How Ignorant are We?

How's this for how we scored on correct answers:

• 5% could correctly answer three-fourths of the questions asked about economics.
• 11% of the questions about domestic issues.
• 14% of the questions about foreign affairs
• 10% of the questions about geography.
• 25% knew the correct answers to three-quarters of the history questions, which were rudimentary.

I find those stats astounding, appalling. TomDispatch.com covered it with a video of Rick Shenkman's appearance on The Daily Show and a lengthy guest post by Mr. Shenkman which provided a lot more food for thought.

Mr. Shenkman wrote:

But what does it mean exactly to say that American voters are stupid? About this there is unfortunately no consensus. Like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, who confessed not knowing how to define pornography, we are apt simply to throw up our hands in frustration and say: We know it when we see it. But unless we attempt a definition of some sort, we risk incoherence, dooming our investigation of stupidity from the outset. Stupidity cannot mean, as Humpty Dumpty would have it, whatever we say it means.

Five defining characteristics of stupidity, it seems to me, are readily apparent. First, is sheer ignorance: Ignorance of critical facts about important events in the news, and ignorance of how our government functions and who's in charge. Second, is negligence: The disinclination to seek reliable sources of information about important news events. Third, is wooden-headedness, as the historian Barbara Tuchman defined it: The inclination to believe what we want to believe regardless of the facts. Fourth, is shortsightedness: The support of public policies that are mutually contradictory, or contrary to the country's long-term interests. Fifth, and finally, is a broad category I call bone-headedness, for want of a better name: The susceptibility to meaningless phrases, stereotypes, irrational biases, and simplistic diagnoses and solutions that play on our hopes and fears.

Taking up the first of our definitions of stupidity, how ignorant are we? Ask the political scientists and you will be told that there is damning, hard evidence pointing incontrovertibly to the conclusion that millions are embarrassingly ill-informed and that they do not care that they are. There is enough evidence that one could almost conclude -- though admittedly this is a stretch -- that we are living in an Age of Ignorance.

I suspect that one could write multiple essays on his definition of stupidity alone, much less address some of the other issues that he raises in his post which is well worth the time to read. He made another point which deserves highlighting.

Why are we so deluded? The error can be traced to our mistaking unprecedented access to information with the actual consumption of it. Our access is indeed phenomenal. [...] But in fact only a small percentage of people take advantage of the great new resources at hand.

Mr. Shenkman presented some other stats in his oped in the Boston Globe on June 15, 2008, titled "The dumbing down of voters".

In 1940 six in 10 Americans hadn't gone past the eighth grade. Today, most Americans have attended college. ... But surveys show that increased schooling doesn't correspond to a higher aptitude for civics. To put this bluntly: Americans today are no better informed about politics than their grade-school educated grandparents. With respect to some subjects they are less well-informed.

Like Americans in the 1940s, Americans today barely understand basic facts about our government. Only two in 10 know we have 100 US senators. Only four in 10 know we have three branches of government and can name them. Only a third know that Congress has the power to declare war. [...]

With respect to complicated issues Americans are at sea. In the 1990s, Michael X. Delli Carpini and Scott Keeter undertook a comprehensive review of surveys measuring Americans' knowledge of politics. The results were shocking. They found that only 14 percent could correctly answer three-fourths of basic questions about foreign policy, barely a passing grade. And foreign policy oddly was one of their best subjects. Only 11 percent could pass a test involving questions about domestic policy, and only 5 percent an economics test.

But why is this important? Why should we all care about the stupidity of our citizens and their lack of knowledge with regard to most basic information on government, history, economics and politics? Because uninformed people make stupid decisions. Shenkman stated it this way:

Unfortunately, what the polls show is that Americans cannot make up for their lack of basic knowledge even if they shrewdly employ shortcuts. The harsh truth is that ignorant voters are sitting ducks for wily politicians. [...]

Why hasn't education helped voters become smarter about politics? Television is a big part of the explanation. Once television replaced newspapers as the chief source of news, this happened around 1965, shallowness was inescapable as Americans began judging politicians by how they looked and acted.

This is one reason why the Fox News network assault on journalism standards is so egregious. The media spinners, the chattering class, the pundits of both newspaper and television provide no real service to the American people. They waste the time of these citizens, providing no real concise information, adding to their information deficit while at the same time deceiving them into thinking that they are, in fact, informed. Mr. Shenkman underscores why this is such a critical concern in this point at TomDispatch.com:

In 2003, the Strategic Task Force on Education Abroad investigated Americans' knowledge of world affairs. The task force concluded: "America's ignorance of the outside world" is so great as to constitute a threat to national security.

That's right -- ignorance so great that it constitutes a threat to national security. Mr. Shenkman concludes his post at TomDispatch.com:

How much ignorance can a country stand? There have to be terrible consequences when it reaches a certain level. But what level? And with what consequences, exactly? The answers to these questions are unknowable. But can we doubt that if we persist on the path we are on that we shall, one day, perhaps not too far into the distant future, find out the answers?

I shudder to think what the answers are to those questions and how soon we might find out.

This is why it is so critical that we continue to call out for our media, both print and broadcast, to reach for higher standards than those they have adopted in the last 20-30 years. They are hurting our nation and we as citizens should not stand for it. Freedom of the press is critical to our form of democracy but with that freedom comes responsibility. We need to call these organizations and people to live up to that responsibility. Likewise, we need to identify those who are failing so completely that they no longer deserve to be considered journalists.

The future of our country is at stake.

Crossposted at Daily Kos