Ignorance Is U.S.(A.)

Bill Maher has taken heat from some people by calling the United States a stupid nation. On Friday Bill took it one step further, likening Americans to dogs, with short attention spans and only wanting immediate rewards from their masters.

I think that's kind of extreme. Americans are basically good people, and most aren't idiots.....but being a nation of 300 million plus it's clear that we do have a large segment of the nation who will never be confused with MENSA members. I do think there is more ignorance in America than we'd like to admit. Ignorance is not stupidity; the word implies "a state of being uninformed (lack of knowledge)". Stupidity means a person is "lacking ordinary quickness and keenness of mind; (they are) dull".

Many pundits, social critics, and bloggers have pointed to the results of the 2012 midterm elections and asked "Is America that stupid?". They voted into office more of the same people who who advocate the same polices that drove the economy off a cliff in 2008, either believing in the song they are singing, or blissfully unaware of who and what they are voting for.

Yesterday Sue posted a entry called Europeans Are Flabbergasted, a look at what our friends across the pond are saying about the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives, and the "quality" of some of those swept into office. I'm sure every person looking at the results has a different take on why the Republicans made such great gains.....of course there are true GOP believers and those who have lost faith in Democrats to get the economy turned around (after less than two years of control of the Legislative and Executive branches of government).

But I think the underlying truth behind much of the GOP resurgence is that many Americans are gullible, and sadly ignorant about their country, their government, and their world. The Republican message machine exploited that fact.....and they seized a big chunk of power back from the Democrats last week.

Newsweek had a very revealing article recently called America the Ignorant; Dumb Things Americans Believe. These beliefs have little to do with political dogma, just facts that everyone should know.....and too many Americans don't. And you have to wonder "why?".

Consider some of the following.....about one fifth of the population and as many as 46% of Republicans believe President Obama is a Muslim. The first number came from a PEW poll, the second from TIME magazine.

A Gallup Poll said that only 39% of all Americans believe in evolution. The poll was taken February 11, 2009, the 100th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth. It also said 25% don't believe in evolution and 36% had no opinion, or weren't sure.

About three out of four of all Americans believe in some form of the paranormal. Forty-one percent believe in ESP, 32% believe in ghosts...and 21% of all Americans believe that witches exist. See, Christine O'Donnell should have never made that commercial to "refudiate" being a witch. The poll was conducted by Gallup.

A Harris Poll found that 4 in 10 Americans believed what Sarah Palin and others said about "Death Panels" to be formed by this year's heathcare legislation. The results appeared in an article in USA Today last August.

As late as 2007 four out of ten Americans believed that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks in a Newsweek poll. More poll respondents knew Jordin Sparks won American Idol (18%) than who the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was (John Roberts, 11%).

In a Gallup Poll from 1999, almost 20% of the respondents believed the sun revolved around the earth.

Only 53% of Americans are aware that Judaism is an older religion than Christianity or Islam, this according to a Newsweek poll in September, 2007. That same poll told us that 36% of Americans didn't know the Amazon River is in South America.

A Zogby poll from 2006 showed that three quarters of those polled could name two of The Seven Dwarfs and only 25% could name two Supreme Court Justices.

And the youth shall come forth to lead us.....a Roper Poll conducted by National Geographic among young people (ages 18-24) and released in 2006 told us the following..... six in ten could not locate Iraq on a map. Other findings- following Hurricane Katrina almost one-third couldn't locate Louisiana, and half couldn't find Mississippi. About half couldn't find New York State on a map, and almost 75% couldn't locate Israel. The same poll showed that 90% young people couldn't couldn't find Afghanistan on a map that was of Asia only.

Almost 75% of those asked in an August 2006 Zogby Poll could name Moe, Larry, and Curly as the Three Stooges but about 42% could name the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial as the three branches of the US Government.

I guess you can bottomline these poll results by saying too many people know too little about things they should know, and know too much about marginal stuff. And these people are among the electorate of the United States.

