survivor contestants' lives are in fact not interesting enough.

Oh my, how low can we go? Let's say neglecting our life is still fine, but venerating celebrities and ignoring everything else that's going on is not negligence - it's an exchange. By idolizing we promote idealism, and by ignorance we promote stupidity, by all those means the North American culture is dumbing itself down, and what for? I think the answer is an easy life. French novelist, Gustave Flaubert once said:" To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost". And it's true, what you don't know - can't hurt you, and if you don't know that children are starving in Africa it's minus one issue to worry about, if you don't know that there are people in Kashmir who need help that's even better...

So how low can we really go? What is it that we have become? The people who settled in this place were all from the "thinking age", from the era of philosophy and reason, where is the legacy of wisdom that we should have had? I think that George W. Bush, the leader of the ultimate North American country that exhibits utter stupidity can explain where this legacy went: "There's no such thing as legacies. At least, there is a legacy, but I'll never see it". He sure won't. Once not only the people, but the leader himself are stupid, I can say for sure that they have entered an endless cycle of stupidity and perhaps a downward helix, because "Fools rush in where fools have been before".

Regardless of all the stupidity, the American culture is conceivably the perfect example for the Orwellian dystopia in the sense of "Ignorance is Strength". The American people are provided with celebrities, reality TV and stupid leaders so it seems, just to keep them stupid because it's beneficial to both the people and the government. Smart and Intelligent people are not welcomed in this culture. Take Michael Moore for example, he is intelligent and thinking man, he has something most people don't have - reason, and yet he is being tormented by the government and even the people for just being such. This is a culture that promotes this stupidity by showing people that their own lives are in fact not interesting, and that they should take interest in other people's lives, and think: "this is the real world". The means of doing that are celebrities for one. The status of the celebrity is paradoxical in its essence, while the celebrity is worshiped by the people who think that he is the real deal, he is in fact

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