A Cancer On The Body Democratic
(Updated below) (Update II)
Alternative title: The Root Of All Our Problems - In Real Life And In The Blogosphere.
Democracy is slowing rotting away. There is not only a cause for this wasting disease, but as well a potential cure - if we commit ourselves with courage, diligence and determination to apply such a cure.
Intellectual sloth is a human character flaw with numerous ramifications, and which constitutes the gravest threat to our democracies.
On the one hand, intellectual sloth pushes any person who is afflicted by it to wallow in ignorance, finding security in absolute ideologies, philosophies of thoughts, tenets of faith, various dogmas or views of the world, without seeking to understand them fully or even less to question them. In turn, ignorance festers fear which, as we know all-too-well, acts as a powerful motor in driving irrational thinking and actions. Furthermore, a person afflicted with intellectual sloth refuses to accept any fact of reality which confronts, rattles, or even invalidates, the comfort of one's “convictions”. To this effect, such a person will be often deluded by intellectual vanity, being arrogant, if not contemptuous, towards anything and anyone that confronts his/her ignorance generated by intellectual sloth.
On the other hand, a person afflicted with intellectual sloth is continually in search of the quick-and-easy and of instant gratification - in fact, he/she craves such things. Incidentally, a person afflicted with intellectual sloth is egocentric, selfish, greedy and covetous, even paranoid, in his/her immature search for facility and instant gratification. Consequently, intellectual sloth-driven people invariably become slaves of expediency. That is also why such persons will all too often want (consciously or not) to be serviced an opinion, like being served fast food, rather than to make the effort of actually forging an informed one for themselves - they search for easy and absolute answers.
In short, intellectual sloth transforms a supposedly adult (and thus mature) person into an irresponsible, reactionary, judgement-impaired, and comfort-craving child or adolescent, who lives only in the “now” while remaining blind to “yesterday” and “tomorrow".
Therefore, intellectual sloth renders those afflicted by it incompetents - as thinking, reasoning human beings, as well as in dealing/composing with reality (or at least in trying to understand it).
One direct consequence of the prevalence of intellectual sloth is not only voter indifference and apathy, but as well the complacent acceptance of the "dumbing down" (and disinformation) of the news and of the political discourse - after all, journalists and politicians are from the same culture as the voters's ... thus our current tabloid journalism and politics (Assault on Reason, anyone?).
Hence, the "it's all about me", "not in my backyard", "who cares? ", "we're the best", "not my problem", "we're good, they're evil" and other such selfish, uncaring, absolutist and/or uninformed attitudes that have been prevailing among the citizenry since at least the 1980's.
Case in point - I give you these two poll questions (and results):
Alternative title: The Root Of All Our Problems - In Real Life And In The Blogosphere.
Democracy is slowing rotting away. There is not only a cause for this wasting disease, but as well a potential cure - if we commit ourselves with courage, diligence and determination to apply such a cure.
Intellectual sloth is a human character flaw with numerous ramifications, and which constitutes the gravest threat to our democracies.
On the one hand, intellectual sloth pushes any person who is afflicted by it to wallow in ignorance, finding security in absolute ideologies, philosophies of thoughts, tenets of faith, various dogmas or views of the world, without seeking to understand them fully or even less to question them. In turn, ignorance festers fear which, as we know all-too-well, acts as a powerful motor in driving irrational thinking and actions. Furthermore, a person afflicted with intellectual sloth refuses to accept any fact of reality which confronts, rattles, or even invalidates, the comfort of one's “convictions”. To this effect, such a person will be often deluded by intellectual vanity, being arrogant, if not contemptuous, towards anything and anyone that confronts his/her ignorance generated by intellectual sloth.
On the other hand, a person afflicted with intellectual sloth is continually in search of the quick-and-easy and of instant gratification - in fact, he/she craves such things. Incidentally, a person afflicted with intellectual sloth is egocentric, selfish, greedy and covetous, even paranoid, in his/her immature search for facility and instant gratification. Consequently, intellectual sloth-driven people invariably become slaves of expediency. That is also why such persons will all too often want (consciously or not) to be serviced an opinion, like being served fast food, rather than to make the effort of actually forging an informed one for themselves - they search for easy and absolute answers.