When new arrivals become naturalized citizens they first have to take a citizenship test. When they pass they take an oath of allegiance, and are they receive the same rights as native born citizens....and that's great.

But our native born citizens' education about their world, their nation, and their government seems to have fallen through the cracks. I'm not proposing a test for voting- that's what we had in the Jim Crow South to prevent African Americans from voting by making the test impossible to pass. We do need to start educating our citizens in the things we need to know before we give them a high school diploma and send them out into the world. We should make courses in civics, US History, and World History mandatory in every state, and in every school system.

But that won't happen, because if such a requirement were implemented the Right would call it just more of the boogieman called Big Government stepping on the rights of school systems, and private and charter schools, to educate children as they see fit. And so we'll probably have an alternate history where cavemen rode dinosaurs 5,000 years ago and of a universe created in seven days competing with science and natural history.

The Americans who can't find Louisiana or Israel on a map or name one Supreme Court Justice didn't get dumb by watching Fox News, however Murdoch's gang is a primary source of the "disinforming of America"- but they're not alone.

One of the most telling (and sad) things I have ever witnessed on a news channel was an episode of The Situation Room on CNN a few years ago. Wolf Blitzer had Bill Cosby on as a guest, and the topic was educating America's youth, and quelling the rising rate of high school dropouts in America's inner cities. Halfway through the discussion Blitzer cut Cosby off to go to breaking news from Los Angeles.....

Paris Hilton was surrendering to authorities in LA to begin serving her jail sentence.

The late Walter Cronkite said the purpose of news was to tell people what they need to know. What we see all to often are news organizations telling people what they want to know, even if it is not really news at all, only more heaping helpings of pop culture morsels.

More than twenty years ago in Joseph Campbell; The Power of Myth, Campbell, the great mythologist and teacher, lamented to host Bill Moyers that education of our young people had become more utilitarian and concerned with only making a living in the future. He looked at the classical eduction of the past- what was once called Liberal Arts- as being of intrinsic value because of the broadness and range it covered. Maybe we just educated our young more completely in those days, making them better, informed citizens.

And smarter voters.

Joseph Campbell- "The Hero's Adventure"

In the three part discussion of Avatar from earlier this month I referenced Joseph Campbell, the great mythologist and author from the last century. Campbell and his writings were a large influence on George Lucas when he wrote the Star Wars Trilogies, as well as with many other artists and writers of this era.

The PBS special from 1988, and its companion book,The Power of Myth, recorded a series of discussions between Campbell and journalist Bill Moyers. Few television programs have resonated with so many people for so long as this one has. Over the years it's airing has become a staple of PBS pledge drives. Personally, it is a project that changed my life. It made me more aware that the spiritual doesn't necessarily need to have a religious connotation. Also, it made me look at storytelling and film in a different way- all are based on universal themes, and some have become classics of modern mythology.

I was able to find several complete episodes online of The Power of Myth.

Below, from the collection of John Allen Bell, is Episode One of the series, The Hero's Adventure. Campbell and Moyers talked about Star Wars, as well as the meaning of the word "hero", and who or what is a hero. Another subject talked about in this episode, recorded in 1985 or 1986- that the earth would give us the next great mythology for mankind.....this was years before are concern about climate change moved to the forefront of our consciousness.

Campbell gives one bit of advice in this episode that he sees as the key to a happy and productive life......"Follow your bliss".






The Power of Myth - The Hero's Adventure from John Allen Bell on Vimeo.

Be sure to pause the music playlist before watching the video

For more about Joseph Campbell, visit the Joseph Campbell Foundation website.

