Dumbing us Down

It has become increasingly obvious that our country is intellectually adrift. Debates about health care, national security and a myriad of social issues suggest that instead of seeking enlightenment people often embrace instead crackpot notions of patriotism and irrational fears about an over-intrusive government.

The Senate’s health-care deliberations are a gut-wrenching display of that chamber’s “collegial” atmosphere. Remarks that begin with “my good friend” are tributes those outside the beltway find hard to swallow without gagging. It’s as if something resembling a beauty pageant were in effect with senators vying for the congeniality award -- a testament to the superficial nature of our political dialogue that may help to explain Sarah Palin’s success in some quarters.

Faced with difficult choices that demand the very best efforts of our very best minds, outrageous political claptrap reduces the prospect of ever breaching the partisan divide. Senators Grassley, Hatch and other Republicans say it’s important not just to do health-care-reform right away but “to do it right.” Clearly they are reading from the same script, and bi-partisan for them means operating as if there had been no election in November.

And as if their arrogance and stupidity hadn’t committed the country to two wars and serious economic distress, members of the Bush administration feel free, nonetheless, to criticize President Obama. Are they embarrassed their agenda has been so widely disparaged or that a new president has revitalized our image around the world? Isn’t it a kind of self-serving patriotism for Condoleezza Rice, Dick Cheney and the ever chattering right-wing media creatures to suggest we may be attacked again because of decisions this president has made? What kind of message do allies or adversaries receive when such disrespectful and dangerous allegations are made by former office holders? What could be more damaging to the country than suggestions that our current leaders are unprepared to meet our security challenges?

John Bolton had a tsk, tsk, tsk, conversation with Glenn Beck on  his show about how changing the kind of missile defense shield we would employ in Europe will be our undoing, Bolton adding that Obama’s warm reception at the UN was an indication of how far off-track he is. And in especially offensive mind-numbing mode, even for him, Beck recently attempted to co-opt Yom Kippur by asking viewers to observe a day of reflection on that most important Jewish holy day. Maybe around December 25^th he’ll come up with some special birther stuff.

At a time of severe economic upheaval and social unrest Conservatives and critics of all descriptions insist we must address the deficit and essentially ignore the impact of an invasive, many faceted recessionary spiral that defies easy resolution. It is often said FDR’s advisors urged him to focus on balancing the budget during the Depression rather than continuing to develop government programs, a decision that stalled progress until WWII provided the final impetus for economic recovery.

In Bleak House Charles Dickens’ character, Tom-All-Alone, is a symbol of social blight. How Tom was to be “got right” was always “somebody’s theory but nobody’s practice,” rather like our approach to many of our national problems. In exchanges about who should receive medical benefits it is rarely acknowledged that when such needs are unmet we are all at risk from infectious diseases and economic instability. Dickens wrote that “not a drop of Tom’s corrupted blood but propagates infection and contagion somewhere … not one obscenity or degradation about him, not an ignorance…not a brutality of his committing but shall work its retribution, through every order of society, up to the proudest of the proud and to the highest of the high. Verily, what with tainting, plundering and spoiling, Tom has his revenge.”

It often escapes notice in our culture that we are all interconnected. A caller to one program said that if people couldn’t afford health insurance they should do without, even if without proper care they could die.  But the needs of others and indeed our own self interest depend on a willingness to accept responsibility for the larger community and to work towards some a-political approach to health-care and other societal concerns, recognizing that, in the end, they are vital components of our national security.