: Ridiculous, Lark. This is the first time one of your impetuous posts has bothered me. My impetuous posts? You already stink to high heaven of elitism and self importance, dare I continue?
: 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.
Maybe it has something to do with the evidence, did you ever think that? America is one nation under the dollar, there isnt nothing you cant buy, qualifications are no exception.
As a consequence universities are find that they have to comply with demand or get priced out, this doesnt lead to innovative increases in quality it just means that there is a race to the bottom in terms of the easiness of tests and examinations and therefore in the quality of education (hey, market failure, what a surprise).
:What they are is closer to the locus of power than Washington, 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.
Exactly what I've been saying so what's your beef?
: 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.
This is true but how can even think for a moment that anti-intellectualism is a bad thing? I suppose your not a bit happy about free thinking either?
: 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.
I find that hard to believe, you've just balled me out when we actually agree. I beginning to suspect that your some kind of political sectarian or trot.
:But a very high percentage of them look like this one, which is a childish embarrassment to the Left.
Really? Perhaps I have no aspirations towards pseudo-intellectualism or snobbery.
: You should start thinking before you post, Lark, especially in your spats with Stoller. He's been wiping the floor with you.
Which you no doubt think is a good thing, how may I ask has he been wiping the floor with me? He repeats the same tired old rethoric time and again, which is incredibly remote from people's actual lives, a programmed computer could do as good a job as Barry.
: With all friendliness possible,
I dont believe that either.
: Hank
None.
