The Problem with the United States

We're a Republic

The "Founding Fathers" knew they were surrounded by poor, stupid people. The poor, stupid people have been problematic in the country ever since.

The original intention when creating the country was not to create a democracy, but rather a republic ruled by the wealthy for their benefit. As such, we aren't a true democracy. Your "say" is given to you by proxy through the people for whom you vote. It's truthfully at their whim to follow through on your wishes once they get voted into office. It's at that point they could tell you to take a flying leap and they usually do. They can put decisions to popular vote if they wanted to, but you'll notice that happens rarely!

At one point Senators were appointed, not elected. The intention was that the they would be the overriding body should the people make a decision they felt was fucking ridiculous. If the House of Representatives ("the people") floated a ballot over that the Senators felt was dumb they could block it.

The Electoral College is a prime example of this. US citizens can't vote directly for a president. They cast their popular vote and the college is supposed to use that to influence their vote in-turn. However, they're not required to use the people as consultation. The majority of the state could cast their vote for one candidate and the college has the power to vote for the other regardless…and there's not a damned thing you can do about it! The Senate, not the House, certifies the vote and the new president is elected. The people don't determine an election was valid, the Senate does.

Why is it this way?

The Backstory

The original discussions were that the land owners would be the ones to vote and run the country. The belief was, if one didn't own land they didn't have a solid investment ("buy-in") in the country and wouldn't care how the proverbial ship was being steered. Think about it for a second...if you're not the owner of the ship, but rather a sailor merely swabbing a deck, do you really care which port you're going to? Does going to Iceland instead of the Orient really matter that much? You're swabbing the deck regardless.

Property was also a sign of wealth in those days. If you could own property you probably had some money. Wealthy individuals typically had some degree of education, and could afford to send their children, who would inherit their wealth, to be better educated than they were. Education was generally not a priviledge granted to the poor.

When it comes to the subject of revolution, the "fathers" knew that declaring independence would more than likely result in war. They couldn't fight a war themselves, so they did what the wealthy always do in these circumstances…they influenced and convinced the poor stupid people around them to fight the war for them. Once the war began, they made themselves the officers of the continental armed forces and led the war, they didn't fight the war themselves.

This situation is the same to this day. To be an officer in the armed forces usually requires a degree or some form of education. They don't let just any enlisted person become and officer.

These individuals were also the same people who put together the origins of what would become our government. They did it themselves with no consultation of the common folk.

In short, the "Founding Fathers" were trying to influence revolution and were trying to put their own country together. They took a look around and said to themselves, "These people are fucking poor and stupid. They don't possess a single brain cell to be able to make a sound decision, and they can be heavily influenced. (We're doing that to them now.) Do we really want to allow them to govern themselves?"

Why did the "fathers" go ahead and give the people at least a charade of democracy? Because, you wouldn't fight your ass off in a war, risking death, if you didn't get one. You'd be the same indentured servant, wage slave, or slave. Why not just stay alive and stick with British rule? There's no point in changing masters.

The Continuing Problem

One should be educated if one is going to have a partial say in what goes on in the country. Therefore, education was made a right, not a priviledge, at the founding. This was a new concept. Remember that education was originally something only the wealthy could afford.

The concept sounds good in theory. (Educate the masses and they can make good, sound decisions.) There are some holes in the execution. Children are / have been attending school for 12 years, and are taught the things they should be, but don't understand how the concepts apply to real life.

For example, I teach little Johnny how to add and subtract. I give him story problems to try and reinforce to him how the concept might apply in real life. He understands, kind of, but the concept never really sinks in…because he's 6, and doesn't have a checkbook to balance or have a need to count back change. He wants to go ride his bike, or play Fortnite, or something. That's why we have to review things over and over, year after year. There's no immediate application for the knowledge being transferred so a huge chunk of it is lost.

Furthermore, highly conceptual classes like history, which teach the past to students lest they're doomed to repeat it, REALLY don't have any immediate application. The information is also greatly summarized into nice little bite sized packages. This is necessary to aid in the digestion of the material, but it often leads to it being glossed over. Much information is merely touched upon or left out.

As we have seen, the stupid have their say, so the community through the school board/PTA often try to purchase textbooks and influence the teaching by giving it their own little slant. Young minds are easily influenced and none the wiser, the adults around them seem to know what's going on, so the biased information is trusted. So what you get are a bunch of young stupid people, influenced before the stupid people before them, and the stupid is passed down from generation to generation. All one can hope for is that the the children gain a little more intelligence than what their parents had before. Eventually, that might lead to a smart person a few generations down the line.

To make the problem worse, once we learn something it's very difficult to unlearn it. This is true even when highly accurate and reliable evidence contrary to a personal belief is presented. The way that humans formulate their perceptions into the reality of the world is subjective. Once this occurs, a high degree of cognitive bias locks this information into place, and it's hard to remove it or believe otherwise.

In Summary

The country was founded by wealthy, smarter people who influenced the poor stupid people around them to fight a war for them, so they could found their own country to maintain their wealth and make more money. As a compromise, they had to give the stupid people a say in what happens in their newly founded country. They weren't happy about it, but in compromised agreed and vowed to make it ok by educating the stupid people. But, the stupid people outnumbered them and used their say to pass down their stupid to their spawn. The stupid propogated, and continues to propogate to this day. Because they masses are stupid, the wealthy use their money (which is power in the "newly formed" republic) to influence the stupid people to do their bidding. They further try to keep the status quo of passing stupid down the generations so they can continue their influence.

To fight this, educate yourself. Be careful what your're told. Fight cognitive bias whenever you can. When new and better information comes in...change your beliefs. It's ok to have an opinion, but please try and have an educated one.