There was a time when education challenged us to be more, to reach higher than we thought we could, to dare failure because to think, and to succeed at thinking well,  was a noble human endeavor, the wellspring of soaring achievement as well as the source of our considered values, our sense of greater community, and the seat of our morality and  compassion.

But times have changed and knowledge is overrated. Contemplative silence can't be monetized so why bother, pass the chips and salsa please.  Thinking is so yesterday, it leads no where bigger or better necessarily, it's soft and chewy and my teeth are bad from all those sweet sweet lies I chewed up and swallowed down.  Of course dental insurance is out of the question especially since I lost my job but change the system you commie pinko motherfucker and I will start toting my gun to your gatherings.  Just leave well enough alone.

Thought brings no reward, no fame nor fortune ; it  may even be a detriment to same so what's the point? Reality shows do tell us one indisputable thing about today's reality; you don't need to think through the problem, you only need to think you're better than the people who can.  You might know all the answers but those of us who don't can band together and vote you off the island.  Knowledge is power but lack of knowledge is a blunt instrument.

I'm sorry I didn't hear you can you repeat that,there's five thousand big screen TVs all playing that video of the town hall where the young woman compared the old Jewish fag to a Nazi. Everyone was outraged! Some were outraged at him, some at her, some at the  news channel for playing it, some at their neighbor for siding with the girl or was it the fag. All I know is that I'm right to be afraid of things changing because of this outrage I feel. It's so strong, see. 

This is America where the thinking President has the same popularity rating and influence  as  moronic emotional charlatan extrordinaire Glenn Beck.  This is not the land of education, it is the land of opportunity to erect an Ikea in a big vacant lot so that eveyrone can  furnish a room for under $600, a deal so great you are bound to say what the heck why not buy all new furniture and throw away the old stuff, or sell it on eBay because you know what they say, one man's junk is another man's treasured landfill.

The leaders on TV have a lot of money but otherwise they're just like you and me, they know their money doesn't make them better than anyone, that a good education is overrated and anyone can suceed at anything if they really try and deserved the right connections.   Heck George Bush only had a C average at Yale - he wasn't an elitist about being able to go there, he was always a guy you could sit down and have a beer with.  Why call a professor or read a book when you can just pray to God and ask Him what Jesus would do if Jesus were the leader of the free world and had to catch some terrorists and kill them for thinking God could actually be on *their* side when our side is right, you can tell because we are way way more successful.

Fifty some odd years ago, ordinary Americans valued education so much they stood by while the government rammed science and math down the adolescent American gullet. Those parents did everything but hold their kids mouths open while the government force fed them calculus; they would have protested I guess, if they weren't so busy hoping it wasn't too late for the US to equal the superior scientific, mechanic and intellectual  achievements of  the Russian space program.

Thank God we live in a different time now where no one will stand idly by while the socialist President urges everyone to do better, because we are the generation of supercaring parents and we don't want our kids to be exposed to any idea we haven't vetted it first - because we care that much - unless of course it's on the internet, because who knows what the heck our kids are doing on the internet, I don't know about you but ever since I found that video about the two girls and the one cup that my nephews downloaded I don't even ASK any more, and let me tell you, don't ask don't tell is a good policy for more than just the queers in the army.

We do not need to seek educational challenge for our selves or our children unless we want to and it is our right not to want to.  Besides school is challenging enough what with all the trips to the school we have to make to get the teacher to give a higher grade to my child who suffers from an attention deficit spectrum disorder caused by gluten free soy products or if a peanut is within seventy five yards of the shcool premises.  It is essential and in fact I demand (as is my right) that no child bring peanut products to school so that my child can learn in an unobstructed environment how to become a radio show host or a pharmaceutical salesman or a lobbyist. A good education is key they say but really how much can we  expect from a teacher who by the way only makes one fifth of what I make so how can I possbily respect her anyway?

And so we stumble down the road, cursing and exposing ourselves and giggling along to the soundtrack laughter of the jungle; we eat red meat and apple pie because we were told by the marketeers in their slick haired sincerity that it's in our American DNA to do so and never mind that it is  killing us, pound by clogged, slow-moving pound, but not to worry because there are pills that will make it not seem to matter and of course it doesn't because we can buy bigger clothes and cars and houses and even coffins so everything fits no matter how fast we expand, we do not need to change to fit in the world when we can change the world to fit us.

When you get right down to it the most important thing is not knowledge but love; we are not an elitist nation full of notions about royalty and class systems and caste systems like you find in the uncivilized places where brown people walk about in the dirt.  We are one nation under God and we celebrate freedom (except the sexual and homeless varieties) and we love our neighbor like ourselves except for the homosexual and the terrorist and the unbelievers and the abortionists and the kids having premarital sex and most of all the  socialist speechifying president who thinks he can tell us about the value of education when anyone can tell we just don't want to hear it, everything is fine just the way it is.