In short, intellectual sloth transforms a supposedly adult (and thus mature) person into an irresponsible, reactionary, judgement-impaired, and comfort-craving child or adolescent, who lives only in the “now” while remaining blind to “yesterday” and “tomorrow".
Therefore, intellectual sloth renders those afflicted by it incompetents - as thinking, reasoning human beings, as well as in dealing/composing with reality (or at least in trying to understand it).
One direct consequence of the prevalence of intellectual sloth is not only voter indifference and apathy, but as well the complacent acceptance of the "dumbing down" (and disinformation) of the news and of the political discourse - after all, journalists and politicians are from the same culture as the voters's ... thus our current tabloid journalism and politics (Assault on Reason, anyone?).
Hence, the "it's all about me", "not in my backyard", "who cares? ", "we're the best", "not my problem", "we're good, they're evil" and other such selfish, uncaring, absolutist and/or uninformed attitudes that have been prevailing among the citizenry since at least the 1980's.
Case in point - I give you these two poll questions (and results):
Gallup Poll. March 11-14, 2007. N=1,009 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.
"How closely have you been following the news about the recently completed trial of Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, the former vice presidential aide: very closely, somewhat closely, not too closely, or not at all?"
Very Closely: 13%
Somewhat Closely: 30%
Not Too Closely: 26%
Not At All: 29%
Unsure: 1%
CBS News Poll. May 16-17, 2006. N=636 adults nationwide. MoE ± 4.
"How much have you heard or read about the special investigation into the possible leak of an undercover CIA officer's identity to reporters in 2003? Would you say you have heard or read a lot, some, not much, or nothing at all?"
A lot: 18%
Some: 31%
Not Much: 23%
Nothing: 28%
Unsure: 0%
And there you have it. Essentially the same question was asked twice, almost a year apart each time, and in both instances we are faced with the sad reality that less than 50% of Americans paid significant attention to this grave scandal.
Not convinced that this applies to all (current) major scandals? Then try this for size:
CBS News/New York Times Poll. April 20-24, 2007. N=1,052 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3 (for all adults).
"How closely have you been following news about the recent firing of several U.S. attorneys by the Justice Department? Have you been following it very closely, somewhat closely, not too closely, or not at all?"
Very Closely: 15%
Somewhat Closely: 35%
Not Too Closely: 36%
Not At All: 13%
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press survey conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. April 18-22, 2007. N=1,508 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.
"How much, if anything, have you heard about the firing of eight federal prosecutors and questions about how Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the White House handled the firings? Have you heard a lot, a little, or nothing at all?"
A Lot: 33%
A Little: 44%
Nothing: 22%
Unsure: 1%
Should we be surprised then that the poll answers to the follow-up question (or similar questions), "Do you think Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should resign or otherwise lose his job over the issue of the firings, or not?", were less than 45% (on rough average) for the resignation/removal of Gonzales?
Should we likewise be surprised that only 39% of Americans favor impreachment for Bush and Cheney - despite everything that has been revealed/reported/analyzed/discussed so far? Or that only 49% of Americans "believe" in evolution?
Call it scandal fatigue. Blame the MSM and the politicians as well, if you will.
But I call this intellectual sloth-driven incompetence as citizens.
As I wrote before: "We prefer to wallow body and mind into reality-tv shows and the local version of American Idol (Canadian Idol in Canada and Star Académie in Québec). Thus, therein now lies our democratic passion, whereby we discuss, analyze and evaluate which participant to support and then vote for him/her".
But, to do such things in the exercise of our duty as citizens of democracies? Forget it. We act like ostriches in the face of it. It is too complicated. Too discouraging. Too unsettling.
And don't you dare blame the Media Corporations - since they have no qualms at yanking shows that have poor ratings, why do you think they keep serving tabloid infortainment, news, reality shows, game shows and other such tripe? Because. These. Have. High. Ratings.