The AVATAR Phenomenon- Part Three; The Story Teller and Modern Myths

This is the third in a three part series about the phenomenon of the motion picture AVATAR. In Part One we looked at audience reactions and comments about the film, and how it has personally affected some viewers. Part Two talked about the mythology of Avatar, defined "myth", and presented (with video and text) some very important concepts about myths and mythology from the late Joseph Campbell


"One thing that comes out of myths is that the bottom of the abyss is the voice of salvation. The black moment is the moment when the real message of transformation is going to come. At that darkest moment comes the light"......from The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers, page 37.



We left Part Two with Joseph Campbell's thoughts about attending to one's "inner life". Campbell noted that if you don't attend to your inner self, that eventually with age you will, as he put, "be sorry".

But in order to facilitate attention to our inner selves, Campbell also told us we all need an individual and personal "sacred space". Look and listen to this bit of conversation he has with Bill Moyers from the PBS documentary Joseph Campbell; The Power of Myth recorded in the months before his death in 1987.



There is an importance to having a "sacred space" and taking care of our "inner life". When I first saw Avatar I wondered what Joseph Campbell would have thought about this amazing modern mythology. But that question lead to another one- what would Campbell think about life in the 21st century, where we are bombarded with information constantly? The computer age was dawning at the end of Campbell's life. Could he imagine the conflict technology could have with the spiritual in the new century?

I use the term "conflict" because of the technological revolution and the constant stream of information it generates- and too much of the time its nothing more than useless nonsense- our inner lives are relegated to a back burner. The "sacred space" Campbell talked about isn't allowed to exist, and creative incubation and self discovery never takes place.

PC's, blackberries, and cell phones that can do everything but delivery babies. Texting, tweeting, Facebook, and emails all day and all night. And cable news channels that feed you information, some totally useful and some totally garbage, 24/7. You can hear cellphones ringing during plays, movies, and even while religious services are in progress. Where is the time for creative incubation anymore when we live in a society that seems to us to demand we be "on" constantly?

We don't spend nearly enough time taking walks and gathering in the world around us, or simply looking at the shapes of clouds passing overhead as we did as children. How often do we take time to write, or read a novel, or play a musical instrument, paint a picture or take photographs....or even demanding of ourselves some much needed "quiet time"? And I'm as guilty as the next guy....though the exercise of writing in this blog everyday does help me stretch my mental muscles, as well as help to keep me sane.

Before you conclude that I'm anti-technology, guess again. I think what we've done with high tech communications these past two decades has been extraordinary. I love a lot of the gadgetry. And the very fact that you're reading this on Blogger, and that I'm sharing this information on Facebook and Twitter says that I do have some techno-geek tendencies.

But I think it has a time and place, and I fear that all too often some of us have allowed technology to run our lives rather than using it to serve us. Do we really need to share every moment of our lives with a world that can't get enough of us? I don't think so.

While waiting for Avatar at the theater last week a young couple sat right in front of me. No sooner did they get comfortable then the young guy started to check his messages on his phone, and started texting...and texting...and texting...all the way until the time we were prompted to put on our 3D glasses because the movie was about to start. The young man wasn't even going to allow himself the total escapism of a movie- he was being ruled by need to use his devices.

And I wonder- how did the movie resonate with him? Was it just an incredible exercise in special effects.....or did he "get it"?

Just perhaps Avatar has helped to fill that need to touch the mythological that is lacking in the lives of many of the viewers, the ones who don't have that "sacred space" Joseph Campbell talked about, and have filled the void with the outside world.

The ancients had shaman. The modern world has the artist, in particular the filmmaker, who can serve that same function. Joseph Campbell's good friend George Lucas filled the role of shaman with his classic myths, the Star Wars trilogies. And James Cameron has done the same in Avatar.

Additionally, in our multi-cultural society there is always a need for a common mythology. Maybe Avatar serves that purpose as well. The film may bring some viewers "back on the beam", as Joseph Campbell would put it- a little more introspective and in touch with themselves and the world they live in. It is with great irony that so many people were reminded of what it means to "be human" by the Na'vi, seven foot tall blue humanoids from a fictional world.

