“It is not possible to make a mistake.
In the beginning, God created all this stuff, then
put Adam and then Eve in the middle of it, and
they could dig it all right. It was paradise. Then
God, who was no dummy, said, “Look kids, I’ve got
some business to take care of, have fun and do
whatever you feel like, but whatever you do, don’t
touch that tree over there.” So of course, they did.
and God came back, threw a fit, tore up the lease
and threw them out.
So, the story goes.
And it all rings true. Adam and Eve. Mankind, ate of
The fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
and lost their primal innocence, expanded their
awareness and they were on their way, they couldn’t
turn back, like all our actions their act was irrevocable.
Okay.
But what is this bullshit about a religion based on
REGRETTING that move?
it isn’t possible to make a mistake, is it?”
—“Das Energi” (Paul Williams)
In other words, God isn’t capable of making a mistake because he’s omniscient (knows everything), so why would he tell Adam & Eve to ignore their natural curiosity and not eat an apple from the Tree of Knowledge? Every parent knows that children are born naturally curious about everything & to be curious is normal. So, Christianity is based on a fear of knowledge & if one wishes to be a good Christian, they should avoid knowledge like the plague. Well, I submit that this fear & distrust of knowledge has been with us throughout history & is the root cause of more death & destruction than just about any other force I can think of. Here’s a thumbnail description of anti-intellectualism to bear in mind as you read this essay;
“Anti-intellectualism is hostility to and mistrust of intellect, intellectuals, and intellectualism, commonly expressed as deprecation of education and philosophy and the dismissal of art, literature, and science as impractical, politically motivated, and even contemptible human pursuits.[1] Anti-intellectuals present themselves and are perceived as champions of common folk—populists against political and academic elitism—and tend to see educated people as a status class that dominates political discourse and higher education while being detached from the concerns of ordinary people.[1]” (Wikipedia)
*What’s happened to that holy “Common Sense’ that we so often hear praised by working class Americans? Everything about Trump defies common sense!
Let’s take a cursory glance back at history to see if my thesis regarding the harmful effects of willful ignorance holds true? First of all, I want to point out that this story about the Garden of Eden is from Christian mythology & like Islam mythology as well as Hebrew mythology, it contains some elements of truth which are meant to serve as lessons for humanity to live by. Unfortunately, though, the unscrupulous as usual, look for opportunities to twist knowledge, myths, fables, etc. so they can profit from others ignorance.
For instance, until the invention of the Guttenberg printing press & the gradual availability of books for the masses, the ability to read was pretty much the domain of the nobility & the priests, rabbis, clerics, etc. Why do you think it was illegal in the slave owning states of America to teach black people how to read?
Could it be that the powers that be throughout history have always preferred to keep their citizens ignorant because ignorant (not knowing) citizens are a Hell of a lot easier to manipulate & control. Why did the Nazis have massive book burning bonfires? Why is it that when dictators wage a coup d’état to take over the government, one of the first things they do is shut down the universities & the press?
Melania’s song to Donny;
Moreover, the priesthood & the kings or nobility i.e., lords, earls, etc. have been at constant war with one another over the centuries in that each sought the final or absolute power over the public. And at times they have made temporary alliances when the peasants & serfs rose up in rebellion against their oppressors. You see, the powers that be throughout history soon get spoiled & rather enjoy getting the best of the crops that their subjects are forced to give them, the fine clothes & jewels, the castles, the taxes, etc. And the fact that the people were often starving because they were forced to give the majority of their harvests & the animals that people relied upon for their meat, to the nobility & the Church. Remember, God wanted things this way because this was constantly drilled into their heads by the preachers, ministers, priests, spokesmen for the king & the nobility.
And when kings became fearful that the priests may be getting a bit too powerful, they came up with a useful new concept called the Divine Rights of Kings. Yep! Once again Christianity proved useful in the power struggles between the two forces making living Hells out of most peoples’ lives.
Furthermore, the constant war against knowledge or the anti-intellectualism from the spread of the Garden of Eden myth through the Dark Ages also took the form of an anti-Science bias which resulted in the death of countless people, many being charged with Satanism, blasphemy, corruption of the young, etc. Galileo & Copernicus being just two of the most recognizable names. Galileo was forced to recant his scientific observations & theories and spent the rest of his life under house arrest for his most notable discovery that the Earth revolves around the Sun not vice versa.
Continuing on, it’s probably impossible to calculate just how many people have been killed over the centuries thanks to the Know Nothings or the Anti-intellectuals. We had several “Christian” Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the “Missionaries” & Mercenaries i.e., the Conquistadors, the Witch trials, etc. etc. etc. But my guess would be that it had to amount to the loss of billions of innocent lives. Of course, the secular powers i.e., governments, dictators, etc. gave us God knows how many wars over the centuries and WWI & WWII and the perpetual war that my country has waged since I was born in 1952 & is still going strong in 2021.
