So Much for the Information Age

April 13th, 2008

So Much for the Information Age – Chronicle.com
(bolding mine)

I teach a seminar called “Secrecy: Forbidden Knowledge.” I recently asked my class of 16 freshmen and sophomores, many of whom had graduated in the top 10 percent of their high-school classes and had dazzling SAT scores, how many had heard the word “rendition.”

Not one hand went up.

…

I described specific accounts of U.S. abductions of foreign citizens, of the likely treatment accorded such prisoners when placed in the hands of countries like Syria and Egypt, of the months and years of detention. I spoke of the lack of formal charges, of some prisoners’ eventual release and how their subsequent lawsuits against the U.S. government were stymied in the name of national security and secrecy.

The students were visibly disturbed. They expressed astonishment, then revulsion. They asked how such practices could go on.

I told them to look around the room at one another’s faces; they were seated next to the answer.

Such a perfect example of not only uninformed college students, but the uninformed country in general. It’s encapsulated by that “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.” bumper sticker, and only one in a hundred is paying attention.

The article continues:

As a journalist, professor, and citizen, I find it profoundly discouraging to encounter such ignorance of critical issues. But it would be both unfair and inaccurate to hold those young people accountable for the moral and legal morass we now find ourselves in as a nation. They are earnest, readily educable, and, when informed, impassioned.

…I make it clear to my students that it is not only their right but their duty to arrive at their own conclusions. They are free to defend rendition, waterboarding, or any other aspect of America’s post-9/11 armamentarium. But I challenge their right to tune out the world, and I question any system or society that can produce such students and call them educated.

That bolded statement, that’s what I want to yell at almost everyone I meet. I challenge your right to tune out the world. I challenge your right to remain ignorant. I challenge your right to pretend nothing is happening and then huff and puff in ‘moral’ outrage when someone shoves it in front of your face.

I am starting to think that people should have to pass some kind of basic current-events quiz in order to vote in this country. “Can you name one of your state’s senators? No? How about pointing out Pakistan on a map? No? Then get the fuck out of here, you have no business voting. Leave that to the adults.”

And it’s not just my usual misanthropic tendency coming to the fore here, either. The kids at my school are sweet and earnest (for the most part) and would react the same way as the kids in this article. But until they tune in to the world beyond their MySpace page, then they shouldn’t be afforded the right to have a say in our domestic or foreign policy. And that applies to people of any age. I actually don’t think my Dad should be allowed to vote either, since he refuses to educate himself on the issues beyond the talking points that Bush’s people pass out.

Music : October Project - Paths of Desire