This is a free choice essay that I had to do for English class a few weeks ago. I decided that I wanted to write about how important education is in order to create a functioning democracy and how one of the primary reasons we are in the situation that we are in currently is due to the general ignorance of the population. It was written a few weeks ago, so it contains some references to the election but for the most part it deals with independent topics.
Much of my interest in this subject came from I book I read over the summer by James Loewen entitled "Lies My Teacher Told Me". It's a very interesting book that takes a critical eye to the teaching of history in America. I would suggest this book to anybody who wants to not only further expand their understanding of American history, but also wants to learn the unique educational importance of history.
As evidenced by the current state of affairs in the country, our government is not working properly. Despite our historical advantages, our government is now failing to solve even the most solvable of problems. The representative government that has in the past served us so well has now degenerated into a plutocratic oligarchy. This failure of government has not been caused by a particular party or ideology alone (though some are more to blame than others), but rather by the broader failure of our anti-intellectual society in general to sustain its self-governance. When a society governed by a representative government willingly curtails its own intellect, the government will follow suit in representation of its constituency. The only way to mend the wounds of our profoundly damaged society and to fix our government are to reverse this wave of willful ignorance that has spread across our fractured nation. In order to remove this pall, public education must be drastically improved. If this were to be accomplished, then many of our nation’s gravest problems would be solved with a better, more rational hand that represented a more educated populace; a well-informed citizenry is necessary for democracy to function.
The only way to properly start rebuilding our society’s integrity is to closely examine the current state. We must see what happened as to lead to this current crisis: As is widely known, our economy is sinking into a recession, income for the average middle-class family has gone down over the past eight years while productivity has gone up, healthcare costs are becoming too much for many families to afford, the housing market has imploded, et cetera. The mere fact that I have to use ‘et cetera’ when listing the numerous issues facing our nation is telling enough of the far-reaching problems that face us today. The blame for this litany of issues lies squarely and unmistakably on the current administration. The incumbency of the current administration has been riddled with poor choices and ill thought out decisions. The most recent approval rating of the president is 28% with a disapproval rating of 67% . This means 67% of people do not feel that the man elected to represent them is acting in their interests. 67% of people do not feel that the president represents them.
We have a representative system of government: a democratic republic. However, this republic cannot function if the delegates, such as the president, only represent 28% of their constituency. We are not ‘28% Republic’; we are a society founded on the ideas of equal opportunity, freedom, and representation in government. Conversely, the democracy cannot function if the public does not vote, and vote they do not. Voting is absolutely crucial. This case is clearly established by the taking a look at the world as it is now.
Take this into consideration: While the president does not currently represent his theoretical constituency of the entire nation, he does, in fact, represent his actual constituency of those who voted for him. Let me explain: in 2004, 64% of the population voted in the election . Out of that 64%, 50.73% of voters cast a ballot for the current president. This means that the actual percentage of the entire population that voted for the current president is a little more than 32%, a number unsurprisingly close to the president’s current approval rating of 28%. So, despite the fact that the president does not represent the country as a whole as he supposed to, he does represent 87.5% of those who voted for him.
By not voting, (non)voters are essentially casting a vote of indifference, allowing others to gain more influence. In order to, as Abraham Lincoln said in his Gettysburg Address, have a government “for the people”, than we must have one “of the people, and by the people”. To create this ideal that Lincoln spoke of, it is imperative that people vote. If 100% of the people voted, then the government would truly represent the majority of the people. However, with the population as it is now, that might not necessarily yield a result any better than the current one. To understand why this is, we must look at how we arrived at this current state. We must see why we are where we are.
Once again, in order to have a functioning democracy we must have an informed populace. Because the vast majority of people are not informed, even if 100% of the population were to vote, then the results would still be (potentially) disastrous. Why the people are not informed is an interesting question. Our society, as of now, values ignorance as ‘cool’. How did we reach this point? Since our earliest beginnings, our nation has held education as both capital and as a means of opportunity. Almost as soon as the colonies became established, so to were universities such as Harvard, Yale, et cetera founded. In accordance with this, public education in the United States was ranked first among industrialized nations as recently as twenty years ago. However, public education has been getting progressively worse since then, with our international ranking being lowered to ninth place. It’s not only that other nations have been making gains in education faster than we have, it's that we have actually been handicapping ourselves by having such poor quality education. By having our education infused with religion and conservative influence, the curriculum of schools is becoming increasingly censored and useless.
History, which in particular is an important subject to have a grasp of in order to understand one’s civic duty, is being censored by conservative education boards that do not wish to portray any of America’s mistakes with the result being a falsified version of American history that is composed of lies . Students typically say that history is their least favorite subject and that it is painfully boring. This is so, because for the most part history is taught in such a way that students cannot make the connection from the events of the past to the problems of the present. Without this crucial ability, it is hard for students to understand politics, thereby curbing any possible enthusiasm that students might have. Because of this, many young people simply do not vote, and grow up ignorant of many facts.
Essentially, Americans today are being taught to be stupid. By being inundated with lies from birth, they accept these lies as truth and do not question their surroundings. John Locke’s idea of ‘tabula rasa’, or blank slate, is very applicable in this instance. If people are told their entire life that being intelligent is not cool, then they will strive for mediocrity.
Now we arrive at the current election. The fact that the republicans have even the slimmest hope of winning is truly reflective of the degeneration and disintegration of our intellectual culture. Throughout this election season the republicans have been lying about everything that they promise to do in order to fix the current crises. They have been promoting polices that are known to be ineffectual and if were actually put into place would spell the end of American international economic dominance. Traveling around the country, the Republican nominee has been pontificating on his untrustworthy positions. He is taking advantage of the fact that most people simply won’t know that what he is saying is composed of lies. He is banking on the fact that there will be enough people ignorant of the truth that he can take office.
Cutting taxes for everybody? Not so much. The republicans will cut taxes for the highest 1% of earners in this country, continuing the failed Republican doctrine of blindly cutting taxes. As for the rest, he’ll actually tax the benefits of employer provided healthcare, making the average person’s taxes increase. Decreasing the price of gas through offshore drilling? Nope, it doesn’t work that way. It’s been proven time and again that drilling won’t provide any noticeable relief for 30 years, time we could be using to develop alternative energy. But it doesn’t matter that the republicans are lying. In their cynical outlook, they know that enough people won’t know what they are saying is not true. And thanks to this mass ignorance, they can keep their power. As George Orwell ominously wrote of ‘the Party’ in 1984: “Ignorance is strength”.
Republicans are clinging to their failing ideology and trying to bring down the rest of the country with them. By dogmatically pushing their agenda of government de-regulation they have destroyed the economy and worsened public education. Republicans wish to remain in power, and the only way to do so is to keep the masses ignorant. Statistically, because the more educated a person is, the more likely he is to vote democratic, republicans have been handicapping the development of better public education institutions for some time now. As Benjamin Franklin knew, “education, properly undertaken, would transform our lives and set us free from the tyrannies of… monarchy.”
Essentially, the problems of our country right now all stem back to capitalist greed. The wealthy, wishing to remain in power and knowing that they could only do so if the rest were intellectually starved, have waged a crusade on the intelligence of America. By making elections about frivolous issues such as patriotism, by appealing to people’s fears after September 11, and by using the republican base they have kept their power and nearly destroyed our country.
It is time for change. We must elect somebody who will make re-educating our people a top priority. I fear that if continue down this path of ignorance that our country will never be able to recover. The greedy have duped our population for too long. In order to return to our democratic roots, we must make the education of the people our top priority. Education is capital and opportunity: two things that must be wrested from the wealthy, and returned to the people of America.