Bill Maher: Smart President, Dumb Country

When we talk about developing countries, we say that education is their peoples' ticket out of provincialism, tribalism, and poverty. That it is. But without a continued emphasis on education, societies tend to slip back. For example, take the Middle East.

Centuries before the Enlightenment hit Europe, Arabic/Islamic scholars had made brilliant strides in mathematics:

Recent research paints a new picture of the debt that we owe to Arabic/Islamic mathematics. Certainly many of the ideas which were previously thought to have been brilliant new conceptions due to European mathematicians of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries are now known to have been developed by Arabic/Islamic mathematicians around four centuries earlier. In many respects the mathematics studied today is far closer in style to that of the Arabic/Islamic contribution than to that of the Greeks. (O’Conner & Robertson, 1999) . . .

Great schools, libraries, and observatories were set up by the government for the growing thirst for education. One of the most famous schools, the House of Wisdom in Baghdad became the hub for research and translating work. Many great mathematicians were produced by this center of learning, including al-Khwarizmi. Al-Khwarizmi wrote the first book on algebra. “It gave mathematics a whole new development path so much broader in concept to that which had existed before, and provided a vehicle for future development of the subject. Another important aspect of the introduction of algebraic ideas was that it allowed mathematics to be applied to itself in a way which had not happened before” (O’Conner & Robertson, 1999). In fact the word algebra comes from the Arabic word al-jabr, which was a part of the title of al-Khwarizmi’s book.

Baghdad, a center of learning? Arabic/Islamic scholars being pioneers in mathematics? What happened to all this erudition among Arabic/Islamic scholars? In fact, what happened to all the scholars? Fundamentalism. And despotism. Neither one can tolerate free inquiry or an enlightened populace. So books must be burned, scholars must be executed or exiled. No one must know enough or have enough power to question or threaten the ruling authority. I'm afraid America is headed down the same awful path, though with the election of Barack Obama as our President, we may have averted a rapid backward slide temporarily.

But let's face it: America is, and always has been, an anti-intellectual society. We certainly have the ingredients for it. Fundamentalism, the Christian variety, mostly. Despotism? Not so much since Cheney and his gang of right-wing ne'er-do-wells vacated the White House.

In the wake of the recent "town hall riots," I hope the well-educated citizens of this country can get off their duffs and participate in civic life, as the right-wing nutcake authoritarian followers are so eager to do. We might just escape the La Brea Tar Pit of terminal ignorance. (See the movie, "Idiocracy," starring Luke Wilson, and shudder.) When I read the near-riots are being caused by know-nothings led by Dick Armey, for God's sake, or rather for his lobbying clients' sakes, I am even more sure that a sizable number of our citizens are absolute idiots. To protest for ideals is one thing. To protest to protect some rich lobbyists' interests? That's a whole other level of dumbness.

So I say, buck the tide and be smart. Read books. Watch the news. Study history. Don't just believe anything some fat right-wing freak on radio or TV tells you. Don't follow any money-grubbing jackass like Dick Armey, who wants you to shout down anyone with a new idea that might threaten his bank account. Know something. Do something about something you don't like. And not by rioting. By reasoning, if such a thing is even possible. Obama has certainly tried with the Republicans, but they are now the Party of "No." No ideas, just "No" to his. I mean, "NO!"

Bill Maher has some great commentary on the current dumbness of Americans here. It's absolutely scary how much so many of us don't know. From Maher's article:

James Madison wrote that "pure democracy" doesn't work because "there is nothing to check... an obnoxious individual." Then, in the margins, he doodled a picture of Joe the Plumber.