We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want U.S. to intervene

Click here to access article by Kyle Dropp, Joshua D. Kertzer and Thomas Zeitzoff from The Washington Post.
Does it really matter whether Americans can put Ukraine on a map? Previous research would suggest yes: Information, or the absence thereof, can influence Americans’ attitudes about the kind of policies they want their government to carry out and the ability of elites to shape that agenda.

In this article published in a prime ruling class newspaper, I detect a peculiar satisfaction in reporting on the relationship between ignorance and citizen support of US military adventures. Of course, it wasn't really a discovery as the authors seem to suggest. Our ruling class has known this for a long time. That is precisely why they have always engaged in dumbing down Americans through mindless entertainment, propaganda that passes as news reports, and indoctrination that passes as education in schools.