Pillars of American Society Are Showing How Incompetent They Are And They Don't Care

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/culture/pillars-american-society-are-showing-how-incompetent-they-are-and-they-dont-care



Incompetence in America is dominating the news.

The country’s biggest bank has been badly hacked and JPMorgan Chase didn’t quite alert tens of millions of account holders. The Ebola virus has arrived on U.S. shores in Texas and efforts to contain it have been as clumsy as the American military’s overseas response to West African nations where it is spreading. The Secret Service has not been keeping armed intruders away from the president, prompting many African-Americans to wonder if they really don’t want to protect Obama. And the NFL continues to duck and bob and weave with taking responsibility for its handling of the video showing Ray Rice assaulting his girlfriend.

Forget the sky-is-falling 2014 political races for the moment. These and too-many-to-mention other examples makes one wonder if America is having a bad hair day or is standing naked before the mirror and seeing revealing truths that that our most public hucksters usually keep under wraps.

Americans may be tied up in knots when it comes to seemingly irreconcilable differences over their politics or beliefs, but most people aren’t stupid. These examples of massive inept behavior and incompetence topping the news are not the public’s fault. They seem to stem from willful deceptions, denials and determined efforts to evade accountability among many pillars of our great system.

Take a closer look at these and other examples. You’ll find that most Americans are on the receiving end of a corporate culture that overpromises, requires payment first, typically doesn’t care about customer service—which is their real-world impact—and mostly is driven by organizational self-interest.

[HereSince1628]

1. Living in American has long required some willing suspension of disbelief

Truth, justice, and the American Way(!), which miraculously always adds up to "We're Number 1, we're Number 1!!!!!"

[Thespian2]

2. Please remember

Most Americans, over 50%, know little or nothing about any governmental structure. How many know the simplest thing...who is the mayor of their city or town? Most do not understand the function of any branch of government. Only a small percentage, about 40% or less, of eligible voters even show up at the polls. Lack of interest. I suggest any discussion of politics in America should begin with the understanding that approximately 60% of the people simply don't understand government and don't give a rat's ass. I have taught college freshman classes in which 3/4's of the "students" were truly ignorant and proud of it.

[Brigid]

3. I gotta ask:

How many "students" have you caught napping in class?

[Thespian2]

22. Don't remember many

before mid-semester, most of those likely to take a nap had dropped out of class.

[HereSince1628]

11. For years I asked students to fill out an 'interests' card at the beginning of the semester

so that I could understand where they were coming from...an awareness that helps when trying to make analogies and suggesting relevance of course materials to the real world.

One of the questions was always "name of the last book you read' (this is actually how I was introduced to the Harry Potter series, and Anne Rice's vampire series)

One semester when I did this in Arkansas out of a class of ~75 students I got a handful of mostly the same reply, which was of the form:I don't read books, I haven't read a book since grade school.

[Louisiana1976]

27. That's sad about the students in Arkansas who don't read. I think people who don't read are missing

a lot.

[HereSince1628]

30. Just to be clear, I don't think it's something special to Arkansas

...that's just where I happened to be teaching when I ran into it.

[CrispyQ]

14. I've come to the conclusion that most Americans just want to be mindlessly entertained.

When did this pride in being ignorant start? I don't remember it when I was a kid. The smart kids might have been kind of nerdy, but we still looked up to them cuz they were smart.

[BrotherIvan]

17. Reagan

It perhaps is anecdotal but two things started under Reagan: the worship of wealth (or the demand that the proles admire the rich for being superior in every way, via "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous", Dallas, and Dynasty) and the admiration of ignorance. It was part of the strategy to include the xtian fundamentalists to create a voting majority who were before mocked for being whackos and never given a place at the table. It was getting an actor elected when before one had to at least appear to be a statesman to even consider running for high office.

It no longer mattered whether one was educated, honest, moral, etc., what now became important for the masses was designer labels and status consumer goods. It was the rise of Republicans calling Democrats "liberal elites" as codespeak for weak and effeminate, and the anti-intellectual movement in favor of the concocted cowboy image (Ronnie on his ranch which was then recycled for W). I'm arguing that that is when the true corruption took hold, though I am sure it was in the works for quite some time. Pretty much the coup of conservative ideas took hold under Reagan and we have been on this disastrous trajectory ever since.

[CrispyQ]

19. I think you're right, that Reagan was the turning point.

Ketchup is a vegetable.

[arcane1]

28. As I kid I idolized Fonzie and Vinnie Barbarino, two who were boastful of their stupidity.

They were proud for having never read a book, and mocked the ones who cared about their grades. They used the word "nerd" to deride them, and it carried over into our school culture as well. Some would be shy about getting good grades, for example, and not want anyone to know. And of course, that "coolness" enabled those who were struggling to justify giving up, and we would all think they were really cool. It was kind of sad

That was my first exposure to the phenomenon, but it definitely went up several notches in the 80's!!

