The American Taliban Part 1: Ignorance

“The American Taliban” is a term coined after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan to denote fundamentalist bigots in the United States. In this essay, the definition of that term is expanded to indicate "the enemy within" in the broadest sense, namely those forces which are making Americans poorer, less educated, and less safe.  You don't have to a religious fanatic to be a member of the American Taliban as defined here; putting self-aggrandizement before general prosperity, whether done consciously or unconsciously, is, however, mandatory for membership. The author is against demonizing those who wield economic and political power to the detriment of the American people as a whole; what is important is to realize what is going on, in order to put an end to present dangers before it is too late.  There is no doubt, in the author’s opinion at least, that in many respects, internal threats to the common good are even more serious than external ones.

We will briefly discuss four of these threats, namely, the lack of gun control; the inadequate response to climate change; the problem of inequality, and the decline of civil discourse.  This list is, unfortunately, not exhaustive; nevertheless, it gives a good indication of the major problems our country is facing.

Most man-made, that is, unnatural disasters, are caused by a combination of selfishness and ignorance; our national problems are the result of these personal flaws writ large.  Before turning to the wounds that continue to fester due to the narcissism of those in power, we will first briefly discuss the deleterious effect of widespread ignorance, which enables those who rule to continue to misrule.  Ignorance is the Fifth Column, the chief ally of the enemy within, weakening our nation by undermining the other columns that have held us up well—until now.

1. Ignorance

In medicine, there is a measure of general health called the Infant Mortality Rate, (IMR), which measures the mortality rate of newborns per thousand live births.  The correct assumption justifying that this measure provides a good assessment of health in general is that if a pregnant woman receives adequate prenatal care in a given community,  the medical care for everyone in that community must be adequate as well.  (When I started to practice pediatrics in the early 1970s, the IMR was quite high; it has now come down to 5.87 (2015), indicating vast improvements in public heath.  The U.S. rate, however, is higher, in many cases much higher, than  those of all other countries of the West, demonstrating that adequate health care for all in our country remains a distant goal.)

Using the IMR as a model, I propose a new rate, the ABCDE, to keep track of the level of ignorance in a country.  I define ABCDE  (Adult Believers in Creationism and Deniers of Evolution) as the percent of a population that asserts, among other absurdities, that Adam and Eve were historical figures, and that “evolution is just a theory,” etc. According to the latest Gallup poll on this subject, an astounding 42% of Americans believe God created humans in their present form by fiat; an additional 31% believe in God-directed evolution.  Neither of these beliefs is scientific; since our rate is concerned with those who deny evolution, however, we will use 42 as the current percentage of ABCDE.  Just as the IMF is associated with general public health, the ABCDE percentage is a good indication of general ignorance. I make what I think is a justified assumption that the more educated one is, the less likely it is that that person denies evolution—in fact, 98% of scientists are convinced that Darwin was right.  In contrast to the United States, about 80% of the population in countries such as Iceland, Sweden, Denmark and France accept evolution.  Only Turkey, among the dozens of nations polled, denied evolution to a greater degree than Americans do.  (Things are getting better, however; most Americans under 30 think complex organisms arose from simpler ones.) 

I do not assert that the ABDCE percentage is an exact gauge of the amount of ignorance present in a given country; I do assert, however, that it is a general indication thereof.

The contrast between the ABCDE percentage in the United States and that of other Western countries is a clear indication that ignorance in the United States is a serious problem.  Another general truth: when ignorance is rampant, democracy is in trouble.

Recently a television journalist inquired of passers-by if they could identify what the term “Mt. Rushmore” referred to.  Few could.  Many didn’t know what year America gained independence, or from which country independence was gained.  38% of Americans are unable to pass a general civics test—Sample question: which countries did the United States fight against in World War ll?  A large percentage couldn’t identify the century in which the Civil War was fought.  Astounding.

Ignorance and the lack of critical thinking go hand in hand. The ability to analyze is essential in a democracy; without it, one votes according to one’s gut reactions, which are very often in direct contrast to one’s true economic and political interests, not to mention those of the nation as a whole.

The United States does not have, to put it mildly, an informed electorate. When an angry, disaffected public considers comfortable fictions as facts, and uncomfortable facts as fictions, the chances that a demagogue might become president rises significantly.  (If you haven’t been living in a bubble, you know what I'm referring to here.)  

Those responsible for the decline in the economic and political conditions of the American population as a whole, that is, members of the American Taliban, pose the most serious current threat to the welfare of our nation.  We are suffering from serious wounds that are largely self-inflicted. 

2.  

That ignorance is the root cause of a great deal of evil in the world was beautifully expressed by Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol.  In the part of the story quoted here, Scrooge notices that there is something hidden by the thick folds of the Spirit's festive garment. The huge Ghost of Christmas Present thereupon opens his robe and exposes two urchins crouched at his feet. (The following still is from the 1951 classic film, A Christmas Carol, starring Alistair Sim as Scrooge.)

                            

“Forgive me if I am not justified in what I ask,” said Scrooge, looking intently at the Spirit’s robe, “but I see something strange, and not belonging to yourself, protruding from your skirts  Is it a foot or a claw?”

“It might be a claw, for the flesh there is upon it,” was the Spirit’s sorrowful reply.  “Look here.”

From the folding of its robe, it brought two children; wretched, abject, frightful, hideous,miserable.  They knelt down at its feet, and clung upon the outside of its garment.

“Oh, Man, look here.  Look, look, down here,” exclaimed the Ghost.

They were a boy and a girl.  Yellow, meager, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility.  Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shriveled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds.  Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing.  No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread.

Scrooge started back, appalled.  Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude.

“Spirit, are they yours?” Scrooge could say no more.

“They are Man’s,” said the Spirit, looking down upon them.  “And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance.  This girl is Want.  Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.  Deny it,” cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city.“Slander those who tell it ye.  Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse.  And abide therein.”

“Have they no refuge or resource?” cried Scrooge.

“Are there no prisons?” said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. “Are there no workhouses?”

                                         

       --A Christmas Carol, Stave 3: The Second of the Three Spirits

Yes, Spirit, we have many overcrowded prisons.  Yes, Spirit, we have many workhouses where people toil for a non-living wage.  No, Spirit, we are not doomed yet, but Yes, Spirit, we are in very serious trouble. “Whose fault is that?”

 "Slander those who tell it ye.  Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse.  And abide therein."  One could imagine the Spirit using these very same words while addressing a joint session of the United States Congress.

But most of all beware that boy, America, beware  that boy.

                                          *

In Part ll we will discuss three areas where the effect of the forces of the American Taliban has been most pernicious.