IT'S THE EDUCATION, STUPID

A VIEW FROM EUROPE

Like most people in Europe, I am shocked that he is back and by the force of the result. 80 million voted for him, including 30 million women, Latinos, black men and moderate Republicans. 70 million Americans did not vote at all! An unknown number, mainly young voters, stated a few days before the election ‘that they needed to inform themselves first’. There was also a peak in the Google search: ‘Will Biden run for election again?’.

All sorts of reasons and culprits are currently being sought: oligarchs like Musk, Harris was sent into the race too late, Harris had not set herself apart enough, there was no choice within the party, podcasters were not part of the campaign strategy, etc.

This is all nonsense: Biden, Harris and Walz made a very good, well-founded and forward-looking offer to the voters (nobody can ask for more). Too many voters ignored or rejected this offer - period. This leads to the following thesis: Tens of millions, perhaps even 100 or more millions Americans are politically immature.

But why...? Anyone who assumed that 2016 was a democratic or social slip-up, a statistical anomaly, was already wrong back then. Trump and everything that goes with him is a symptom of decades-old problems that not only persist, but have become increasingly acute. In the election campaigns and political discourse, the following four realities are inadequately addressed, glossed over or denied.

LIES

The Soviet Union and other empires ultimately perished because of one thing: Their lies. The communist idea was a lie, which even Lenin recognized in his last days. Khrushchev wanted to radically clean up after Stalin, but he was deposed. A missed historical opportunity of the greatest magnitude. The lies continued until it was too late for Gorbachev. Putin's system of lies is an echo of that time. The same will happen to him and his lies.

What does this have to do with the USA? The USA is nowadays the most mendacious of all Western countries. The five biggest lies are ‘The American dream’, ‘Every vote counts’, ‘Everyone is equal before the law’, ‘The land of the free’ and ‘The greatest nation ever’. I won't go into detail here, it's easy to research for yourself. The following parable should help: If you have an opponent, a large stone, and you push and press against it with all your strength, what happens when the stone is suddenly gone? - You fall into the void. In the 1990s, the US had the opportunity to come to terms with the own history, the own history of lies. This was neglected.

Think of the long series of big lies of the respective time: the Vietnam War from Kennedy to Nixon, Nixon in general, Reagan and Iran, Bush Senior and Kuwait, Clinton, Bush Junior and Iraq, Trump #1. The election campaign of the last four years, which could hardly be surpassed in terms of extreme lies. Nothing is as corrosive to the state, to the society and to the mind as lies. Trust is gone. It is now more difficult than ever to foresee that the USA is or will be in a position to come to terms with its recent history seriously and in depth. And so the US are in serious danger of going under in the coming decades.

EDUCATION

Education is needed to expose lies. But the education system only works perfectly for the elites and for a certain proportion of the middle class. Large sections of the population have little or no education, and this has been the case since decades. Not only is knowledge of history and politics low, but also the ability to inform oneself adequately or to draw independent conclusions. The basic idea of enlightenment has never reached large sections of the population. In many places, books are banned from schools, mostly for ideological, but not for good reasons. From 1650 to the present day, books have been burned in public - what madness. People who stand up for an open society, adherence to facts and enlightenment are threatened by bawling MAGAs, radical evangelicals, right-wing extremists, creationists, flat-earthers and other ideologically violent people. Why doesn't every student read Max Frisch's ‘The Arsonists’? The knowledge and experience are there.

The soldiers who have been sent to Vietnam had no idea about anything, neither about the world, nor about communism, nor about Southeast Asia. The same applies to the soldiers who were sent to Afghanistan and Iraq. So nothing has changed in the general level of education in those 40 years. In the last 20 years, things have become even worse, because where previously ignorance prevailed and there were few opportunities to change this, today there is an enormous flood of information available at any time, but even more disinformation. The channels of disinformation have not only become endless, they are being deliberately and criminally promoted. This does not bode well for the future state of education.

THE MEDIA

The media landscape in the USA is sick. Since the 1970s, public broadcasters and print media have been steadily losing ground in factual reporting and healthy opinion-forming. Local and regional print media in particular have largely disappeared. It has been proven that the loss of regional media has serious consequences for regional development, the regulation of state powers and democracy itself. What is not named will not be seen and will not be improved. In the region, the state and certainly not in Washington.

The fourth power in the state is not only sick, it is downright violent. Certain broadcasters, their presenters and their experts can spread any nonsense with impunity in the sense of a misunderstood freedom of opinion, without any regulation. This development has not only been going on for decades, but is gaining strength like a hurricane. The gateway to hell was pushed open eight years ago when ‘alternative facts’ gained social acceptance. And in recent years, social media has amplified these effects. This unregulated madness is fatal for an open and healthy society and its democracy. The biggest problem here is how to return to truth and adherence to facts without appearing autocratic and fascist?

SECONDARY CONDITIONS AS A CATALYST

The development of the USA since the Second World War has led to a self-image that a problem can simply be solved with a credit card or a regime change. If that doesn't work, then some Avenger comes along and takes care of the aliens, the danger or just their own malaise. But not even Trump does look like Hulk. It is a widespread mentality that nothing should have consequences and that when in doubt, violence is the solution: unhealthy food, overpowered cars, killing and marginalizing the undesirable, and exploiting resources. Such a mentality has no future.

And when inflation gets out of hand, neither the real causes are considered, nor time given for a sustainable solution, but the ‘problem’ is eliminated like in the Wild West, regardless of the dangers and consequences. I realize that many people are in a very bad economic situation, many people are actually or perceived to be on the brink. The gap between rich and poor has been widening increasingly and inexorably since the 1980s. Poverty and despair have increased enormously, which must have political consequences. Those who live in constant existential hardship have no time or leisure to inform themselves and follow the simple, loud and sensationalist messages and impulses without reflection.

In general, a two-party system is outdated and dangerous in a modern world. For voters, this means that they often only see a choice between plague and cholera. Cause and effect are not seen, are mixed up, denied or concealed. To put it polemically: in a one-party system, at least you know who is responsible. A diverse and sustainable country needs 3-4 larger and 2-3 smaller parties that can realistically represent the population and regions. This also increases the self-regulation of political institutions.

FACE IT AND NAME IT - OR LOOSE IT

The two best generations of the 1st and 2nd World Wars are gone. Since the American heyday in the 50s and 60s, decisive steps in the development of society have not been taken or have been taken wrongly. The white population has lived fascism in parts and fought against it in Europe, but has never experienced it for itself. This will now change. The lies that have been growing for decades, the inadequate education since the 1950s, the degeneration of the educational landscape since the 1970s in combination with certain aspects of American reality have led to stupidity in large parts of the population. Stupidity, not in the sense of intelligence, but in the sense of being ignorant, helpless and politically immature.

Only with politically mature citizens, a healthy media landscape that strives for honesty and a radical debunking of lies does the USA have a chance of becoming a prosperous country of the future. This would give society the opportunity to return to healthy prosperity.

However, the current and probably fatal overall state of affairs can only be steered in a different direction through a painful awakening. By the time that happens, it may already be too late for the USA. The following years or even decades will have to be painful, there is no other way.

(Written in German, translated with deepl and occasionally made worse by myself)