The intellectual sloth-driven search, if not need, for instant gratification craves entertainment - on TV, in movies, in music, in videos and in games. This in turn is the root cause for tabloid news and politics - a society-wide dumbing down. That is why (and how) Bush was elected in 2000 and again in 2004. That is why most candidates (GOP and/or Democratic) are often timid, "dumb and dumber" or "uber triangulators". We face the same problems in Canada with regards of our main political parties.
They are only responding (or trying to respond) to. The. People.
Unfortunately, the same problem has crept up in the blogosphere - and yes, including the progressive one.
Take for example the blogging tip of "keep it short and straight to the point" (not my forte, obviously!). Or the idea that "Blogs can have a shopping mall effect: everyone goes there because everyone goes there (...)"
In other words: the blogosphere not only enables but also (knowingly or not) encourages instant gratification.
Case in point: remember the backlash against Democratic representatives posting diaries at DKos, demanding that they actually leave Dkos (one example here), after the war funding bill was passed? How many took their ball and went home (one example here)? Or those who rant and rave because there is no impeachment of Bush and/or Cheney "now"? Yes such things are very disappointing, if not maddening, but such destructive backlash constitutes (sorry to say this) intellectual sloth-driven immaturity. It is short-sighteness. It is incompetence.
Consequently, such is my diagnosis: we are faced with a highly metastizing cancer on the body democratic, and it is called intellectual sloth. Heck, this cancer has spread through the whole body society already.
And it is this cancer that must be fought/eradicated, at its very root.
The solution? I wrote about it before: "Education. Yes, it is through education that the character flaw which is intellectual sloth can be countered (...) the inculcation, beginning in childhood and throughout the educational process, of the need for questioning, for reasoning, for discerning, for gathering information, for contextualizing, for criticizing, for evaluating/re-evaluating, for thinking - in short, for the need of intellectual activity - constitutes the best vaccine against intellectual sloth".
It is a given that this solution requires time and much effort. But it is the only one which will effectively fight and eradicate this metastizing cancer that is intellectual sloth, and which is destroying not only our body democratic, but also our bodies politic, economic, and society.
As I am fond of saying: "Living in a democracy is a right and a responsibility. And yes, this responsibility requires effort. But which is better: having your back bent by the effort required to keep on living in a democratic society, or letting leave for complacency and find yourself one day with a back bent under a totalitarian regime (however benevolent it may be)?"
Or, if you prefer: Patience trumps expediency. Patience and determination are the hallmarks of competence as citizens.
This recent DKos diary (one example among an ever increasing number of such examples) illustrates what I mean by this: patience and determination in convincing people and representatives (a clear majority at least) of the need for investigations leading to impeachment.
The same can, should, and must be done to enact the means necessary to eradicate intellectual sloth.
In the meantime, we must continue to expose, document and discuss incompetence - but we must also be willing to get off from our couches and convince those outside of the blogosphere to join in, or at least to make the effort to keep themselves critically informed. At the same time, we must keep organizing and pressuring to make the changes required to save the gravely ill patient that is society - and stop acting like intellectual sloth-driven immature adolescents while so doing.
It is a long and winding road indeed - but competence as citizens requires (nay: demands) this from all of us.
After all, our revolutionary participatory democracy is not just about ranting and raving, eh?
Update: 06/25/2007 - 41% ... the proportion of Americans who still believe there is a link between Saddam Hussein and 9-11. Q.E.D. ... once again.
Update II: 06/26/2007 - Remember this poll from 2005? By a margin of 50% to 44%, Americans favored impeachment of President Bush should it be revealed that he lied about the war in Iraq. And what has happened since then? Nothing. Zip. Nada. The cancer has spread so much, looks like it is time to activate the democracy life-support machine folks ...
(Cross-posted at DKos at Suzie-Q, at Diatribune, at Progressive Historians, and at Progressive Bloggers)
29 POVs/Comments:
Great Article:
It astounds me of those poll figures and most any poll figures, that most Americans have ADD or they just don't care.
They wonder why we are at war, did they really listen to the lies at the time?
Once again you have written a good one.
Thanks Larry.
