Dear Fred,
Thanks for your email.
There is a qualitative difference between "being ignorant" (a widespread affliction of humankind) and being aggressively ignorant.
Boastfully ignorant.
Proudly ignorant.
Evangelically ignorant. (In both the "sacred" and "secular" sense of "evangelical.")
During my youth -- and I imagine it was the same for you -- adults with little formal education took for granted that well-educated people actually knew things about science, humanities and "the arts" which they themselves did not know and that such knowledge generally elevated people.
On balance, "the uneducated" looked upon "the educated" as cultural beacons. Teachers were revered and, overwhelming, people understood that learning was a good thing.
On balance, "the uneducated" looked upon "the educated" as cultural beacons. Teachers were revered and, overwhelming, people understood that learning was a good thing.
In this Time of Untruth, people who do not like the "findings of science" (or any other inconvenient truth) just make s___ up, or dive headlong into conspiracy theories that "prove" the rudiments of X, Y and Z are not true.
As you know, "The Thinking Housewife" -- alongside legions of seemingly intelligent people -- assert that Sandy Hook never took place but was "staged" by Homeland Security's theater troop to turn people against The Second Amendment. (And pigs fly... all the way to The Oval Office.)
As you know, "The Thinking Housewife" -- alongside legions of seemingly intelligent people -- assert that Sandy Hook never took place but was "staged" by Homeland Security's theater troop to turn people against The Second Amendment. (And pigs fly... all the way to The Oval Office.)
Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting Conspiracy Theories
"Quos deus vult perdere prius dementat."
"Whom God would destroy, he first makes mad."
The transition from widespread admiration-for-education to the angry, arrogant, avaricious, lustful vulgarianism of Donald J. Trump, has been described luminously in a book I consider the most overlooked tome of the 20th century, Jose Ortega y Gassett's "The Rebellion of The Masses."
In some ways "The Rebellion of The Masses" is a subtle work wherein liberals and conservatives both find what they want.
But the conclusion is clear: once industrialism put an end to the patronage system, "workers" no longer needed a patron/overlord to provide "protection" in exchange for the labor they could sell nowhere else.
And so, the masses were liberated economically as a side effect of large-scale, capital-driven industry.
Once liberated, uneducated workers turned their backs (unwittingly) on the hierarchical social system that had always guaranteed a stable social order.
In this Boisterous New World any uneducated worker confronting an abusive patron-employer (or simply a patron-employer s/he did not like) could tell patron-boss to "take his job and shove it."
It must also be pointed out that this unprecedented liberation of "the masses" also liberated women... and for the first time.
(By way of disclaimer I should add that while the central meaning of "The Revolution Of The Masses" is evident to me, I have also considered Chesterton a left-leaning revolutionary whereas most people consider him an exemplary conservative. http://paxonbothhouses.
But the conclusion is clear: once industrialism put an end to the patronage system, "workers" no longer needed a patron/overlord to provide "protection" in exchange for the labor they could sell nowhere else.
And so, the masses were liberated economically as a side effect of large-scale, capital-driven industry.
Once liberated, uneducated workers turned their backs (unwittingly) on the hierarchical social system that had always guaranteed a stable social order.
In this Boisterous New World any uneducated worker confronting an abusive patron-employer (or simply a patron-employer s/he did not like) could tell patron-boss to "take his job and shove it."
It must also be pointed out that this unprecedented liberation of "the masses" also liberated women... and for the first time.
(By way of disclaimer I should add that while the central meaning of "The Revolution Of The Masses" is evident to me, I have also considered Chesterton a left-leaning revolutionary whereas most people consider him an exemplary conservative. http://paxonbothhouses.
Once freed from the socio-economic bonds of a hierarchical patronage system, workers no longer paid respect -- nor did they feign respect -- for their "betters." (While acknowledging that there will always be disparity in workplace recompense, throughout my life I have believed that tradesmen should be paid as much as professional people. In general I have higher regard for plumbers than I do for most professionals although I still have high regard for the latter.)
The crux of Ortega y Gasset's "Rebellion Of The Masses" is this...
As long as un-formed - and largely uninformed - workers admired and honored education, the social order was safe.
And time-out-of-mind most "poor" workers have honored the uplifting qualities of education.
And time-out-of-mind most "poor" workers have honored the uplifting qualities of education.
However, over the course of a century in which American industrial workers did not need to educate themselves in order to earn a good middle-class wage, they degenerated into couch-potato, beer-swilling vidiots who (at least implicitly) held the "educated" social order in contempt.
Suddenly, yahoo ignorance was just as good as educated people's knowledge. By God, the yahoos would "go it alone" denying any need for taxation or other contribution to a system that kept "elites" in power.
Suddenly, yahoo ignorance was just as good as educated people's knowledge. By God, the yahoos would "go it alone" denying any need for taxation or other contribution to a system that kept "elites" in power.
Lacking education themselves, the working class began to revere greedy self-aggrandizement whose "fruits" would enable them to purchase ceaseless pleasure while ignoring the essential social virtues of The Common Good. In the process, "workers" replaced social value with "everything money can buy," including "the government."
The transition from democracy-to-plutocracy is now baked in the cake and, in a twinkle, Trump has morphed from a vile human being to the savior of White Christianity.
Although there have always been wealthy people, it has also been true that, until recently (when "The Wolves of Wall Street" replaced traditionally wealthy people), a "critical mass" of rich folk was imbued with noblesse oblige which prevented the exhaustion of "social capital" and the dependable social order that has always been grounded in "social capital."
"Back in the day," the wealthiest man on earth, Andrew Carnegie, said:
Nowadays, lower class "sheeple" make common cause with upper class "wolves" in dimwitted opposition to all taxes (blithely unaware that "taxes are the price we pay for civilization."
