A Nation of Nitwits [anyone want to disagree djf]

[Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

> From the New York Times  (date not certain;  about 3/04/95)


In America
BOB HERBERT


A Nation of Nitwits


According to a new poll, 60 percent of Americans are unable to name the
President who ordered the nuclear attack on Japan, and 35 percent do not know
that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.


One out of every four people surveyed for the America's Talking/ Gallup Poll
did not even know that Japan was the target of the first atomic bomb. Four
percent of the 1,020 adult respondents thought the first bomb had been dropped
on some other country. Twenty-two percent knew virtually nothing about an
atomic bomb attack. They didn't know whereQor, in some cases, even ifQsuch an
attack had occurred.


Two percent of those surveyed thought John Kennedy launched the first
nuclear strike, and one percent thought it was Richard Nixon.


This is scary.


In an era in which the ability to acquire and properly process information has
become profoundly important, America insists on being, to a large extent, a
nation of nitwits. Consider, for example, some of our recent top-grossing
movies: "The Brady Bunch Movie " a ditzy reprise of a ditzy 1970's situation
cornedy about a terminally ditzy family; "Dumb and Dumber," which is even
dumber than the title indicates; and "Billy Madison," a full-length madefor-
morons motion picture aboutQ what else?Qa moron.


I turned on "Beavis and Butthead" the other night, and it was so much worseQ
so much more stupid Qthan anything l had imagined that I just sat staring in
astonishment. I had a notebook in my hand, which was ridiculous. You can't
make notes about "Beavis and Butt-head."


None of this would be important if we were talking only about fads, goofy
things that make a momentary appearance, spark a chuckle and pass harmlessly
from sight. But that is not what is going on. We are surrounded by a deep and
abiding stupidity. Radio talk-show hosts,contemptuous of facts and disdainful
toward truth, spew venom Qand mindless listeners all across the country.cheer.


Each day tens of millions tune in faithfully to the television talk shows,
which have come to resemble an imbecile's version of "Can You Top This?"
Topics from the past week include: "Teen-age boys who claim to have slept with
many girls"; "Virgins tell us about the men who they hope will take their
virginity"; "People who embarrass their spouses in public"; "A 31-yearold
woman who is engaged to a 14year-old boy," and "Skinny men with large women."


Some African-American students unable to extricate themselves from the
quicksand of self-defeat, have adopted the incredibly stupid tactic of
harassing fellow blacks who have the temerity to take their studies seriously.
According to the poisonous logic of the harassers, any attempt at acquiring
knowledge is a form of "acting white," and that, of course is to be shunned at
all costs.


If only there were alarms clanging from coast to coast to alert us to our
folly. An ignorant populace is a populace in danger. Consider that many of the
people who are screaming the loudest about the so-called Republican revolution
were too ignorant about the issue of civic responsibility to drag themselves
to the polls last November to vote. And then consider the large number of
folks who did vote without having a clue as to what they were voting for, or
against.


An election night poll showed that nearly half the voters believed that
either welfare or foreign aid was the largest item in the Federal budget. They
couldn't have been more wrong! These are two of the smallest items in the
budget.


I spoke to a woman last week who had just made the astonishing discovery
that Gerald R. Ford was once President of the United States. "I'm so
embarrassed," she said. "I didn't know until I saw the three of them Mr. Ford,
President Clinton and former President Bush golfing on the news."


Americans who willingly swim in a sea of ignorance can blame themselves when
the quality of their lives deteriorates. An example: As the crucial Senate
vote on the balanced- budget amendment approached, were most Americans
whatever their political persuasion aware of the vast implications of this
latest attempt to change the Constitution?
No.
If ignorance is bliss, we must be a deliriously happy lot.