Nothing so retards the development of critical thought as the encouragement of an unedified opinion. And yet, this has been the backbone of our “public education” system for the past six decades, where poorly calibrated emotional intuitions have been promoted over genuine intellectual inquiry.
The result?
An assembly line of Silly Putty minds, pliable and easily molded, devoid of the hard edges of critical thinking.
The educational overhaul began with the repackaging of courses, erasing the distinctiveness of subjects that once demanded rigorous engagement. Astronomy, geology, and physics were crammed under the nebulous umbrella of "earth science," while English, French, reading, writing, and recitation were subsumed into the vague category of "language arts." History, civics, and economics became homogenized into "social studies," and psychology, sociology, and anthropology were collectively rebranded as "human relations." When the curriculum itself gets put through a blender, it’s small fucking wonder no one can possibly dissect the mush meaningfully.
Foundational courses—Latin and Civics, for instance—were booted to the curb. Denied linguistic tools or civic understanding necessary for informed citizenship, vast numbers of humanity found themselves registered Democrats while the simulated processes of an actual democracy - mock elections, civil debates, and diplomacy exercises - were likewise shown the door.
Filling the void?
A vacuous culture celebrating emotional reactions over thoughtful deliberation.
Concentrated vagueness has become institutionalized across most subjects, leaving even the educators bewildered by the etymologies, etiologies, and histories of their disciplines. Thus, the students of today regurgitate pablum that would make even the most dedicated parent cringe, utterly unprepared to challenge or engage with the complexities of the world around them.
This trend bears its fruit when today's graduates—armed with their non-binary identities and safe-zone mentalities—encounter disillusionment with the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions.
Their immediate reaction?
A childlike tantrum, demanding the dismantling of the court and its justices. It’s a classic case of the ignorant demanding the obliteration of the misunderstood, a symptom of a far deeper malaise rooted in an education system that has failed to nurture critical thinking, a concept as foreign to many as the import of personal pronouns is to me.
I can speak from experience; as a mid-century casualty of these educational deprivations, I’ve witnessed firsthand the erosion of curiosity and initiative in favor of compliance and conformity. Where I found my spark of inquiry amid the enveloping darkness, most products of Horace Mann's failed experiment have succumbed to the naiveté of partial truths masquerading as whole truths, assigning prominences and prevalences outside true proportions to this while denying the inarguable travesties of that and obediently cuing up whatever pablum has been shoved down their throats for decades. This is the case for police brutality, vaccine efficacy, and systemic racism.
Thus has our government encouraged a form of intellectual penury akin to the social stratification seen in India, where upper-caste Hindus controlled the educational narrative, effectively keeping the Dalit caste from significant opportunities.
This monopoly on knowledge and culture has produced a dumbed-down and largely bovine population that is existentially vulnerable owing to an ignorance of the broader spectrum of thought. Susceptible to manipulation by a mass media that thrives on sensationalism rather than substance, these are the same dick licks that challenge me for calling bs on the climate change narrative and refuse to click “like” herein.
As the playwright Robert Morley wisely noted, “Show me a man who enjoyed his school days, and I will show you a bully and a bore.” Alfred North Whitehead echoed this sentiment, cautioning that “universities are like any other necessary implement—like a gun. We must have them; the work of civilization could scarcely be carried on without them; while they are very valuable, they can also be very dangerous.”
The recent absurdities in Minneapolis, Portland, Chicago, and Seattle starkly illustrates this danger, revealing that many of the fuckheads arrested during riots identified themselves as current students or educators.
If ignorance guarantees popular support for evil, then we must question the intellect of those within academia.
It’s no surprise that the principal vectors for socialism’s slow seep into our society are professors—a fact that has left the Silly Putty between their ears thoroughly calcified. Not that I’m bitter, of course.
What remains most troubling is how easily the under-educated, ill-informed, and apathetic members of society become ensnared.
In a world where the loudest voices drown out thoughtful discourse, it’s no wonder I once questioned my own capacity for understanding.
The bloviating speed-talk that passes for debate in competitions confounded me until I realized that audiences weren't swayed by argument but rather swept up in a spectacle that demanded not critical thinking but mere attention. This is Jerry Springer writ small, where the chaos is curated for sound bites rather than substance, leaving intellect stranded in the clamor of sensationalism.
Such is the result of infantilizing people—an educational ethos that panders to the lowest common denominator, where sensitivity trumps substance.
The incorporation of touchy-feely sensibilities has eclipsed the very intentions of informing or instructing. Conversation—arguably the antithesis of education—has become an expected component, shifting the burden of enlightenment onto underdeveloped minds and immature convictions.
In this brave new world, the concept of debate has become hopelessly compromised, emphasizing hyperbolic monologues over the development of coherent arguments and counterarguments. Old-school knowledge has been cast aside in favor of the ephemeral allure of sports and movies, leaving whole constituencies vulnerable to all manner of conspiracies. And you thought James Bond was licensed to kill.
As the cultural critic Jacques Barzun once observed, “When under democracy education ceases to be a privilege and becomes a right, the student’s motive and attitude change. The class turns into a clientele to be satisfied, and a skeptical one: teach me if you can.” This pervasive skepticism has led to a dilution of the educational experience, where civics discussions often devolve into bitch sessions regarding the latest political hot-button issues—like the absurd debate over whether Governor DeSantis is right to exclude critical race theory from civics courses (for the leftists that have hung in thus far: he is).
The hazard of templating one's personal experiences over another’s is painfully evident, particularly in discussions around historical injustices.
The internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the Holocaust are often invoked as cautionary tales against racial prejudice, yet such comparisons can oversimplify complex realities. After 9/11, while real tragedies occurred—like the wrongful shooting of a Sikh man due to cultural profiling—these incidents have been incorrectly framed as universally racist, obscuring the nuances of societal responses to fear and ignorance.
In this climate, we’ve seen how desegregation, though well-intentioned, inadvertently contributed to a collective misunderstanding, further muddying the waters of public discourse.
The result?
An entire generation armed with half-truths and inflated emotions, unprepared to confront the challenges of a world that demands more than just feelings—it demands understanding, analysis, and, most crucially, the ability to engage critically with the complexities of the human experience. But goddamn, watch what the species is capable of when it comes to procuring designer apparel and luxury handbags with little more than a gun.
The battle for genuine education—a quest for critical thought and nuanced understanding—remains a daunting task, one increasingly left to the autodidact’s initiative.
Alas, few will know wtf “autodidact” means.
Fewer still will investigate the matter.
And still fewer will embody it.
Just wait until all the illegal aliens in small town America who have overwhelmed the local schools with uneducated, non-English speaking, native-language illiterate children are passed along through dumbed-down courses in the interest of maintaining district graduation rates. The collective general intelligence and ability of the next generations will effectively be that of a Guatemalan slum.