Be they capitalist wolves or meth-shooting "workers" whom the wolves have created, this new generation of uneducated boors takes special pride-and-pleasure in trying to eliminate "the death tax" to make sure "ungodly rich people" spoil their children just as their top-heavy wealth has spoiled them.
Ben Franklin On "No New Taxes"
1910 Income Tax Promised To Never Shift Burden From Richest 1 - 4%
Instruction And Education Aim At Antipodes
And so we come to this linchpin moment ---with Yahoo Número Uno at the top of the heap modeling the virtues of vulgarianism for the wide spectrum of underlings whose detachment from -- and non-participation in -- any orderly social system first coarsened them, then seduced them into alliance with their oppressors.
"La Rebelión de las Masas": https://es.wikipedia.o
"The Revolt of The Masses": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Free online English language version of "The Revolt of The Masses": http://pinkmonkey.com
Free online Spanish language version of "La Rebelión de las Masas": https://filosofiauacm.
- "As they say in the United States: “to be different is to be indecent.” The mass crushes beneath it everything that is different, everything that is excellent, individual, qualified and select. Anybody who is not like everybody, who does not think like everybody, runs the risk of being eliminated. And it is clear, of course, that this “everybody” is not “everybody.” “Everybody” was normally the complex unity of the mass and the divergent, specialised minorities. Nowadays, “everybody” is the mass alone. Here we have the formidable fact of our times, described without any concealment of the brutality of its features." (Chapter 1: The Coming of the Masses)
- "The Fascist and Syndicalist species were characterized by the first appearance of a type of man who did not care to give reasons or even to be right, but who was simply resolved to impose his opinions. That was the novelty: the right not to be right, not to be reasonable: 'the reason of unreason.'" (Chapter 8: Why the Masses Intervene in Everything and Why They Always Intervene Violently)
- It does not often occur to "the masses" that creating self-employment is often more ennobling than being "a wage slave." An so we witness the modern world's worship of "jobs" - and Donald Trump who promises to "bring them back."
- Alan: Ortega y Gasset's insight into America's ongoing cultural collapse is downright prophetic, setting him alongside Isaiah and Jeremiah. White "Christians" will rankle at this suggestion, but it was white "Christians" who elected The Thug.
- Within four years, "The Saved" will emerge from The Horror they have concocted, their religion tarnished, their savior revealed as The Prince of Darkness, and --- stunned by their satanic self-deception --- their personal faith threadbare or gone.
"There are two ways of lying, as there are two ways of deceiving customers. If the scale registers 15 ounces, you can say: 'It's a pound.' Your lie will remain relative to an invariable measure of the true. If customers check it, they can see that they are being robbed, and you know by how much you are robbing them: a truth remains as a judge between you. But if the demon induces you to tamper with the scale itself, it is the criterion of the true which is denatured, there is no longer any possible control. And little by little you will forget that you are cheating."
Compendium Of Pax Posts About Donald Trump
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspo
Compilation Of Pax Posts On Similarities Between Hitler And Trump
I defined redneck as being a man who takes pride in his ignorance.
Azimov says we have a cult of ignorance in out country. Immediately I wonder -- isn't this true in every country?
On Sun, Jan 1, 2017 at 10:55 AM, Alan Archibald <alanarchibaldo@gmail.com> wrote:
Isaac Asimov Explains Trump's Victory
Hannah Arendt: The Horror Of Normality
Caro Giovanni,
Happy New Year to you and yours!
I do not know what good it does to sign online petitions but this one does have the virtue of strengthening our resolve to oppose a monstrous sociopath. http://paxonbothhou
Follow the Money!
Here are some more "solidarity enhancers." (The Mormon Tabernacle Chorister is my choice for 2017's Person Of The Year.)
I defined redneck as being a man who takes pride in his ignorance.Azimov says we have a cult of ignorance in out country. Immediately I wonder -- isn't this true in every country?
On Sun, Jan 1, 2017 at 10:55 AM, Alan Archibald <alanarchibaldo@gmail.com> wrote:
Isaac Asimov Explains Trump's VictoryHannah Arendt: The Horror Of NormalityCaro Giovanni,Happy New Year to you and yours!I do not know what good it does to sign online petitions but this one does have the virtue of strengthening our resolve to oppose a monstrous sociopath. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2016/07/is- donald-trump-sociopath-taking- his.html Follow the Money!Here are some more "solidarity enhancers." (The Mormon Tabernacle Chorister is my choice for 2017's Person Of The Year.)
Citing Trump's "Fascism" And "Tyranny," Mormon Tabernacle Chorister Resigns
Time Magazine
"Kremlin Names Trump Employee Of The Month
Love
Alan
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: JS
Date: Sun, Jan 1, 2017 at 11:24 AM
Subject: I just signed this petition -- will you?
To: Alan Archibald <alanarchibaldo@gmail.com>
I just took action to tell Congress to investigate Trump's potential corruption and foreign entanglements, and I think you should too: https://act.credoaction.com/si
--
Time Magazine"Kremlin Names Trump Employee Of The MonthLoveAlan
---------- Forwarded message ----------From: JSDate: Sun, Jan 1, 2017 at 11:24 AMSubject: I just signed this petition -- will you?To: Alan Archibald <alanarchibaldo@gmail.com>I just took action to tell Congress to investigate Trump's potential corruption and foreign entanglements, and I think you should too: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/trump_cummings_corruption_2 ?sp_ref=256192904.4.177232.e.0 .2&referring_akid=.11260903.2P yAvp&source=mailto_sp --
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