Just when I thought Trump couldn’t get any worse, he demonstrated there is no limit to his evil machinations. On August 19, 2020, he added another group to his base of racists, misogynists, homophobes, Islamophobes, the lunatic fringe of Christianity, spineless politicians who would sacrifice our democracy in order to be reelected, and the wealthy who value quarterly profits more than they do human decency. He embraced the support of QAnon.
QAnon refers to a set of internet conspiracy theories that, among other things, allege that the world is run by a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who operate a global child-sex-trafficking ring and are plotting the downfall of Donald Trump. These conspiracy theory nuts also maintain that in addition to sexually molesting children, members of this cabal kill and eat their victims for the purpose of extracting a chemical in young blood which will extend their lives. According to QAnon, top military leaders recruited Trump to run for President to break up this criminal conspiracy and to put an end to its control of the media and politics. Here are some of the members of this cabal according to QAnon followers: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, George Soros, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks, Pope Francis (!!!), and the Dalai Lama (!!!).
So, what does Norway have to do with any of this? Our good friend Bob Baker (a chemist, environmental activist, and birdwatcher) some time ago introduced me to a blog entitled A Jaundiced Look at the World We Live In written by Sheila S. Kennedy. In a recent entry entitled “Circles of Belonging,” Kennedy referred to an article penned by David Brooks, a conservative political and cultural commentator for the New York Times. Brooks wrote about the Scandinavian model found in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland—countries that have “a high economic productivity, high social equality, high social trust, and high levels of personal happiness.” The success of these nations has been explained in different ways by different groups.
Progressives maintain that their success is because of their generous welfare states. Libertarians say it’s because these nations score high on nearly every measure of the free market openness. Those who favor immigration restrictions argue that the admirable societies in these Nordic countries are possible because they are ethnically homogenous. But Brooks points out that these nations were ethnically homogenous throughout the nineteenth century when they were “dirt poor,” and their economic growth took off around 1870, long before their welfare states came into being. So, what explains Scandinavian social and economic success?
Brooks maintains that such success is the result of their “folk schools” which were “deliberately fashioned for the least educated among them, and focused upon making lifelong learning a part of the natural fabric of society.” This, Brooks argues, is the secret of Scandinavian success. Such an approach to education is called “Bildung” in Norway. I want to quote Kennedy as she explains the difference between the American approach to education and Norwegian Bildung:
Today, Americans often think of schooling as the transmission of specialized skill sets—can the student read, do math, recite the facts of biology. Bildung is devised to change the way students see the world. It is devised to help them understand complex systems and see the relations between things—between self and society, between a community of relationships in a family and a town.
In other words, the idea of Bildung was to introduce students to connections; to a sense of their place in ever wider circles of belonging—from family to town to nation—and to emphasize the students’ shared responsibility for each “circle of belonging.” According to Brooks, the results of that emphasis, of that approach to educating the whole person, is largely responsible for the Scandinavian balance between individuality and social responsibility.
Sheila S. Kennedy, A jaundiced look at the world we live in.
Kennedy points out that Scandinavians have the lowest rates of corruption in the world as well as possessing “a distinctive sense of the relationship between personal freedom and communal responsibility.” The social trust enjoyed by these Nordic societies is directly related to being responsible for each other in their “daily interactions of life.” This is why their societies function so well. And I (RZ) would suggest this is also why they have created a “floor” below which no one is allowed to fall. Can we even imagine a country whose inhabitants never have to worry about having and keeping health insurance, becoming homeless, being crippled by the cost of education, becoming jobless, overcoming the obstacles those with immense wealth never have to contend with, and surviving in a country where political corruption paralyzes every aspect of society? Yes, they pay more taxes than we do, but at least they get something—many big somethings—which allow them to experience and enjoy the good things of life.
Contrast Norwegian Bildung with Betsy DeVos’ rejection and assault on the tradition of public education. Contrast the growing tendency to see education as a way to provide skills that can be used in the marketplace (skills for jobs that have no security in our ruthless economic system) and those who see education as “guarantors of democracy, as places where, in addition to those skills, children learn how to learn, how to understand their government, and how to relate to other Americans who may not look or worship as they do.”
Ignorance is not bliss. It is the means whereby people fall victim to the goals and agendas of those who want to monopolize power and wealth.
I would suggest that the powers that currently be in the US much prefer educational systems which make students cogs in a wheel and who, as citizens, will never ask “Why?”—who never see connections—who adopt the crippling, insane, and immoral assumption that they need not be concerned about anyone but themselves. Ignorance is not bliss. It is the means whereby people fall victim to the goals and agendas of those who want to monopolize power and wealth. In other words, the “dumbing down” of America is perhaps more intentional than accidental or inevitable.
And such ignorance resulting from the inability to make connections, to appreciate how all things and people are related, and to think rationally and deeply explains the bizarre, insane, and tragic embrace of such ridiculous conspiracy theories as QAnon. For the sake of an economy which gives 40% of the wealth of this country to 1% of the population, we have sacrificed both the minds and the souls of our citizens. Trump doesn’t believe in the crazy ideas promoted by QAnon, but he is willing to embrace such an idiotic group because “they like me.” Keeping people both ignorant and stupid has long been a strategy for hoodwinking a gullible populace. Demagogues like Trump do not want people thinking, questioning, reasoning, and making connections.
Unfortunately, our educational system has increasingly facilitated the building of a society which cannot distinguish truth from lie, reason from folly, or good from evil. A liberal arts education that focuses on how to think and reason and which allows one to recognize the vital relationships which are necessary to enrich and preserve life is fast becoming a rarity. Viable democracy depends upon an informed and rational majority which sees and understands the importance of connections and how we all benefit when we live life and pursue options based on those connections. In Abraham Lincoln’s immortal words, we are a nation “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” If that is true, this fragile experiment called democracy is only as strong and lasting as the character and wisdom of its people. The existence of such lunacy as QAnon and the embrace of such lunatics by the President of the United States to secure his reelection are not encouraging signs of the viability of our democracy. Like our forebears, we too shall decide if this noble dream seeking fulfillment “shall perish from the earth.”
[Since writing this article, a racist, anti-Semitic, and Islamophobic candidate embracing the theories of Qanon won a GOP runoff primary in Georgia. Her name is Marjorie Taylor Greene. Both Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy embraced her and said they look forward to her being in Congress. Trump’s embrace included these words: “She’s strong on everything and never gives up–a real WINNER!” And still over 40% of the U S populations supports Trump and plans to vote for him in November!]