There are some who cry out that Avatar is "anti-civilization" and "anti-God".

To those who criticize it for its depiction of humans as being "only the destroyers", there were also sympathetic humans in the story. Pandora,in Greek mythology, was a woman who opened up a box that contained the world's troubles, releasing misery on to mankind. But in this reworking of the theme, it is mankind that brings pain and misery to Pandora. The human characters are only an instrument in this metaphor of reflecting pain inward to destroy goodness and innocence.

The Vatican, for one, has frowned on Avatar for its depiction of pantheism, the deities paid homage to by the Na'vi in the film. But consider this- if intelligent life were found on other planets, wouldn't that leave the traditional answers of Judeo-Christian heritage more than just a bit shaken? Its a topic for another column, but Western religion, as we know it, would never quite be the same.

Avatar might have been one of the most spiritual films I've ever seen, not in a dogmatic sense, but its depiction of a Creator that is present in all living things. This movie was truly a mythology for the 21st century.

The next to last scene of Avatar shows the merciful Na'vi sending the defeated "Sky People" back from whence they came. They give the humans a better break than they might have gotten themselves had they been on the losing end.

The closing scene of the film summed up some of the great themes we've found in religion from the dawn of time. Jake gives up his crippled body and becomes one with his Avatar....we have death, followed by the unknown, followed by a rebirth. Not only have we seen this in world religion, but in the great modern mythologies....Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, and Star Trek. Avatar is in their good company.

"At the dark moment comes the light"

Abraham Lincoln once spoke of our "better angels". And just maybe the Na'vi" were the best angels of all.

The AVATAR Phenomenon ; Part Two- A Mythology For The 21st Century

Bill Moyers- What happens when a society no longer embraces a powerful mythology?
Joseph Campbell- What we've got on our hands. If you want to find out what it means to have a society without any rituals, read THE NEW YORK TIMES......from The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell and Bill D. Moyers (1988).*****

James Cameron's film Avatar is an example of a mythology for a modern world that is hungry for it. Cameron created a world with its own unique living creatures and humanoids, its own history, its own language, its own rites of passage, its own religion and deities- its own mythology. We, the audience, our drawn up and in to this world through the use of cinematic 3D wizardry, so much so many of us- myself included- experienced a virtual reality, where computer generated creatures became real and dandelion-like seeds floating in the air seemed to be falling down so close to us that we could touch them. Consciously and subconsciously we became part of the world of the Na'vi, the blue, seven foot tall inhabitants of Pandora, who in the film became more human to us than the "Sky People"-the earth colonists, who looked just like you and me.

I saw Avatar a week after the catastrophic earthquake that all but destroyed Haiti, the same same Tuesday that that Republican Scott Brown took the Senate seat held by Edward M. Kennedy for nearly three generations, and the very day when Chris Christie was sworn in as the Governor of New Jersey. Some people who have seen the film have experienced depression after leaving the idyllic world of Pandora to return to the reality of their own lives. Its as if one were awakened from a pleasant dream to be brought "back to earth" abruptly.

I had a similar reaction after seeing the film, but it was not the blues. Rather, I felt a sense of anger regarding the situation in America, where we have two political parties who have been engaged in trench warfare for nearly 20 years. In my eyes, the Democrats were inept, the Republicans morally and spiritually hypocritical. Furthermore, the audacity and arrogance of the Wall Street crowd I found even more appalling than before, and the pontificating of the Religious Right seemed more mind numbing than ever.

It was as if during the experience of Avatar I was briefly in a better, but not perfect world, one filled with danger....but the priorities of the simple Na'vi were in the right place, and in harmony with nature, with life, and with themselves. And in looking at the reality of our own lives in the real world, I couldn't help but think....."How did we manage to blow it so badly?".




Since seeing the film I've dusted off my books by and about Joseph Campbell (1904-87), the great teacher, mythologist and author. My prevailing thought for days after seeing the film was "What would Joseph Campbell think of Avatar?

