In the Humble Opinion of LittleBill, Socialist, Atheist, and Humanist
New and Old Odds and Ends-Part Two

A favorite platitude of all politicians, whether American or any other nationality, is to say that the American (or Iraqi, or Israeli, or Afghani, or Pakistani, etc., etc. people) are intelligent people in aggregate who know what is going on and how things should be. They say these words especially when they are running for elective office. I doubt very much that this is true. Intelligence depends for humans as a whole on education, and beyond that, on what your education was and the time and place in which you received it.

Some of my family, for example, are well educated, while other close members were or are not. My father, who did not finish high school, was a thinker. My mother, who had a college education, was not. My two children were hippies who went off into lala land for a year or two when we lived in the Bay Area, then individually and on their own earned degrees – one as a successful landscape contractor, and the other as an accomplished printer. It took me until I was 42 to earn a master’s degree.

My family moved to Wyoming during the Depression of the 30’s, where my parents bought a cattle ranch. But it was his foreman, Elmer, who ran it. I don’t know what his formal education was, but his true education was in running a ranch.

What I’m getting at is that the time (Depression) and place (a sparsely populated community) as well as an era (before communication came of age), are of tremendous importance. There was a 5 or 6 page local newspaper, there was no world news except for the Newsreels in the theaters, and radio news did not appear until WWII. So you can see education depends on who you are, where you are, what’s available, and what you do with it.

And so, if you were an Iraqui or Afghani farmer either farming or tending your herd in a land of vast spaces, what must have been your reaction to our invasions of those countries? Did you know what led up to those invasions? What did you think when our forces destroyed your crops, your animals, and your families? And didn’t we see film on TV of many of those men being rounded up and sent to Guantanamo as terrorists, though, to date, very few have been charged? If any of them fought back, would you have done the same in their place?

Unfortunately, education continues and will continue to shape human beings. If you watch the quality, or lack thereof, of entertainment and information available to the average person today, and if you have contact with them which reveals how and what they think, you find a vast area of difference in the educational background of the individual and the use he or she has made of it.

ARW
3/30/08

5 comments:

jmsjoin said...

little bill
You know I love your history. Education is a product of your surroundings and upbringing. I don't know about those in Guantanamo but those in country are acting just as you would expect them to but of course contrary to the way the chief idiot is telling them to act.
Looking at our so called leaders flies in the face of what you rightly say that conventionality dictates a higher education would dictate brains.
In the case of Bushco education merely supplied the position to be abused to follow a hidden agenda on a part of the world that can not afford one and was happy surviving.
I think I'm rambling but I just want to say what whatever the chief idiot does here or around the world education or common sense is not part of the decision making process.
He could care less if we are over extended or what the repercussions are. He is going to do what he wants, let the chips fall where they may!

jmsjoin said...

Hi little Bill
Just checking in. Hope you are well!

Soros' Proxy said...

There's a vast disparity between the attention span of Americans as opposed to the rest of the world when it comes to attending to political events in our own country. The rest of the world tands to know more about USA politics than our own citizens.

Utah Savage said...

LB, So right you are. Thank Vig for leading me to you. Thank you for the visit. You write beautifully. I'll be back often. For the moment I have taken my off the political season, at least in my writing. But I have not taken my eye off the news or the candidates. Just needed a breather, so I have posted some fiction from my past incarnation as a fiction writer. But I will probably have to express my real time political opinions soon, as the Clinton campaign is making it damn near irresistible.

I saw the movie Stop Loss over the weekend. It is the best anti-war movie I have ever seen. A must for everyone.

Vigilante said...

Glad you two got together. But brainy women, when their numbers reach critical mass, frighten me.