Are Americans Stupid??
Bill Maher, an anti-God, anti-American humorist recently said on CNN that “America was a stupid country." Like many so called comedians such as Letterman and others, Maher has gone from telling jokes to being a joke with his nightly liberal commentaries on current events which he knows little about.
But still the question is worth considering. Are Americans stupid?NO!!
However, the vast majority of adults in America are intellectually lazy, uniformed, easily influenced, ignorant and oblivious about real issues that require careful thought. The education problem is not exclusive for Americans. My British, Greek, Russian, Asian, East and Western European friends suffer the same indictment in varying degrees.
With the advent of technology our young people have given their minds over almost exclusively to video or inter net entertainment. As a consequence, they have forfeited the knowledge of political, business, religious and ethical understanding. They depend on the media elites and select groups to THINK for them. “Sound bites” have taken control over thinking through complicated and opposing views.
Many adults can not tell you the difference between Socialism, Communism, Capitalism and their competing virtues. People say they live by the 10 Commandments but couldn't tell you what 2 of them are. They don’t know the inalienable rights expressed in the Declaration of Independence. (How many of these do you know?)
Without question, our school systems have failed us all. Collectively we will all suffer long term consequences for the unprepared next generation work force. However, there is something WE can do now to correct the problem.
For years I have argued that blaming the public school systems is not an action plan and certainly not the answer for educating our work force. We have failed our employees just as surely by not informing, teaching and guiding for the purpose of building a strong company and/or country. Here is my ongoing recommendation.
Join forces of departments to teach to ALL the basics of business, the free market system and how we make money. A great leader by the name of Alistair Begg says “Let the main things be the plain things and the plain things be the main things."
Bill Maher, an anti-God, anti-American humorist recently said on CNN that “America was a stupid country." Like many so called comedians such as Letterman and others, Maher has gone from telling jokes to being a joke with his nightly liberal commentaries on current events which he knows little about.
But still the question is worth considering. Are Americans stupid?NO!!
However, the vast majority of adults in America are intellectually lazy, uniformed, easily influenced, ignorant and oblivious about real issues that require careful thought. The education problem is not exclusive for Americans. My British, Greek, Russian, Asian, East and Western European friends suffer the same indictment in varying degrees.
With the advent of technology our young people have given their minds over almost exclusively to video or inter net entertainment. As a consequence, they have forfeited the knowledge of political, business, religious and ethical understanding. They depend on the media elites and select groups to THINK for them. “Sound bites” have taken control over thinking through complicated and opposing views.
Many adults can not tell you the difference between Socialism, Communism, Capitalism and their competing virtues. People say they live by the 10 Commandments but couldn't tell you what 2 of them are. They don’t know the inalienable rights expressed in the Declaration of Independence. (How many of these do you know?)
Without question, our school systems have failed us all. Collectively we will all suffer long term consequences for the unprepared next generation work force. However, there is something WE can do now to correct the problem.
For years I have argued that blaming the public school systems is not an action plan and certainly not the answer for educating our work force. We have failed our employees just as surely by not informing, teaching and guiding for the purpose of building a strong company and/or country. Here is my ongoing recommendation.
Join forces of departments to teach to ALL the basics of business, the free market system and how we make money. A great leader by the name of Alistair Begg says “Let the main things be the plain things and the plain things be the main things."
*Accounting Department: Teach financial basics. I recommend a great little book by Ram Charan "What the CEO Wants You To Know."
*HR Department: Spend less time talking about legal issues and CYA activities. In place teach ethics, purpose and vision of the company and why those concepts are important to the company and society as a whole.
* Sales Department: Teach ALL in the organization their role and responsibility in the overall customer service function.
Do all of this in weekly communication meetings, company publications, and other innovative, INTERESTING formats.
If you don’t know how to get started, give me a call. I would love to hear what your company is doing in this area. Billrun@aol.com
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posted by Bill at
9:42 PM
2 Comments:
Very Interesting - I would also like to add my two cents that we as leaders in business have removed the decision making from the people in the organizations who should be the ones actually making the decisions! Daily I ask myself (and normally the person asking me)……. Why are you asking this of me….? Don’t get me wrong… if they/we don’t know the answers then we all should be asking the questions. There really is not a stupid question unless…. we made them stupid. Now lets look at what some of our past leaders have left and then we being to understand why Americans may be stupid…..
Past management has told us that we are only to do what we are told….. Don’t ask questions just do it! Then when it comes to “budget” we are told - never mind we don’t have money for that. When and if... someone tried to help another department – you were told….. don’t worry about it. Stay focused on what you were told to do….. and the list goes on and on.
Now we are trying to change that mind set and push decision making down to the level it needs to be (some of the “old” school managers still fight it and create more problems then they solve)….. but since they don’t know how to make decisions (even though they know the answer), don’t understand budgets and could care less about other departments we are stuck with trying to change the way people think. Lets not forget that most of them have been doing what they are told to do for 30+ years…..
So in short to answer the question “are Americans stupid?” the answer in my opinion is yes, but it’s our own fault!
The fundamental difference between the liberal and the illiberal outlook is that the former regards all questions as open to discussion and all opinions as open to a greater or lesser measure of doubt, while the latter holds in advance that certain opinions are absolutely unquestionable, and that no argument against them must be allowed be heard. - Bertrand Russell
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