For context, you all can read it yourselves. I begin with . . .(Lark said about Americans) : They're all dumb.
(Because Frenchy said about life in America): : No matter how tedious a persons job is that doesn't prevent him from continuing his own education and pursuing his own goals. Night school, courses, two jobs, whatever it takes.
(And then Frenchy used the Nike slogan) : : Just do it.
(And Lark continued) : You'd still be dumb, American education produces dumb people, you couldnt all hack it in Europe, especially not Northern Ireland, dumb people go to American Uni's because they know the dollar rules in the US they can buy degrees and qualifications to make them look not as dumb but the really smart people, people like me, know their just dumb people with cash.
(Then Lark made an attempt at bigotry-flavored humor ): Oh, there are exceptions to the generally intellegent Europeans, like that Dumb Shit Von Mises.
(And I, who generally like Lark but get impatient with him sometimes, say . . .)
Don't be ridiculous, Lark. This is the first time one of your impetuous posts has bothered me.
Americans aren't "dumb"--a ridiculously imprecise and empirically vacuous term which doesn't match even Frenchy's level of sophistication--nor are they less intelligent than Europeans. What they are is closer to the locus of power than Europeans. Americans can have slightly more effect on what politicians Washington do, therefore their support is the most important secure. Add to that the fact that American universities have been steadily losing their commitment to scholarship and are increasingly becoming even more overtly beholden to corporate interests and you have a recipe for for a brainwashed society with very little political imagination.
Another factor in America's "dumbness" is our history and the cultural which flows from it. Specifically, America has a strong anti-intellectual streak in it, which may be a good thing in some ways but is disasterously reductionist in others.
I'm going to stop before I start sounding like a patriot. I want to say that I like you, Lark. You seem like an interesting cat, and I enjoy a lot of your posts. But a very high percentage of them look like this one, which is a childish embarrassment to the Left.
You should start doing more thinking before you post, Lark, especially in your spats with Stoller. He's been wiping the floor with you lately.
Strained, but with all friendliness possible,
Hank
