Field Notes from Bush Country: The Closing of the Bushite Mind

Field Notes from Bush Country: The Closing of the Bushite Mind: "Years ago, I read a definition of “neurosis” as “a form of learned stupidity.” In other words, people might learn –as an adaptation to the pathologies of a particular environment—how not to see what is before their eyes and not to think clearly about the true meanings of their experience.

In America now, what is happening is not at the individual level of neurosis, but at the larger cultural level where the ruling powers have created an environment to induce a collective blindness and inability to think clearly.

This form of consciousness --the intentional product of propaganda and manipulation—can be seen as a form of “taught stupidity.”

It was this that appalled me in my recent foray into Bush country: to think that the greatest power in the world now draws its strength from the intellectual crippling of millions of our countrymen.



http://nonesoblind.org/

Andrew Bard Schmookler has just launched his website –www.nonesoblind.org —devoted to understanding the roots of America’s present moral crisis and the means by which the urgent challenge of this dangerous moment can be met. Dr. Schmookler is also the author of such books as The Parable of the Tribes: The Problem of Power in Social Evolution (SUNY Press) and Debating the Good Society: A Quest to Bridge America’s Moral Divide (M.I.T. Press). "