[Euphoria]

32. +1 n/t

[Skittles]

37. Reagan made greed and ignorance fashionable

yes he did

[marmar]

4. k/r

[zeemike]

5. They don't have to care.

I mean what are you going to do about it anyway?...there is no mechanism by which they can be punished or fired for incompetence.
Essentially they are kings in a kingdom...isolated from the teaming masses both socially and physically, and it is on them that to political system depends.
It's a big club, and we are not in it.

[noiretextatique]

7. no meritocracy?

nope...never has been. it is just more blatant now than ever.

[Cleita]

6. Most truthful article that I've seen about our current

condition than has been out there in a long time. Too bad it wasn't on "60 Minutes" instead of an internet blog.

[whereisjustice]

8. anyone who believes in equality and justice regardless of wealth and power

is beaten out of the political process. Our government is comprised of millionaire shysters in Congress protecting their self-interests. The White House is ready to spend billions bombing another country (whose inequality and injustice is also spawning right conservative extremists) but they can't figure out how to prosecute the crooks who brought down the worlds equality causing immeasurable suffering for millions of people.

And as far as the corporate centered Democratic party - equality and justice are considered ponies and rainbows getting in the way of net profit.

[riverbendviewgal]

9. Be assured your one percent citizens are protected

They have all the protection their money can buy.


How much money will they all take to the grave?

Sad that they are so much like immature children and can not understand that they benefit when they share their wealth..

All the cost cutting that the republicans made are "paying off", eh?

[grasswire]

13. hoarders need intervention

That's the treatment for hoarding.

For money hoarding, that intervention should be increased taxation.

[tiptonic]

10. Laughing stock

Americans have become the laughing stock of the international community. We're looked upon as idiots and uneducated. For the most part, we are.

[former9thward]

24. Sure, that's why people fight and die trying to get here.

Because we are such a laughing stock.

[leftstreet]

25. Right. Canadians are fighting and dying to get to the US

As are Brits, Australians, etc

[former9thward]

26. You think no one is fighting and dying to get to the U.S.?

Is your hatred for the country so strong you do not even know current events? And besides the southern border our visa quotas are immediately filled each year for every country in the world including U.K., Australia and Canada. Sorry to disappoint you.

[Louisiana1976]

29. I think visa quotas should be abolished to make it easier for people to immigrate legally into the

US. If more people were allowed to immigrate legally it would solve the problem of undocumented immigration.

[Logical]

31. Yes, because we need a lot more people here since there are so many great jobs! nt

[DesertDiamond]

12. This nails it. They don't care about looking stupid because the only competence they care about is

the kind that gets them what THEY want. I agree that when their actions harm the public it's done purposely to benefit the elite in some way.

[IDemo]

15. It's beyond not caring about looking stupid

It's wearing stupidity like a badge, whether you're a Jay Leno sidewalk interviewee or a Republican politician.

[AZ Progressive]

16. American institutions have been INFECTED with RIGHT WING THINKING

Right Wing thinking that values cost cutting over doing better products and services, cutting wages rather than paying workers better, valuing cunningness over honest skill, and funneling as much of the profits to the 1%, when the economy depends on the 99% (and thus in fact contributing to the shrinking of markets due to the 99% being underpaid.)


The Business World (as well as many other institutions nowadays) STUPIDLY doesn't recognize that they are part of an ecosystem that REQUIRES them to pay their workers fairly, and when all businesses pay their workers fairly, the economy booms and GROWS markets. Right Wing thinking has blinded them to this reality, right wing thinking that glamorizes sociopathic selfishness and ultimately is pure foolishness and stupidity and hurts everyone.

[BrotherIvan]

18. Well said

Business that work on pure greed also ignore creating an effective business model with a strong foundation that can weather the ups and downs that are natural in economic cycles. They are all built upon a boom cycle which includes maximum profit for shareholders and management, but when they hit the low cycle, they crumble and need to be bailed out. The corruption in most large companies is plainly visible.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

20. Not to mention congress. But, that's old news.

"When politics enter . . . government, nothing resulting there from in the way of crimes and infamies is then incredible.  It actually enables one to accept and believe the impossible."

"The government of my country snubs honest simplicity, but fondles artistic villainy, and I think I might have developed into a very capable pickpocket if I had remained in the public service a year or two."

"History has tried to teach us that we can't have good government under politicians. Now, to go and stick one at the very head of government couldn't be wise."

"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress.  But I repeat myself."

Mark Twain

[Enthusiast]

21. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch!

It isn't only African-Americans that wonder if they really don’t want to protect Obama. I'm thoroughly convinced.

[Brigid]

23. Watch "Idiocracy".

Despite its extreme crudeness, it is a work of genius. It will tell you all you need to know about today's society.

[lunasun]

33. Originally I laughed and thought maybe in the far off future , but now I am living Idiocracy

Well that didn't take long..

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

35. Yes...

... what you two just said. I keep looking for it on Netflix (I'll go look again after this) but it hasn't been listed there. I watched most of it on a free movies channels weekend a few years ago. I find the perversion of the english language to be frightening as shown, especially in the court room scenes.

[liberal_at_heart]

34. K&R

[Spitfire of ATJ]

36. Hello?...