Now, we must press on to apply the cure ;-)
Mentarch you give me a lot to read and even more to understand but I like your work
Thank you, Holly.
But again - the sooner we start pressuring for change, the better ... ;-)
Yes, the dumbing down of America has been quite successful!
Excellent Mentarch! :)
Thanks, Suzie-Q. ;-)
But the point here is that, in the end, it is "We The People" who not only caused the dumbing down, but apparently wanted it (and still do!).
So the question remains: what are we going to do about this?
Very good points Mentarch, we all know that education is the problem this country face and the down fall somewhat of the poor and middle class.
Our public schools are under funded and produce less educated people.
Yes we do LOVE the shows that allow us to rave about a certain singer or which person we like and actually vote to win a certain game on a television show.
We are not leaders here in this country, we are followers.
We work for the rich, we root for the players who make more than we will ever dream of making in our tucked away underpaid lifetime.
We are brain washed by the rich politician who sway us to a party because of morals, morals that we do not really understand.
We die by a political party that lies to us and serve the rich.
How many of us can actually make the type of money these politicians spend on running for office?
Just who do you think they serve?
Just who best interest are they looking out for.
There's really something wrong when our attention spans last for about a week or so, then we are off to the next big wonder, such as when will Paris Hilton be interviewed on the Larry King show.
Let's Talk: e-x-a-c-t-l-y!
And the fact is that "we" want it this way - or so it seems.
So ... are "we" going to awake and change not only ourselves, but in the process cure our bodies democratic, politic, economic and society?
Mentarch, it's sad to say but the answer is NO, you said so yourself.
"In short, intellectual sloth transforms any adult person who is guilty of it into an irresponsible and reactionary child or adolescent, who lives only in the “now” while remaining blind to “yesterday” and “tomorrow". Such a person thus becomes incompetent to deal with reality, or to even attempt AT UNDERSTANDING IT."
How then can one change or be any other way.
Let's Talk: excellent question!
Chances are there will always be a minority that will refuse to change - these are the intractably parochial ones (we know who the are ...)
But if we engage the rest, we can start limiting the damages.
However, at the same time, we must nip the emergence of new intellectual sloth-driven individuals by making the appropriate changes in education.
Like I said: we have to attack this generalized cancer at its very roots ...
Otherwise, this will be like, say, curing the cancer from the liver but doing nothing about the other metastases in other organs, let alone about the primary/originating tumor: we may save the liver, but the rest will cease to function while the liver will be metastasized again ...
It should be noted here that Chimpy is a sloth of the non-intellectual variant. He's probably about as well-equipped as a sloth is for things like decision making.
Heh ;-)
"A puppet is a puppet is ..."
This is a topic that has distressed me for as long as I can remember. As such, I've become a student of change, how to affect change. Largely, that has lead to reading topics related to industrial psych, marketing and cognitive behavioral therapy (really). I've found Cialdini (_Influence_) and Aronson (_The social animal_) enlightening.
Some strategies I've found useful are deliberately invoking cognitive dissonance in unexpected entries, I tend to avoid rhetorical devices as they are distasteful, cheap shots that tend to stimulate a knee jerk reaction. Similarly, I don't always do this as well as I'd like but I try to be mindful of Faber's advice: "Kindness has converted more sinners than zeal, eloquence or learning".
I refrain from preaching to my choir (not implying you do). I'd rather they argue with me than agree. In such, we hold more sway with naysayers in that we contest our own conclusions.
Kathleen: indeed.
However, there will always be those whith whom it is pointless to even attempt.
Nor is it sny better to "forcibly" convince other - because then they remain uncomvinced, deep down.
Having said that - yes ... we must at least try to convince others. But nonetheless, we must also ensure to reduce as much as possible the continuing spread of the "cancer" in the up-coming generations ...
This goes beyond intellectual sloth (altho that has allowed it). Here is how LM commenter Diva Jood explains it:
"The neocons have capitalized on a phenomena known as “Pluralistic Ignorance.” In this state of mind, people mistakenly believe their own thoughts and feelings are different from everyone around them. They look to others for cues instead of trusting their own instincts. PI is particularly disturbing when the situation involves imminent danger. When the danger appears to be ambiguous (think about the Bush rhetoric of terrorism), the social rules of belonging and acceptance trump looking different or alarmist."