If we are to ever stand a chance of slowing down this murder & mayhem and the unnecessary suffering, degradation, & humiliation of the overwhelming majority of mankind, it’s imperative that we study & learn the lessons of history.
“We want one class of persons to have a liberal education, and we want another class of persons, a very much larger class of necessity in every society, to forgo the privilege of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks.”
―
I honestly wish I could paint a more optimistic history for you my friend but if I’m not to become the enemy which I’m railing against, burying my head in the sand is not an option. So, onward & upward. The official “Know Nothing Party” is an American phenomenon & occurred about 170 years ago.
In brief, they were anti-Catholic, anti-Irish, anti-immigration, populist and xenophobic. And to be completely honest, they had some positive aspects i.e., some factions were anti-slavery. I seized upon the name because of the Trump parallels in today’s America & I look for every opportunity to bash Trump & all those who support him! Perhaps a better title for this essay would be, “Trump & A Return to the Dark Ages.”
You decide for yourself which title is more fitting? The original Know Nothing Party believed there was a Catholic conspiracy to take over America (Trump sees a Muslim conspiracy), and it became the main alternative to the dominant Democratic Party. Irish immigrants were a central target because they were/are mostly Catholic.
They also called themselves the Native American Party or the “Order of the Star Spangled Banner.” Note Trump’s “America First” mantra & disguise for his “Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America” by Bertram Gross. “The key to Know Nothing success in 1854 was the collapse of the second party system.” I definitely see a parallel with not only the Republican party of today which has abandoned all pretense of civility, patriotism, or morality & today’s Democratic Party which betrayed the working class & the middle class and has become pretty much the lackeys of the corporate cockroaches.
Here’s a quote from a brilliant social, cultural, & political critic, Thomas Frank:
Donald Trump comes across as a kind of buffoon, the hair, the egotism. But there’s some canny political strategy here. His emphasis on trade, on NAFTA. It was Bill Clinton that did it, over the objections of organized labor, the voice of the working class. He ran a steam-roller over these people and got NAFTA done. That was the great betrayal. – Thomas Frank
Of course, we can’t nail it down to a single action but if you recall, Clinton’s “Crime bill,” effectively gut-punched millions of women on welfare, caused our prison population to explode to the point where the U.S. now leads the world in our incarceration levels, & he passed the dissolution of the Glass-Steagall Act which FDR established to separate common commercial banks where the 99% bank from the “Investment” banks the wealthy use to speculate with their money.
Surprise! The “Crash of 2008” & the government which the GOP hates so venomously, bailed the banks out but said, tough shit to the 99% who have to pay their taxes or go to prison. And our faux champion, Obama didn’t prosecute a single CEO of the dozens of Wall St. wolves who were behind the “crash” (code to hide the spooky word, “Depression.”) Clearly another corporate Democrat or what they euphemistically like to label, a “Conservative Democrat.” Sounds like an oxymoron to me?
Another parallel between the Know Nothings of 170 years ago & Trump’s base was their use of conspiracy theories to get the public riled-up & manipulate them in order to help his side or, the corporate/government backers. As for me, I still can’t wrap my head around the apparent popularity of Alex Jones for example & a good buddy of Trump’s? Jones is pure National Enquirer trash suitable only for lining your bird’s cage, yet Trump helps spread Jones’ evil shit like Jones claiming for countless shows that the massacre of all those poor, young grade schoolers in Sandy Hook was a hoax. How could any human being spit on the memories of all those parents’ children? Well as the old saying goes, birds of a feather flock together.
“The key to Know Nothing success in 1854 was the collapse of the second party system.” (Wikipedia entry)
Could the complete cowardice of the current GOP along with the spineless Democratic Party encapsulate our current economic stagnation & the possible coming civil war due to the extreme polarization? Are we going to see an even more violent form of Trumpism or a coming together of peace-loving people who believe in compassion for our neighbors?
“Nativism became a new American rage.” Ibid. We’ve all seen thousands of Trump ads declaring America First! i.e. We are the champions of the world & everyone knows it, etc. etc. etc.
“…The new party was populist and highly democratic, hostile to wealth, elites and to expertise. …the Know Nothing electorate was strongest in the poor districts.”
This is about where I start getting lost? I have been pondering throughout Trump’s reign of terror, how can so many of America’s poorest believe that this faux billionaire is their champion or even gives a shit about them? Why no hostility toward Trump, one of their declared enemies because of his supposed wealth & his garish display of wealth though he probably just spray-painted everything gold in his homes?
