America is not as great of a country as we like to think it is. In fact, we’re not even in the top 10 of great countries to live in. Why is that? In a word: education. Or, if you live in America, the lack of an education. Don’t get offended yet, I’m fixin to educate you on the problem of education in America.
In a worldwide study on literacy, the United States comes in at a staggering #25 for people over the age of 15 who can read and write a simple sentence about daily life. That means countries like Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, and the Bahamas have a higher percentage of people that can read than the U.S. But wait! This is just people who can read and write a basic sentence. According to the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, only 79% of Americans “have English literacy skills sufficient to complete tasks that require comparing and contrasting information, paraphrasing, or making low-level inferences.” That means that 21% of Americans cannot read a book or informative article and effectively glean information from it.
So America is full of idiots, right? If that’s the case, how is it possible that the U.S. is fourth for the amount of money she spends on each student - about $16,500 per student, per year. (Note: this is significantly lower than the approximately $80,000 per year we spend housing a prison inmate). According to the numbers, there are countries that spend half as much per student, who are getting far better results. Many of these countries also have cheaper, better healthcare, lower crime rates, and lower suicide and depression rates. Hmmm...I wonder if there’s a correlation there.
Why is this information important? Because we’re supposed to be the greatest country in the world, at least according to the indoctrination camp often referred to as the public education system. Wouldn’t the greatest country in the world have a population who is smart, educated, and intelligent? Well, no. That wouldn’t do at all. If we had a population who was well educated, it would be a lot more difficult for the people in power to keep us under their thumb. But we’ll get to that in just a minute. When I speak of education, I’m not only referring to the time spent in public schools or a four-year university. Hell, 40% of American adults have a four-year college degree and a huge percentage of those people still can’t fucking read.
When I speak of education, I’m referring to the constant growth of one’s mind. The constant flow of new information that comes from books and articles from reputable sources. And no, CNN, Facebook, and the New York Times do not count as reputable sources. If you get your information from memes, or blog posts disguised as legitimate news sources, you may just be an idiot. In his book Trust Me I’m Lying, Ryan Holiday discusses his job as a media manipulator. He describes how online news articles are not held to the same legal standards as print news articles are. In fact, many of these “news” blogs can publish absolute bullshit online without any repercussions, even if the information is completely fabricated.
Also, beware of a little something called “confirmation bias.” Most of us have a set of beliefs that are based on the political beliefs of our parents before us. When you are having an online debate with a total stranger about a topic you feel strongly about, you may be tempted to jump on Google and look for something that might support your position. Chances are, you’ll find an opinion article that skews statistics in a way that will confirm what you already believe to be true. At the same time, you will likely ignore information that contradicts what you already believe to be true. This is called confirmation bias. It’s a consequence of arbitrarily choosing your beliefs before you’ve actually done any homework. Do yourself a favor, no matter how uncomfortable it might make you feel, read some information that contradicts what you believe. Look at statistics that might prove yourself wrong. Be open minded and allow yourself to truly learn.
Now, getting back to our uneducated population. Why is it that, despite spending so much on education, are we as a nation still stupid? Surprisingly, it’s not very complicated. The people (politicians, billionaires, and billionaire politicians) don’t want an educated population. If everyone were educated, and we wouldn’t need their brilliance to save us and lead us, now would we? I work as an electrical construction foreman. When I was first being trained as a foreman, I would often get frustrated that some of the other guys didn’t understand what I was asking of them. My boss at the time laughed and said, “If they could all think like us, they wouldn’t need us.” How true is this when it comes to our government. If we didn’t need our politicians, how would they take advantage of us.
The entire political system was created by a group of extremely wealthy landowners, and highly intelligent politicians. We’re often taught that the framers of the constitution were a bunch of rebels and everyday Joes. But that’s not the case at all. No, they were super rich, and developed a system of government that would keep them in power, and keep them rich for centuries to come. By the way, do you know who the richest U.S. President was? George Washington. He owned so much land and had so much money that he made these other presidents look like a bunch of chumps. Same thing with all the other Framers. Rich, white men. I know what you’re thinking, “That’s bullshit. Would they do that?” Simple, to ensure better lives for them and their offspring. Duh!
Yes, they put things in the Constitution like “Freedom of the Press” and “Freedom of Speech” but what good does that do when they own the press and can easily discredit anyone who uses speech in a way that doesn’t jive with the narrative? Think I’m joking? Ben Franklin’s contribution to the Constitution is immeasurable. He also was the editor and publisher of the Pennsylvania Gazette. Man, it must be really difficult to gain public support for your agenda when you control the only information the public gets, huh?
At this point, you may be asking yourself, “But Rollie, if this is true, wouldn’t they want to stop any competing information from coming out?” Right you are, Kent! And they have created a genius way of doing that. Several ways, actually. First, they have competing news channels and papers. One side represents the political left, the other represents the political right. When information makes it out that those in power don’t want to be out, they simply make sure that both sides claim it to be untrue. “Hey those guys are both calling it bullshit, it must be bullshit.” This works for discrediting news stories as well as information sources. The second way they do this is to make sure the news never sees the light of day. One phone call from the head honcho and the story disappears forever. Or, in the case of Facebook or Twitter, you just create an algorithm that filters out any posts or ads that conflict with the message you want your customers to hear. A third way is to ignore it. American’s have a short attention span. We’re so concerned with our devices and our streaming TV and distractions of every sort, that if negative information about our country does make it past the filters, it doesn’t lodge itself into our long-term memory. We’ll just forget it and it goes away. Some recent examples are immigrant kids in cages, the Black Lives Matters movement, and President Elect Joe Biden being a fucking pedophile. Oh, and fourth way they discredit information is to simply label something as a “conspiracy theory.” Oh don’t listen to that guy, he’s just a nutso who believes in conspiracy theories. For the record, there have been an astonishing amount of conspiracy theories that turned out to be true. But don’t take my word for it, get out and see for yourself.
Here’s a little bit of advice, if someone is offering you an abundance of information about something and you didn’t ask for it, they’re probably selling something. The “freedom of the press” and all the crap that comes with it is just a way for the powerfully rich folks to sell you the idea that you’re free.
But wait a minute, Rollie! Doesn’t that mean you are trying to sell me something? Again, right you are. I want to sell you back your own lives. I want you to get out there and educate yourself so that you can see what you’re missing out on. The point is, ladies and gentlemen, is that we can all live better, more fulfilling lives. We don’t need a government to decide how this happens. For tens of thousands of years, civilizations existed where people lived peacefully among each other and all their needs were met. Each and every one of us has the power, socked away in the little eight pound lump of goo between our ears, to create a better world.
But, as the great Buddha once said, “Don’t take it from me. Go out and find the truth for yourself. “ or something like that.
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