Connective Visions

I have dodged most U.S. news on this Scandinavian holiday. Of course, a cursory visit online tells me key points, and it’s handy to know the country still exists since I have a return ticket to it. But part of the appeal of three weeks in Europe is not having to engage in daily sociopolitical strife that is rationalized, in various media channels, as “engagement in democracy.”

Any good Jewish mother could tell you that what it mostly is, is kvetching, and it has no need for anything as highfalutin as democracy. It’s as old as the first burned dinner.

Still, if a slow U.S. news day triumphs in one thing, it’s in confusing the rest of the world. Hence, on this cloudy day in Ås, Norway, I fielded an email about the Norwegian headline repeating the U.S. finding that “Many Americans continue to believe Obama is Muslim.” Nearly 20 percent of Americans, in fact.

Was this, my Norwegian correspondent asked, possibly something to blog about?

For me, there are two aspects to this sad account of die-hard ignorance. One is the framework of humiliation within which every American who has made a serious effort to keep an open mind and to learn the truth must struggle, while her happily lazy fellow citizens decide that they know what they know, and there’s an end to it. This can be an agonizing condition when one is traveling or living abroad, and it afflicted me particularly keenly over 8 years of Ronald Reagan and 12 years of the Bush family – because, like it or not, such ignorance on parade emanates chiefly from our right-of-center crowd.

This is not to say that the Left has no wingnuts of its own. But with 20 years of contemporary U.S. history in the hands of leaders who occasionally considered the moon indeed to be made of green cheese, the ignorant inherited a lot of media channels in the United States. And they use them – reminding me often of original Star Trek episodes featuring primitives species wielding phasers.

Hence we have 6 out of 10 Americans saying they “learned” that President Obama is Muslim from the media.

The only problem is … he isn’t.

I cannot quite capture how this plays out in countries with higher literacy rates than our own (among which are Norway and Sweden). But I point out to incredulous Europeans that this sort of silliness should at least alleviate your irritation with us for the $14 cover charge we’re imposing on your entry to our country. Surely, this sort of thing offers at least $14 of comedy value. (And wait – there’s lots more when you visit!)

I have no sympathy for the hurt feelings of self-identified “persecuted” Americans who don’t appreciate my making fun of their gullibility. If you don’t want to be called ignorant, get yourself into classes, pick up a book, and step outside the pap you’re being fed on TV or by your buddy the bartender. It is not the government’s responsibility, nor anyone else’s, to cater to your bruised ego if you’re determined to make a fool of yourself.

But I’ll meet these Americans halfway by saying that, really, I don’t suffer all that much for their foolishness, so I don’t feel sorry for myself having to be reminded of it. After all, this lot are not unique in their capacity to be silly.

Consider, for instance, that during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, 8% of Russians believed their team would win the contest. This was absolutely remarkable because Russia was not even in the World Cup. Or consider the number of people who still maintain that the earth is flat – and not just because of Thomas Friedman’s catchy book title. Or you can have my personal favorite: the neo-Luddites who oppose computer technology … on their Web site.

It would seem that about a tenth or more of the global population needs a strong dose of reality generally. And here, I have to turn a critical lens on my liberal counterparts. While the right-of-center may have spent much of the past quarter-century or more working itself into a frenzy over bogeymen in the closet, the left-of-center has spent the same amount of time reassuring people that it’s okay to be just as foolish as they can be. No wonder we have a hefty number of diagnostically delusional individuals on our hands.

As Christine Garwood noted in the BBC magazine article on flat-earthers, “It is good to have the ability to accept compelling evidence.”

Some people don’t seem to have it. And that is not really “okay.”