I think Trump made it okay for the worst among us to come out of their holes in the ground like cockroaches when the lights are turned off. Suddenly it was okay to be racist, a bigot, a male chauvinist, rude, crude, & lewd, xenophobic, stupid, conspiracy nut, bully, violent, greedy, hateful, fear mongering, etc. and even though millions of us are circling the toilet, as long as we have some scapegoats to blame all our troubles on, the game will go on.
Could it be that the more desperate one is financially, etc. the more desperate they are for some leader to make sense of it all for them & guide them/us back to the; “Make America Great Again” good ol’ days? But lest we forget, not necessarily so great for a good number of us. So, maybe this is why or partially why so many of those who Trump shits on, still love him? Because the rubes believe that as long as they’re White, they’re safe & they can prosper. The Hell with everyone else & especially with all the foreigners, Mexicans, Muslims, etc.
Ultimately, what connects the Know Nothings of 170 years ago with the willful ignoramuses of today is Authoritarianism. That is to say that in today’s America, Trump’s cult of the stupid & gullible no longer hide or are ashamed of their ignorance. In fact, they wear their stupidity proudly.
This is very perplexing because as I grew up, doing well in school, being well-read, & following current domestic & foreign affairs was the mark of a well-cultured person. In fact, I don’t believe I even heard the term, “anti-intellectual” until I was somewhere in my late 20s or early 30s? Moreover, I remember how embarrassed I felt when I first visited Europe in 1976 & met a guy two years younger than me who knew far more about American history, literature, philosophy, politics, etc. than I did and he was from Switzerland. Unlike most people though, I didn’t reject or attack him but started picking his brain i.e., asking him to recommend authors.
I basically just lamented this sad state of affairs over the years & have done what I can to try to inspire people to inform themselves but today in the year 2021, humanity is on a precipice overlooking the abyss of extinction & we’d damn well better take our education much more seriously or we can sit around our televisions & watch all that makes living & life worthwhile, disintegrate & disappear.
So long as the Trumps of this world are allowed to go on spewing hate, fear, & the glorification of the stupid, we are on the highway to Hell! Donny boy with the girly hands & his orangutang complexion has idolized authoritarians all his life & he has emulated them since his earliest days as a schoolyard bully. And Donny the Dunce first fell in love with authoritarians when his daddy would take him along to meet with his business partners in organized crime i.e., several of New York’s mafia bosses who ran the construction business & most notably controlled the cement industry which Fred Trump’s business relied upon.
Daddy Trump taught Jr. how to kiss ass with not only the Italian mob but also the city fathers who approved building permits, zoning regulations, etc. Of course, Jr., being the inveterate loser & dumb-shit, had to hone his lying skills as he failed in one business venture after another. And even with the $400,000,000 that daddy gave him which Jr. claimed was only $1,000,000 & his Italian mafia protectors & all the politicians that daddy had in his pocket, Donald the Dumb-fuck managed to lose it all.
How Trump’s Casino Bankruptcies Screwed His Workers out of Millions in Retirement Savings
Undeniably, you have to be pretty fuckin’ stupid to even fail when you own four casinos but once again, daddy dearest came to Jr.’s rescue & tried to save his son from his gross incompetence but the banks who gave Jr. loan after loan after loan because of dad’s co-signing for the loans, finally realized that giving Jr. any more loans was simply throwing their money down a dark hole of no return & wouldn’t loan Jr. another dime.
Enter the Russian mafia who needed someone or somewhere to launder their billions in dirty money from their drug running, human trafficking, & other businesses. And Jr. was the perfect “front man” for these sleazeballs & human excrement. Yep! The Russian mob noted for its extreme violence & their talent for intimidation & coercion, were only too happy to bribe Donald Duck, their “useful idiot,” & keep bleeding the Russian people by stealing countless billions from the Russian economy.
Maybe you can now begin to understand why Donny boy goes weak in the knees at the mere mention of his new daddy, Putin. Need I point out what an authoritarian Putin is? By-the-way, have you noticed Donny’s fondness for authoritarian “leaders” (what we used to more honesty call dictators) around the globe? Duterte in the Philippines, Erdogan in Turkey, MBS of Saudi Arabia, Bolsanaro of Brazil, President Xi of China who declared himself “president for life,” the freaky, little fat guy of North Korea, etc.
Furthermore, we mustn’t overlook what a key, critical role the “Christian” authoritarians in the fundamentalist & evangelical sects of America’s religious extremists played in bringing the plague of willful ignorance & hate crimes to America. Yeah, like the Taliban who terrorize the people of Afghanistan with their extremist interpretations of The Koran to normally peace-loving Muslims, America’s faux Christians intimidate & terrorize American women who have the audacity to believe they have the right to opt for an abortion.
Yep, America’s “Christian” Taliban have followed & preached a strict authoritarianism from the beginning of their pseudo preaching & claims to be loyal followers of Christ & his teachings. So, inciting their more radical followers to murder doctors who perform abortions, are defended as acts of devout believers. Just as the Muslims who strap bombs on themselves to kill as many non-believers as possible are praised as martyrs & devout believers of the Islam religion.
