Ignorance as a form of oppression

The hallmark of any truly free and open society is the access of its citizens, regardless of social, economic or professional status, to education and information. The purpose of education is to free the mind, to encourage independent thought and fresh perspectives on accepted "truths"--anathema to those seeking conquest and domination, which require blind acceptance and obedience to authority.

All throughout history, oppressive regimes (from the the Catholic Church to Nazi Germany to Communist China and North Korea) have first sought to stamp out free thought, primarily by restricting educational access, because an illiterate and ignorant populace is much easier to control and manipulate. Those who can't read must depend on others for information, and if that information is being distorted for political or financial gain, the people in their ignorance are in danger of condoning all manner of evils.

Over the past several decades, the American education system has been under attack--most clearly so after the federal government took control of it. Budget cuts have caused the closures of many schools, resulting in impossible class sizes and a lack of resources (including qualified teachers), which has driven the system to the brink of collapse. Literacy in America is declining at an alarming rate--if you want to see the statistics, you can visit this website: http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/facts/facts_overview.html. Public libraries are being closed, or being forced to reduce their hours of operation, to depend more and more on volunteers and to restrict the resources they provide.

Americans as a whole have become intellectually lazy, preferring entertainment to education, and propaganda rather than actual news. They accept what they are told by the corporate media because it is easier than asking questions that might reveal unpleasant or uncomfortable truths. If you want to see just how much of our "news" is actually propaganda put out by the media for the benefit of a corrupt and oppressive administration, all you have to do is go online and read what is being reported elsewhere around the world. It's shocking how much more the rest of the world knows about what is really happening in this country than the average American knows--or cares to know.

Do we really want to live with the same shame the Germans are still haunted by--that of having to acknowledge that they knew all along but refused to admit that the smell from the camps a few miles away was the smell of burning human flesh? Do we really have to wait for the day the rest of the world decides that we are as great a danger to the safety and security of the world as the Nazis were, and forms its own "Coalition of the Willing" to stop us?

It's time for us to start paying careful attention to the actions--not just the speeches--of those we elected to make changes instead of continuing to conduct business as usual. The voting records of our Senators and Representatives is a matter of public record, and we need to start examining those records, but we can't do that if we can't read. Our rights as Americans are being stripped away, but we can't even know what rights we losing if we can't read the Constitution for ourselves.

But first, we need to get past the ridiculous idea that questioning those in power is somehow un-American or unpatriotic. Being able to question our leaders and hold them to rigorously high standards has always been an American principle. Blind obedience to authority and the surrender of critical thinking skills are things demanded of fascist regimes, oppressive dictatorships and false gods, and it's tolerance of those things that is un-American and unpatriotic.