That pathetic apologia from the UCSD student regarding speech codes yesterday came to mind reading this. It is simply difficult to credit that normal, intelligent people are capable of repeating such palpable nonsense so solemnly and expect other people to accede to the mutual illusion. We aren't immune from this by any means.
I thought about this yesterday when I had to go to a mall. I generally rarely interact with the masses here (just south of SF), but I have noticed that they are just becoming more and more ignorant. And I don't just mean their complete lack of formal education, but also the values that they take seriously.
If I see one more middle-class white or Asian kid with his pants around his knees and a baseball cap on sideways, I'm gonna go postal.
One kid I who walked past me yesterday had on the full gangsta attire - cami shirt, cami-jacket, the requisite bling, the cami SF Giants hat on sideways and his cami pants around his thighs. I think I must have been smirking because he turned around to look at me - obviously trying to decide if he wanted to confront me for "dissin'" him. He wisely chose not to, but you could tell he was thinking it.
From Homer Simpson to SpongeBob to the latest rap lyrics, ignorance is celebrated in this country. And if you're going to listen to SpongeBob, why wouldn't you listen George Clooney?
But unfortunately, ignorance isn't the opposite of reason, violence is. And the violence which comes from ignorance is alive and well and growing here in the US.