when ignorance is strength

A friend of mine has reminded me that, by definition, one half of the population is intellectually below average.

I think that how we treat those who have less reasoning capability is very telling about who, as a nation, we are. Whether we try to educate and lift them up or whether we try to just take advantage of them says more about us than it does about them.

A couple of days ago I was watching a segment on the NPR news hour and they had a couple of senators discussing the Gulf oil spill. I was preparing dinner and was pretty distracted, but I am confident that I heard the Republican senator saying that we need less regulation of the oil companies in the Gulf.

His reasoning went like this: before this spill, the odds of a catastrophic oil spill had been calculated as something like one in thousands. There are about 4000 wells in the Gulf, so since we’ve had that one spill, it just makes sense that there won’t be any more. This logic was not challenged by either the moderator or the Democratic senator.

What he was saying, of course, makes no sense. I think that I remember from the study of logic that the existence of one thing makes it more likely that there is another thing similar or identical to the first. In other words, once it can be shown that there is more than one, the odds are then that there are more than two.

(As an aside, I once saw a television reporter at the opening of a new baseball field. Her actual statement was, “this is one of only two ballparks in the whole country completely financed with private money, and that makes it unique.” Of course, if there are two, it is by definition, not unique. But more on TV news in other posts.)

With reference to the senator who said that one catastrophe makes a second catastrophe less likely, I have to wonder whether he really believes what he is saying.

I mean, logically, he either believes it or he doesn’t. This leaves me with the following observation: if he truly believes that crap, he is an idiot and unfit to serve. However, if he doesn’t, he is a hypocrite who is playing on the ignorance of that one half of the population.

The rise of the Republican Party has, at least in part, been fueled by this careful, cynical manipulation of the other half. It’s this continual assault on logic and reason that has helped keep it as a major player in politics.

I don’t remember who it was, but a Republican politician has stated that the issues of guns, gays and God are sufficient fuel to assure many reelections. If you can keep the masses concentrated on things you could care less about, you can create a lot of mischief in D.C. when people aren’t looking.

Kentucky’s own Mitch McConnell is a master of hypocrisy. There is no better illustration of this than when he speaks of the dangers of trial lawyers as a threat to our democratic system. Mr. McConnell is, of course, a trial lawyer by training.

So one must ask, are the Republicans really afraid of trial lawyers? Well, of course they’re not. They have their own trial lawyers. When Republicans cynically deride trial lawyers, what they really fear are juries, potentially a great equalizer between huge corporations and otherwise small, insignificant people.

Mr. McConnell and his Republican friends pass all types of laws to deregulate rules for corporations and weaken protections for individuals and it keeps corporate donations flowing to the Republican Party.

However, when an individual, or individuals, are injured by a corporation’s actions a jury may award compensation to the injured party or parties. This is a huge problem for the Republican mindset, because it can elevate the status of an individual to that of a corporation (or rich person). This is why Republicans continually try to set caps on damages that juries can award.

In short, Republicans are fearful of both our legal system and those little people who are called for jury duty. When you have control over the three branches of government and continually game the system in favor of the rich and powerful, its got to be scary to have 12 ignorant, unwashed little people with so much power.

Hypocrisy, cynicism and ignorance becomes important tools to keep the powerful in power without regard to the costs it imposes on the country. This is what happens when it becomes more important to get and stay in power than it is to do the right thing.