For the past week or more Google has produced clever variations of its logo to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street. What neither Google nor the media will tell you is that reading scores for the group targeted by Elmo et al have been going down ever since.
Why write about reading scores when socialism, cultural relativism, and Islam threaten to extinguish Western culture? Because none of these ideas can take root in a truly literate population capable of thinking critically.
Obama could not have been elected in 1960, not because of racism, but because too many people had the ability to think critically. Much fewer people now have any idea of how to sort fact from opinion, or how to weigh opinions. Like Maxine Waters said to Sam Donaldson, You gotta speck ma pinyun!
Sam said he did, when he clearly wanted to say, Your opinion is based on racist clap trap nonsense.
But Americans heard him say he respected her opinion and so they thought their opinions, as uninformed as Maxine Waters' opinions, were the wisdom of the ages.
This had led to a windfall for Algore for unscientific, but prettily filmed, notions of global warming. No educated society would have fallen for such foolishness.
Add a perky face to repeat the silliness and general brain deadedness becomes rampant and widespread.
Strange that, on paper, we are the most educated bunch in history. But university education has been devalued. In true irony, in Toronto, garbage collectors need a Bachelor of Arts degree!
The development of general ability for independent thinking and judgment should always be placed foremost, not the acquisition of special knowledge. It a person masters the fundamentals of his subject and has learned to think and work independently, he will surely find his way and besides will better be able to adapt himself to progress and changes than the person whose training principally consists in the acquiring of detailed knowledge. Albert Einstein
We've been teaching stuff, most of it inconsequential, and neglecting thinking and logic. Much of the math and literature, too fine a word for most English read in schools today, is simply too simple. Heaven forbid if a kid furrow a brow and have to reread a passage!
It's never too late to learn to think better.
Get a library card or start here.
What ails our society can be cured by simple critical thinking.
Stand up. Examine your life. Examine your premises.
