Ok, I’d normally post my comment about the last post in the comments section of the last post, but since I have a lot to talk about and would like other people’ opinions, I’ve decided just to make a new post instead.

Since this country is a democracy, the president acts with the people’s consent. So how can so many people consent, by either agreeing or not disapproving President Bush’s actions, regarding Iraq? I think the answer lies largely within the current educational system and the current culture.

Our public schools are controlled and manipulated by the government. The schools receive their money from the government and their performance is regulated and evaluated by the government. Hence schools teach the truth, or at least whatever the government decides is true. This government monopoly really reminds me of 1920Bolshalvic Russia, except in this case it’s just education. Going along with this same analogy, just as Communism ruined the Russian people’s livelihood, the US government monopoly on education is ruining today’s children and tomorrow’s future. For example, according to the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), American students score the lowest consistently on standardized tests given to students from forty one other developed or developing nations. Not only are American students taught poorly, they are also taught subjectively, with bias toward the government’s point of view. This has perpetuated for the last thirty years and only now do we see the results, in both poor student performance and general apathy toward American policy that, to the rest of the world, appear blatantly misdirected.

Lastly, I have a few words about today’s culture. In today’s information age, people are bombarded with information. We learn but we no longer think, or we are so busy distracting our selves with novel and often inferiorly made forms of entertainment (cough cough xbox360), that we do not care or do not have the time to concern ourselves with the world’s spiraling chaos.

Why do we prefer to ignore problems than to fixing them?

Do you like “Cat’s Craddle” ? Maybe you think ” Slaughterhouse Five” was pure brilliance. If this is the case then you are one of the fortunate ones to experience the incredible narrative of Vonnegut. This awesome author was also a guest at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last December.

“Everyone thinks the President is the dumbest man in the top ranks of our government. I would like to rephrase that and apologize, because he’s not the dumbest, but one of many. I think the dumbest man in our government is the Secretary of State. He thought America could take over a country of 27 million arabs and their oil with a handful of bangs and booms with 200,000 soldiers who did not know how to even say ‘Hello’ in arabic. For that I apologize.”
~ Kurt Vonnegut @ The Daily Show w/ Jon Stewart

Is it just me or everytime I turn on the T.V. and try to watch CNN or one of those partisan news channels I feel horrified, shocked and amazed at how effective and professional can the Bush Administration be at psychological warfare here and abroad. I just hope that this behavior doesn’t translate to politcal apathy from our current generation.