How Freedom Became Free-dumb in America

[Reader Rabbit]

The American idiot is, by now, a figure that’s the stuff of myth and legend across the world. Nobody else is really quite sure: are Americans really like this? This…well…laughable? Yesterday, they were the kind of people who made their kids do “active shooter drills,” meaning masked men burst into classrooms…and pretend…to kill them. What the? Today, they’re the kind of people who happily congregate in parks and on beaches during a global pandemic…when the lunatic fringe amongst them isn’t protesting for “liberation” in the first place. What on earth?

I don’t use the term as an insult — the American idiot. I mean it in a precise way, as I try to remind people. For the Greeks, “idiot” carried a precise and special meaning. The person who was only interested in private life, private gain, private advantage. Who had no conception of a public good, common wealth, shared interest. To the Greeks, the pioneers of democracy, the creators of the demos, such a person was the most contemptible of all. Because even the Greeks seemed to understand: you can’t make a functioning democracy out of…idiots.

How Freedom Became Free-dumb in America

[shockey80]

1. Great post, thank you.

[patphil]

2. With great freedom comes great responsibility.

Eleanor Roosevelt once said:

"Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect."

We can see how that is playing out right now in America.

[CaptYossarian]

3. We've probably replaced the Polish in those mean ethnic jokes.

And "right"ly so.

In a nearby school district, they had a pretend active shooter burst into a classroom and "take out" the teacher.

In the room was the teacher's son, one of the school's best wrestlers (you know where this is going). After a fellow plain clothes officer and five students got the son off the shooter, the shooter needed medical assistance. He had cuts, bruises, and a possible concussion.

It's been a couple of years and they haven't done it since.

[niyad]

4. KNR for truth.

[Eko]

5. Kick.