Once again, we witness the common bond or glue of these mindboggling acts of extreme violence & hatred is ignorance i.e., the Know Nothings of this world. And Trump was just the right, want to be authoritarian who came along at the right time in America’s political, economic, & cultural state of affairs.
The massive betrayal of the Democratic party & its selling out to Wall St. just like the Republican party earlier, created a vacuum into which Donald Duck swam. Trump, an aspiring authoritarian all his life who dreamed of being an Emperor for life whose personality & character commanded respect, salivated at the idea of becoming president. But Trump’s handlers i.e., PR advisers like Steve Bannon, knew that they couldn’t succeed without the “Christian” vote, so Mike Pence was the ideal vice-president for Trump’s administration.
Yep! Pence was perfect for the job, Hell, he wouldn’t even share a meal with a woman if his wife wasn’t present. He spent four years as Trump’s lapdog, kept his mouth shut, & the faux Christians prayed that something would happen to Trump so their “man,” Pence would become president of the United States. Of course, Trump had to promise the gullible, hateful, racist Christians that he would fight for prayer in school, complete ban against abortion, etc. would be his top priorities.
Obviously, these wolves in sheep’s clothing who call themselves Christians & swear that all human life is sacred, are oblivious to the hypocrisy they practice because their “love” only goes as far as the birth of a child. Then once the child is born, they support the politicians like Trump & the overwhelming majority of the GOP & the Dems who vote to slash or totally eliminate just about every single program that was established to help the poor, the working poor, & the middle class. Remember Bill Clinton’s omnibus crime bill?
The end result of this phony Christian piety is the fact that under Trump’s reign of terror & error, America, the supposedly most advanced nation on Earth suffered the greatest number of deaths due to the COVID pandemic we are experiencing because Donald Duck didn’t want the bad press to negatively affect his chance for a second term.
I’m sure Jesus & his dad are smiling down on all you “good Christians.” And oh well, so much for the sanctity of human life? You see, my imaginary reader, religions are based on superstitious fears. Imagine cavemen huddled around campfires in a cave with thunder & raging storms outside. They’re naturally scared, even terrified & they didn’t possess the scientific understanding back then to rationally explain the natural phenomenon that was scaring them, that we do today.
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/donald-trump-government-shutdown-screwing-workers/
But in this day & age we have no such excuse. So, the authoritarians who only have two overriding goals, wealth & power, must scare us into submission with their 24/7 cable news outlets like Fox “news,” which is anything but legitimate news, fake posts on Facebook, etc.
The trouble is, two monumental realities we, as a species, are facing today & that no amount of propaganda or lies can make disappear are the destruction of our environment & climate and the ever-growing likelihood of mutually assured destruction from a nuclear exchange. And the mental midget & morally bankrupt miscreant who occupied the White House actually asked his advisors repeatedly why he couldn’t use the nuclear weapons at his command.
Do you remember the old adage, “What you don’t know can’t hurt you?” Well, in the authoritarian mindset —talk about an oxymoron—this is a truism because their fearless leader like Trump, knows all & he will protect them from evil. And just in case the people aren’t sufficiently stupid enough to fall for their propaganda, the billionaire corporate cockroaches have spent hundreds of millions, if not billions, in manipulating the public into believing that climate warming, the COVID pandemic, is all an elaborate hoax.
Do you recall the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in America & for how long Trump called it a hoax? If you’re still reading this essay at this point, my hunch is that you don’t need any further proof that the hoax is on all those who still serve in the army of Trump’s “Walking Dead.”
(John Trudell was the spokesman for A.I.M., the American Indian Movement)
The effort & love I have poured into writing this essay is in the hope that you share this with any of your family or friends who haven’t been totally lobotomized by falling for the evil charlatan who is still poisoning discourse concerning these critical threats.
“So-called common sense is a fallacy that has been foisted on us by our culture of ideology (any ideology that wants to tell us what we should think and do) that prefers us to be stupid, ill-informed, and poor decision-makers. Common sense is even used as an ideological cudgel by conservatives in which so-called coastal elites lack sense and, as a result, are out of touch with “real Americans” who apparently have an abundance of common sense.” https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-power-prime/201107/common-sense-is-neither-common-nor-sense
Suggested Reading/Viewing List
- https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/climate-of-doubt/
- Anti-Intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter
- The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto
- Illiterate America by Jonathan Kozol
- Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Edward Hermann & Noam Chomsky (my friend & the greatest living intellectual & friend of Humanity)
—Rob DeLoss, Gold Beach, OR November 2, 2021
P.S. Could it be that the “great” religion we refer to as Christianity is de facto based on anti-intellectualism or “Knowing Nothing?”