What's the bright side to handing over the future to an uneducated generation?

[bondwooley]

From an outside poll:

All over the country, teacher layoffs loom. Class sizes are about to balloon... You'd think that this crisis would force us to take a good look at teacher's salaries... More than 25% of American teachers quit after three years. We don't have any data on which ones quit, so it's just our wild guess that the ones smart enough to pull our kids out of this education rut are also smart enough to realize their skills could command a lot more money somewhere else.

But maybe there's a bright side. Maybe as long as the next generation has guns, they don't need brains.

Is there a benefit to giving tax cuts to the rich, pay cuts to the teachers and raising a bunch of morons?

- Maybe nobody will care about a deficit if they can't add?

- Maybe Sarah Palin won't be the dumbest person in the country?

The DU is an optimistic bunch now and then. What do you see see as the upside?

(Original poll at http://www.pledge-drive.com/lesterandcharliesurvey.html)

[scrubthedata]

1. As long as poor, uneducated people continue to vote for the rich Republican establishment...

...there's every motivation among that establishment to keep the voters poor and uneducated.

Maybe this is a harsh analogy, but it's like the south keeping the slaves from learning to read. It threatened the slave owners' authority. Is this so different?

But, OK, the upside? Maybe handing America over to a generation of imbeciles will start to make Reality TV look more intelligent.

[TheKentuckian]

5. In this area voting Democratic just gets you a somewhat less churchy version of the same shit.

[scrubthedata]

6. Sigh. I guess that's better than nothing. n/t

[datasuspect]

2. extra big ass tacos?

Ow! My Balls!

?

[bondwooley]

11. Supersize me, baby. n/t

[datasuspect]

15. hey, supersize with ya', but you BROKE MY HOUSE!

i like munny.

[bondwooley]

16. Every wonder if ...

... the SUV craze is a result of those cars having the only cupholders that can handle a 32-ounce soda that someone buys with lunch?

[Strelnikov_]

30. hey I like extra big ass tacos . . . do you like money and sex too? n/t

[RagAss]

3. The bright side is our impending, inevitable death.

[bondwooley]

7. Kind of depressing but true, I suppose.

Love the "bumper sticker" on your post, by the way!

[RagAss]

20. Thanks...I won a DU bumper sticker contest with that slogan...it's in the DU store.

[bondwooley]

25. LOL! n/t

[RandomThoughts]

4. That is ignorance is bliss.

I like this song.

Don Henley - The End Of The Innocence
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1yqo5_don-henley-the-end-of-the-innocence_music

[Alpha Numeric Wanda]

8. Maybe the rest of us...

...can run off and start our own country! Somewhere in a nice, temperate climate. Or maybe the Moon. :-p

[fayhunter]

12. That's if they don't kill us first by their bumbling.

[Fuzz]

9. Everything will have to be made out of Nerf. I'd enjoy a spongy world.

[protect our future]

10. The future will follow the script of the movie "Idiocracy"

and everything will turn out A-OK when someone from the past, with average intelligence, swoops in and fixes it.

[WinkyDink]

13. I'm old.

[bondwooley]

17. But you're sitll on DU which might imply that you still have some steam.

[leftstreet]

14. Upside: The masses won't spend time debating whether or not to rebel

That's all I can think of

[w8liftinglady]

18. well... here's some background on The Dark Ages... for reference purposes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Ages

[Sabriel]

19. They won't know a shit sandwich is a shit sandwich?

We'll be able to recycle waste and feed everyone at the same time.

[formercia]

21. The Simplification

A Canticle for Leibowitz opens 600 years after 20th century civilization has been destroyed by a global nuclear war, known as the "Flame Deluge". The text reveals that as a result of the war there was a violent backlash against the culture of advanced knowledge and technology that had led to the development of nuclear weapons. During this backlash, called the "Simplification," anyone of learning, and eventually anyone who could even read, was likely to be killed by rampaging mobs, who proudly took on the name of "Simpletons". Illiteracy became almost universal, and books were destroyed en masse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Canticle_for_Leibowitz

[scrubthedata]

24. Um, is that past or future?

[cherokeeprogressive]

22. It's popular to rate "institutions of higher learning" on a scale of "best party schools"

We're fucked.

I've met people who dropped out of high school who've ranked among the most intelligent people I've ever known, and I've met people with Doctorates who couldn't think their way through changing the oil in an automobile with 50 clues or out of a cave with light shining through the entrance.

In the last few days I've read right here on DU that it's important, acceptable, and expected for college professors to impart their knowledge pertaining to how to get a woman off with a vibrator.

We are so fucked...

I see no upside to handing the next generation the reigns of power. Things will only get worse.

[fayhunter]

23. The difference between asses and elbows won't matter any more.

[bondwooley]

33. Good one! But there will be a lot more asses. n/t

[undeterred]

26. Maybe the pharmacist will give me something really cool by accident.

Or maybe he'll kill me by accident!

[bondwooley]

29. Either way, he probably won't be able charge the right amount at the cash register. nt

[fittosurvive]

27. If we do the right thing and pay off the "loans" that this and previous generations

have appropriated from the next generation, they will be okay.

The downside relates to the fact that doing what is right, will not be very popular.

[JoePhilly]

31. Not really. The kids of the wealthy will ALWAYS get a great education.

And the kids of the poor, and of the middle class will not.

By destroying public education, the wealthy intend to create a two-tiered education system, great schools for the rich, bad schools or even no schools for the poor and middle class.

This ensures that the children of the rich will never face any competititon from the children of the poor and middle class.

That's the goal.

[TahitiNut]

28. Bright side: I don't have children.

:shrug:

[maryf]

32. More cannon fodder for the endless wars!!

:grr: