4 c Dumbing Down of America

Chapter 4 – Dark Influences

Dumbing Down of America

Anybody who has awareness of the current situation on our world knows there is something wrong here, something out of place. There are crosscurrents of hard feelings and outright hatred unbecoming in a so-called civilized society. Where did these strong feelings come from? What is happening here?

This process has been called the dumbing down of America and we will discuss it in some detail. There are at least two aspects to this dumbing down. First is the process itself, what is happening, because something appears to be driving us downward. We will investigate this aspect in a moment. In addition to this there is our reaction to what is affecting us. What is our reaction when something unpleasant happens to us?

The usual reaction to such a gradual process as this dumbing down is to attempt to make the best we can of the situation; we don’t want to make a big thing of it and so we let it slide. As a consequence we drift deeper and deeper into the trap; but this is a purposively driven system of pushing us downward continuing year after year and eventually a crucial breaking point is reached for the individual and for society.

It is certainly to be expected each individual has a breaking point; there is some moment during the process of our being oppressed where we snap. We shout that we are mad and won’t take it anymore; again this is true for the individual and for society. The individual can be subsumed beneath an oppressive blanket only so long; there comes a time when each person stands up straight and declares “NO MORE.” Our society stands close to this point today. The only alternative appears to be gradually pulled lower until there is no escape at all. The word for this is fascism.

The important question now is what are we going to do about it? The reaction of the righteous would be to use this as an opportunity to do what we can to improve things; to discover how each of us can help bring an end to this degrading episode. The opposite reaction is to channel these feelings of frustration into hatred for anybody who is different. Our nation, which has grown strong on the continual influx of fresh energetic immigrants, currently has politicians kowtowing to the uninformed masses by pledging to build walls against foreigners, saying they will keep out of our land anybody who is different. Different from whom? We are all different and we rejoice in our differences. One question that may be legitimately asked of these politicians is if they keep these immigrants out of our nation who would wash their dirty dishes at the fancy restaurants they populate? And wash the bedclothes and towels in the expensive hotels they sleep and bathe in?

Another consideration is the vast majority of Americans are descended from immigrants, everyone except those of the Red race, true Native Americans; the only compensation the Red race received from our invading ancestors was a few trinkets, strange diseases and war: near extermination; it is not a pretty history. Even those of the Red race are immigrants; they came from Asia over eighty-five thousand years ago.^[1] Politicians should be wary when complaining about immigrants because they are also disparaging their own ancestors.

A book by Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt catches the concept of gradual introduction of fascism, this dumbing down, nicely; it is titled “The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America.”^[2] We will explore this book below, but while her focus is upon our educational system, this dumbing down process is pervasive in many parts of our society. This is a deliberate process to lessen our propensity to think for ourselves. If we cannot think for ourselves we are more likely to accept whatever sophistry those who are driving the process want us to accept and we accept the subtle introduction of fascism.

This process of dumbing down is so widespread that it must be deliberate, carefully planned. The satanists have been here over two hundred millennia seeking to defeat truth and they are certainly still at work; this process of gradually dumbing us down is the technique, at least one of them, that is being used and it appears to be effective. So far.

The first step in solving any problem is to realize it exists; once we recognize the problem and its nature we can better formulate a plan to address it. The problem we see is for decades our society has gradually drifted downward, sort of like falling back onto a deep feather bed and slowly falling asleep; our society has fallen asleep at the wheel and is gradually sinking into oblivion.

There are many dangers associated with this scenario. One of the direst of these is that once we sink into this planned oblivion there is no escaping; by then we will have fallen into their trap. Now that we have seen their trap, let us examine it and seek ways to extract our civilization from it.

Since the author lives in the United States of America, this is where our focus is; this is the portion of our orb that we have some consciousness of. We certainly need to have an awareness of what is going on elsewhere in our native planet, but our focus is upon where we live.

The common people feel powerless; the wealthy and those who have power in our world oppress the poor, the disadvantaged and beat them down, seeking to subdue them. These oppressed individuals must necessarily live day to day; they do not have the luxury of taking time out from their lives to think about time, eternity and whatever. They are concerned about how to protect their children, what to have for supper, how to obtain the necessary ingredients and how to pay for them. They are powerless. They have been disenfranchised.

These good people, these ordinary souls who are our sisters and brothers cry out for a way to gain control over their lives; they sincerely pray to our Heavenly Father for deliverance, for a way out of their desperation, their moment to moment existence. They need a way out of the treadmill of their lives. We must find ways to help each of them; but before we can help them we must look at the way things are so we can formulate a plan to counteract it. We will therefore examine the process of dumbing down to understand it and then seek to find ways to help our brothers and sisters everywhere.

The main question is why America? This dumbing process appears to be strongest in our own country, why here?

One answer to this question is that America has been a beacon of freedom to the entire world for a long time. Starting nearly four hundred years ago at what is now Plymouth Massachusetts people have come to this land seeking religious freedom, seeking liberty and a new life; all through the ages people have come from Ireland, England, Germany, China and other parts of Asia to our shores. They have come from Japan and many parts of Europe. Countless have also come from Africa, most of these not very willingly. Every one of these individuals arrived on our shores looking for a better life; they wanted a life of meaning for themselves, for their family, for their progeny. America has been the preferred destination for those seeking freedom for hundreds of years; that is one reason those seeking to counteract truth have been trying to gradually bring us down. This is a retribution for our country having been a bastion of freedom for our world.

The other answer to the question “why America” is this is the country where the Fifth Epochal Revelation, The Urantia Book, was chosen to appear. Perhaps we were chosen because we have been a beacon of freedom for the world, but for whatever reason, we were chosen to receive this revelation of truth. Possibly because of this, those who oppose truth seek to undermine this revelation by bringing discredit to the entire country it appeared in; they hope to drown these new concepts of love and joy and brotherhood beneath a tide of civil unrest, hatred for anybody who is different, and a general pitting of one segment of society against another. While it could be argued that our dumbing down may be a natural process, merely the way the cycles of history work out; it seems too much of a coincidence the current wave of unrest amongst broad segments of society should be centered in the land where the greatest revelation of truth since Jesus appeared.

This is a deliberate program to lessen our ability to think, our ability to reason out solutions to our problems. A people who cannot or do not think are much more vulnerable to a takeover by unfriendly forces than those who think for themselves. One reason for this is that those who do not think are more likely to accept what they are told. The goal of this process of dumbing down is to make us complacent, as well as to discredit anything coming out of our land, discredit any glimmer of hope for the oppressed of the world.

This program to dumb down our country has utilized various fronts of attack. Among the targets are our educational system, the various forms of media, advertising, our political system and society in general.

In her book “The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America,” Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt describes in detail the pervasive ways in which the establishment has sought to remove any incentive to think from our educational system. This process is called a “war which produces the death of intellect and freedom.”^[3] We are at war with insidious forces desiring to bring down our society. This war began gradually without any notice whatsoever. Our opponents in this battle want us to stop thinking and sink into nothingness. That is their goal.

In the introduction to this book Sarah Leslie states that “the dumbing down of a nation inevitably leads to the death of a culture.”^[4] Again this is what the process is all about, the death of our culture; we need to wake up to what is going on. And again from the introduction: “try as one might, the reader cannot escape the consistent, deliberate, 100-year plan to dumb down the populace.”^[5] This process has undoubtedly been going on far longer.

Our dumbing down campaign has taken hold without any outcry from the public or our politicians. We have been taught to not think, to not recognize the difference between group thinking and individual freedom and responsibility.^[6] We have been trained in our educational system to not think.

It is in our educational system that we should learn the basic skills we need so we can function in society; it is here we need to learn how to think for ourselves and learn the difference between right and wrong. It is here our young must be prepared for life in the greater world. What happens when this vital training teaches them to be robots, teaches them to follow directions but does not teach them to think for themselves? Where does this lead our nation?

Next is our media. There was a time when our media performed a valuable service, they informed the public about what was actually going on and occasionally dug deeply into important stories, witness Woodward and Bernstein’s classic investigation into the Watergate affair. Those were the days when reporters actually reported. Nowadays, even though there are countless media outlets on radio, TV, as well as on the web and social media, one story always seems to permeate everything. Whatever the story of the day might be it will be everywhere, on all the outlets; it is as if the entire world ceased to exist but for this one tidbit. Perhaps it might be a politician saying something out of place or maybe a fanatic blowing himself up. It does not matter what the story might be, it will be everywhere.

The reason for this is that our media have become followers rather than reporters. Each one grabs the current story and gives it their own slant; reports it colored by their own ideology. They must have gone to those schools where thinking was not permitted.

The goal of our media appears to be to sell products, to make advertisers happy by attracting as many viewers as possible. Their goal is no longer to report on a story or to present new information but rather to attract viewers to their commercials. Indeed the dumbing down of America is most evident in the decay of our media.^[7]

In the rare cases where there is real investigative reporting, such as in “Mother Jones” and other investigative outlets, it is little appreciated. Reporters may risk their lives researching a story and it might have little lasting impact.

Dan Rather has been quoted as saying that “television news has been dumbed down and tarted up.”^[8] Indeed the main purpose of the news is to sell advertising rather than to inform the people.

To be fair, there is another reason for the current state of our media. The main goal of media is to attract viewers and readers, to make the advertisers who supply money to the news media happy. This is another part of our dumbing down because there is little impartial reporting, nothing truly original; we are encouraged to not think, our response is expected to be to sit in our easy chair with a beer or whatever and give our acquiescence without protest. More dumbing down.

The fundamental issue with our television today is that it is a one way medium,^[9] those with power and wealth have the opportunity to send out their viewpoints to everyone else in our society; therefore the poor, the minorities, and any marginalized portion of society will not be able to present their viewpoint to the rest of society. Just because the miniscule number of individuals who have wealth can buy their way into the mainstream of society does not mean they have real insight into anything of lasting significance.

Advertising has gone the same way. I am old enough to remember when advertising actually talked about the product, expounded upon the product’s virtues and gave specific reasons why we must rush out and purchase the product; now when we see a commercial it is sometimes difficult to determine exactly what they want us to purchase. It is rare nowadays to see a commercial that does not insult our intelligence in some way. Advertisements have talking owls, talking camels and all kinds of silliness. It appears that those who place commercials on the air only want to sell to those who have already been dumbed down and do not know any better.

Our political system has degenerated to a point where it is a mockery of the values held dear by our country’s founding fathers. It can truly be said that we have the best congress money can buy because the system is geared toward politicians doing whatever is necessary to get enough money to get reelected. The vast amount of money spent on elections is aimed at the lowest common level of awareness. In the presidential election of 2016 there was very little discussion about the qualifications of the candidates; there was even less discussion about policy issues, either foreign or domestic. While one party did bring up such topics this was drowned out by an explosion of emotions by the other party. Elections have degenerated to the level of kindergarten playground fights.

The discussion about democracy in our revelation gives us assistance in these matters. The Urantia Book says while a democracy such as ours is a good system we should be careful. The dangers of democracy are glorification of mediocrity, choosing base and ignorant leaders, not recognizing social evolution, universal suffrage for uneducated and indolent majorities and slavery to public opinion because the majority isn’t always right.^[10] It says poplar elections are the right way to do even a wrong thing.^[11] Specific remedies are proposed to minimize these dangers. Paper 72, “Government on a Neighboring Planet” for example says that those who run for public office should have certain educational credentials specifying they are qualified.^[12] This paper also has other suggestions for improving upon democracy.^[13]

What it comes down to is we get the government we deserve; if we think and are aware of what is going on in our country and our world we may get a decent government. If on the other hand we vote for the politician who can shout the loudest or has the slickest and most expensive TV commercials we will get something considerably less than this. Given the dumbing down of our society that has been going on for decades I fear for the future of our democracy. Chapter 6 presents a way out of this situation.

A fair question might be what evidence is there for this dumbing down in our society? The quick answer would be that all we need is to become aware of the news. One of the most glaring pieces of evidence for this is the general disrespect for anybody who has intelligence; it seems that our entire society is aimed at stupid. Television programs, advertisements, news programs, and leisure activities all appear to be directed toward those of the least intelligence. While it is good to make each of our sisters and brothers feel they are a meaningful part of society that does not mean we should encourage everyone into this state. A vigorous society is built upon energetic thinkers.

In our society, anybody of intelligence, such as scientists or scholars, is denigrated and marginalized. Intelligence is ridiculed, put down and discouraged.

The mass of Americans live day to day, merely reacting to the situations they are faced with; for whatever reason they have no control over their lives. Mediocrity has been drilled into them to such a degree they have no chance to become the best they can become. These people can only react to the situations in their lives, there is no way they can become proactive; no way for them to assume any control over their lives. At some point they become so frustrated with their disempowerment they lash out in total frustration. These unsatisfied feelings are manifested in many ways, hate crimes of all sorts and violence against anyone who is different. The human spirit, which is indwelt by a fragment of God, after a certain ill-defined point, refuses to take any more abuse. The election of 2016 was a consequence of this because while one side put fuel into these feelings of helplessness, the other side fell into the trap: becoming reactive, going down to their level instead of giving the dispossessed hope.

Our society is focused upon each individual accepting whatever situation we find ourselves in. We accept the stupid commercials, we accept the politicians who have no clue about real governance, and we accept the total lack of any true substance in our existence. We accept.

We accept because there is no reason for us to strive for anything better. We accept because God has been taken out of our lives by a Godless humanism. We accept because we have been disconnected from universal reality, disconnected from any awareness of our eternal spiritual potential. We accept.

One reason for this is our society gives us no reason to improve, no reason to become better and more productive citizens. How can any society progress and become more vibrant when the focus is upon dumbing down, upon not offending anybody?

One way to evaluate a society is to determine who their heroes are. Who do these people look up to? For our society it appears our heroes are sports figures and actors. Our heroes are people who entertain us rather than make us think. Our heroes are those who make us feel good, not those who make us want to become better individuals. Our heroes are not spiritual leaders, not thinkers, not scientists. We can be known by who our heroes are.

Not only are sports figures and actors the heroes of our society, they are also more highly paid than are teachers and other public servants. These teachers are entrusted with teaching our children to become better people and they receive little compensation for their efforts.

Another issue is our leisure is largely used in selfish ways, empty pleasure; this is what we pay good money for, empty pleasure, something to make us feel good. We have become divorced from eternity, from anything of lasting value; there is little effort for us to improve ourselves. It is as if we think this moment of pleasure is all there is, this moment is our eternity.

Enough of that; what are going to do about it? We recognize we have a problem, now what? The first step with any problem is to recognize there is one. Next we need to seek solutions to this problem.

The Urantia Book describes schools on a portion of a neighboring planet by stating “The chief object of education on this continent is to make every pupil a self-supporting citizen.”^[14] Our schools need to have a specific goal and this certainly is a worthy one. The apparent goal of our schools is for students to pass the tests. The proper goal of our educational system should be specific, well publicized, attainable with some difficulty, and emphasis should be placed on reaching them so that schools and students will be properly motivated to realize those goals.

A starting place is to become aware of who our students are, what they are like. When we look at them we see a myriad of individuals, each one is different, and each one is unique. There is no way all of them could be taught using a single plan. Some effort must be utilized to identify the natural propensities of each student and educate them accordingly. This would be an expensive proposition but it would be more useful to each individual and to society if the students were taught according to their abilities rather than according to some rigid formula.

An interesting aspect of the schools on a neighboring planet is students participate in the teaching process by assisting in the instruction of other students in the grade just behind them.^[15] This is beneficial to everyone because the students giving the instructions will be more likely to remember the concepts if they must explain them to another student. It helps the younger students because they have a more personalized instruction. It also helps society because they will gain members who are better educated.

One way to improve the quality of the new citizens schools produce would be to teach students critical thinking. Present students with situations, have them determine how to proceed and discuss their thoughts; this would be a time consuming process but the gain to society would be immense. Parents send their young child to a public school hoping they will receive a useful education; the question is what sort of young human being will that school send out into society twelve years later? What type of citizen? It is the responsibility of schools to send thinking and aware young citizens out into society. Are they currently doing this?

Another fault with our education system in general is learning for the vast majority of people ceases upon graduation or when they leave school; this means for approximately three quarters of their lifespan there is no effort to become better educated, to improve, to grow intellectually. In the ideal state, education continues throughout life, and philosophy sometime becomes the chief pursuit of its citizens.^[16] By lifelong pursuit of education we will become better equipped to improve our society.

