The Death of Critical Thinking In America and Australia

Have you noticed the tactic of the right to sloganise ideas. To repeat talking points over and over add infinitum. This is designed to circumnavigate the public's critical thinking faculties. As Joseph Gobbles, Hitlers chief propagandist, said, "repeat a lie long enough and people will believe you". Further more there has being the growth of the bling and celebrity culture, at the expense of high brow quality media, in many western countries, including Australia and especially in America. Weather this is deliberate or purely media responding to what works in the public realm. Is arguable but I for one have given up watching dumb game shows, obnoxious rubbish like big brother and the puriel celebrity culture shows such as dancing with the stars. What it does do is create unthinking morons. Who uncritically accept government fear mongering such as the recent so called terror of Muslim extremists living in our midst. Worked a treat distracting the easily manipulated form the Hocking horror, kick the average aussie in the proverbial nuts, budget and gave the federal government a good bounce in the polls. Bang those war drums and wrap your self up in the flag boys, it works a treat fooling the plebs.

Then there is the education system. In the southern states of America especially. The replacement of official history with a conservative filtered one. Which down plays slavery and segregation plus removes all reference to civil disobedience, such as campaigns for the right to vote, the civil rights and anti war movements, etc. We have similar attempts in Australia with the appointment to the education board of history revisionists who seek to down play the effects of colonialism on the Australian natives, the Aborigines, especially the massacres that occurred, for our kids history education. In Texas they have actually banned the teaching of critical thinking because it leads to the kids questioning their parents religious beliefs. Then there is the replacement of the modern school curriculum and the text books. With wakie teaching the world is only 6000 years old, creationism as  uposed to evolution and the deliberate targeting of school boards by mindless conservative Christians All this largely funded by the Koch brothers. The list goes on.

It is quite clear that certain invested interests of a corporate nature seek to create a mass subclass of people smart enough to operate the machine but not smart enough to challenge it. Kids in the southern states are being taught the importance to non questioning submission to authority, civil obedience and the supremacy and sacredness of the market system. We need to keep an eye on Abbott and Co concerning our education system here in Australia. Interesting enough Abbott has bowed to the pressure of hard right christian lobbyists in Australia and made it compulsory that secular psychologists and councilors no longer be employed in our state schools. Their function for our kids is to be replaced by Christian chaplains. I wonder why?