We have been fed a false perception of ourselves and of our beliefs and opinions. Reasserting ourselves as a liberal country and reclaiming the conversation is Step One.
Mirth: extacly! And "buying" into all of this was *because* of intellectual sloth ... indeed.
(ooopsie)
That would be "exactly" ...
(Bad typos! Ba-ad typos!) ;-)
We definately need to educate, and stir intellectual curiosity. We need to return to discourse, and to shining the light of truth on the preposterous behaviors of the Bush Administration.
We need to keep our voices heard, read, seen.
Jood: hear, hear!
Wow - I thought I'd let you good folks know that the DKos version of this entry was highlighted last night as a "rescued diary".
My third in a litle over a week and my fourth in a little under two months.
I am amazed ... ;-)
"Living in a democracy is a right and a responsibility. And yes, this responsibility requires effort. But which is better: having your back bent by the effort required to keep on living in a democratic society, or letting leave for complacency and find yourself one day with a back bent under a totalitarian regime (however benevolent it may be)?"
- Love it.
Glad you approve! ;-)
To connect the Bush administration to the problems pointed out in this post is outrageous. It transcends politics so we should refrain from falling into that trap.
Mentarch, I must confess that I followed each of those half-heartedly - partly because I am Canadian and partly because I have zero time. Weak excuse but I am sticking to it. I barel yhave time to write on my own blog. Anyhow, I follow it on those Sunday morning round up shows and the occassional post on National Review (conservative yes but sharp and enlightening), The Nation, or FP Magazine.
What I would be interested in is to find out about how apathetic Canadians are regarding our democracy. Every observation I have made on the subject points to our own democracy being every bit as rotten. We'ew so busy pointing out the blemisheson the Americans we forget to look in the mirror.
And no, it's not Harper's fault.
Great post - thanks for the link.
Commentator: exactly! It is not just the fault of Harper or Bush - it is first and foremost *our* fault. As I am fond of saying:
Mea culpa, mea culpa, vox populi.
Have a great one! ;-)
In the US there has been a more concerted and deliberate effort both to deliver the media outlets into ultra-conservative hands, and to dumb down the public school system. The latter effort fits well into the agenda of the Religious Right, who well know that their system of ideation does not hold up to the slightest informed scrutiny. As to the former;
"The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power." -- Henry A. Wallace, Vice President to FDR, 1944
The Danger of American Fascism
For further reading;
What Happened to the American Media?
One other point occurs - in a world where an economy of ideas has emerged, this dumbing down of the populace is tantamount to economic warfare conducted on your own country.
SBT: Indeed (and thank you for the extra materials - great stuff all around)!
However, my question remains: to what extent have the People played along with all of this?
To what extent all of this is some sort of "dumbing down" feedback loop between the Public, the MSM, politicos and Corporations?
And last but not least: what do we do mto break this visious feedback loop and cure this cancer in our democracies?
"vicious", that is (typo attack again ...)
We live in this narcissistic society of cheapened values and instant gratification. People are living without hearts and compassion, more concerned how society will perceive their "image" and making major decisions based on greed and shallowness. Mentarch, you are my new favourite blog. I am grateful I found you, I'm with you 100%:)
Bobby: yep - "me, myself and I", or "looking out for No. 1" - these rule the day ... hopefully, we'll enact the necessary changes in our societies in order to remedy this severe problem that we're faced with ... our democracies depend on this.
(and your blog is also a fave of mine! Keep on rockin', eh?) ;-)
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Please feel free to comment on APOV. However, remember to keep in check your tone and respect for all here. Let rational, reasoning, enthousiastic and passionate conversations and discussions rule first and foremost in our participatory democracy, so as to facilitate the free exchange of reality-based facts and ideas. In between, do not forget to have fun and enjoy yourselves ... in other words: keep on rockin'! - Mentarch