At the risk of being accused of repeating the comments of a wise man again.........
In the pantheon of American history, conservative old white people have pretty much always been the bad guys, the keepers of the hegemonic and reactionary flame….It’s OK. Because in about forty years, half the country will be black or brown. And there is nothing you can do about it.…We just have to be patient. And wait for you to pass into that good night, first politically, and then, well.…
But a broader question, if I may. The well-being of everyone in the United States depends on economic competitiveness, which depends on high levels of trained intelligence. Who has it?
And you might think about this: The almost infinite number of disciplines that keep us fat, dumb, and happy—a condition that is about all most of us can hope for in this life—are products of the intelligence of white men. If others want to play this game, and have the brains, well and good. But in today’s political clime in America, we actually enshrine incapacity as authentic or democratic or of the people or whatever. We dumb down everything for the emotional benefit of the incapable. The whole thrust in America seems to be to lower standards and punish competence and intelligence. And anyone who notices who has them.