Above, Joseph Campbell speaking to Bill Moyers from a segment of the PBS series THE POWER OF MYTH

But before we go any further, we must first define "myth". We commonly think that if something is a myth, it is a lie. But the most accurate definition of a "myth" is that it is a metaphor. Campbell told Bill Moyers in The Power of Myth, a book and PBS documentary from 1988 based on conversations held between 1985-86, the following;

"Myths are clues to the spiritual potentialities of human life"

Take a look at the video below. It was produced during Campbell's lifetime. Here he explains "myth as a metaphor"



Avatar presented a myth that included several classic themes- "The Quest"; "The Romance"; and "Birth, Death, and Rebirth" to a modern audience that needed such a mythology. Myths can address our psychological need to find out answers to complex questions in terms that are understandable. The audience lives in a "real world" that is in economic recession, that is at war, that is threatened by terrorism, is in danger of falling victim to even more severe climate change. In the film the Na'vi were shown as a primitive but wise and spiritual people with a deep connection to nature and to all living things. They live in a harmonious coexistence with their environment with lives full of rites of passage. The chief deity of the Na'vi is a goddess called Eywa- this is consistent with hunter/gathers on earth, because women are central to creation and revered in many primitive societies as the creative force. Neytiri's mother Mo'at is the shaman for their clan, much like the "wise woman" was found central to Native American societies.

The human colonists in Avatar represent "man the destroyer", too often found in the story of the western march of Europeans and those of European ancestry in the age of exploration, and during America's push for "Manifest Destiny" and beyond. To the "Sky People" nature is a hindrance that must be conquered and exploited rather than treated with respect. The Na'vi were also an obstacle to these colonists- they were the "Others", a term author James Bradley used to refer to the non-white people of America and the Far East by "the Aryans" in his recent history The Imperial Cruise. To The Sky People the Na'vi had to be either removed, or they needed to be eradicated.

Some have criticized Cameron for the portrayal of humans as not being very human. There are humans in the film who are sympathetic and descent- most of them in the film are the scientists. But the humans who work for "The Corporation" and their military mercenaries are shown to have only monetary profit as a motivation. These are the direct descendants of those who killed off the buffalo, destroyed the culture of the plains tribes, and waged war on America's Native Peoples in the 19th century. After the plains were made "civilized" America turned its eyes on Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, China, and the Far East....and later still, to the oil producing countries of the Middle East. Again, for more information on this aspect of American history, refer to The Imperial Cruise. The author, James Bradley, also wrote Flags of Our Fathers and Flyboys, both histories of World War II.

Joseph Campbell said that myths are clues to human potentiality. If we use the premise that Avatar is a modern mythology that has been financially successful and has affected its viewers on a personal level, the questions are ....."Why and how?"

I'll break a rule and answer a question with a question.

This is exchange between Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell from The Power of Myth, from the beginning of their conversations (pages three and four"..........

Bill Moyers- Why myths? Why should we care about myths? What do myths have to do with my life?

Joseph Campbell......One of our problems today is that well acquainted with the literature of the spirit. We're interested in the news of the day and the problems of the hour. It used to be that a university campus was a kind of hermetically sealed off area where the news of the day did not impinge upon your attention to your inner life and the magnificent human heritage we have in our great tradition- Plato, Confucius, the Buddha, Goethe and others who speak of eternal values have to do with the centering of our lives. When you get to be older, and the concerns of the day have all been attended to, and you have to attend to the inner life- well, if you don't know where it is or what it is, you'll be sorry.

Attending to "the needs of the inner life". In a world where are attention has been diverted by a constant bombardment of information, a film is released that has a mythology that brings people back.....and makes some of the viewers a little more "centered".

Maybe that is behind the underlying reason for the success of Avatar.

...........I'll continue this discussion in PART THREE with some additional thoughts, and I'll try to sum it all up....

I'll be back soon.