One aspect ignored by the vast majority of our fellow citizens is philosophy, the seeking of wisdom; we do not think deeply enough. Students in schools need to be taught about how to relate themselves to the world at large. They must work out for themselves their place in creation. How they relate to the greater picture. Our society has ignored philosophy to its detriment for so long we think this discipline is irrelevant; we absolutely need to wake up and become aware of a deeper reality.

Students should be encouraged to develop a life plan, attempt to set forth an outline for their lives, who they wish to become, what they want to accomplish. If a young person has no goal, no purpose to their lives how can they be expected to make any progress? Education should be about preparing youth for life. Passing some temporary exam is meaningless if they cannot think and plan for themselves.

These life plans are important but they will be without value if they are set aside and ignored; students should be encouraged to develop a plan to carry out their life goals, find ways to make them reality. A society cannot make any progress if their young are encouraged to sit on their butts and accept whatever malarkey is thrown at them. We need thinkers, we need vital truth seeking youth bringing their energy, and we need young who plan their lives and carry out these plans. There is a line from a song in the movie “South Pacific” that says “If you don’t have a dream how you gonna have a dream come true?” Young people need dreams to work toward and shape their lives around; society needs these young citizens who dream dreams of a better world and are willing to expend their energy realizing these dreams.

Students of our educational system have been taught to not think for so long they naturally fit into our dumbed down society.

Another aspect of this dumbing down process is there is no incentive to change; there is no reason to improve, to become a better person. Society has become wrapped up in materialistic goals for so long nothing else appears to matter. Since most goals are materialistic, there is nothing of lasting value and there is no reason to struggle to become a better person.

Our citizens will not seek to improve themselves without good reason; they have been dumbed down until nothing else is left other than whatever lies they subscribe to. This dumbing down has led us to the 2016 election results. We pray our fellow citizens will begin to think, consider all the possible consequences of their choices and only then act.

It will take a major spark of some sort to awaken them to the greater possibilities that lie in store for our citizens; this spark may be anything: a major war, riots in the streets, an economic collapse or perhaps a spiritual awakening. People need to become aware of their eternal possibilities, what may be in store for them if they reach out and grasp eternal goals and spiritual reality.

The goal of eternity has been obscured from the majority of our sisters and brothers; we have become more interested in tomorrow’s football game than in considering where we will be a thousand years from now. This dumbing down process has removed any meaning from our lives; there is no purpose to our existence. The goal of this dumbing down process is to obscure spiritual reality from our awareness.

Now that we have identified the problem, what can we do about it? The activities of our fallen planetary prince have been going on for so long there are no quick solutions, no easy fix; they can only be counteracted gradually, one soul at a time. All too often humans want to do something big that gets wide attention, we seek short term goals looking for immediate rewards. The more certain technique is to make a long term plan, knowing God is on our side helping us each step along the way.

We have been given the enlarged truth of The Urantia Book; we have studied it and seek to incorporate it into our daily living. Because we have accepted it and have used its teachings to enhance our faith, it is now our duty to so live our lives we spread love and joy in our daily encounters with our brothers and sisters. We have a responsibility to those who do not have these teachings, to show in our lives the fruits of the spirit.

Individuals in our society need to hope they can extract themselves from all the negative influences bombarding them; a vision of the possibility of obtaining a better life must be presented to them. This vision must be captivating, enticing and positive. This vision needs to be given in such a way we will want to enlist in the effort; it must open up the possibility of an expanded reality, wider horizons and the certainty of eternal life for all who believe. Our revelation contains the elements of the presentation, the spiritual framework; it needs to be brought to life in such a way to give this message a broader appeal to society. The appeal must be to all peoples, all ages, and all races. Hope for a better existence needs to be given to everyone.

This vision should include an educational component; we should be encouraged to improve our educational level so we can better participate in modern society; the dumbing down process has dimmed the value of education in the awareness of many people; this can be reversed if we are aware of the dumbing process and if we want to rise above it. This can be done if we want to, if we buy into the new vision of the possibility of a better life.

There are also spiritual reasons for us to seek improvement, a better life. Life eternal is freely given to those who believe in God. This bestowal of eternal life is conditioned solely upon faith but if we wish to ascend in the life of divine fellowship we must manifest the fruits of the spirit.^[17] These fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.^[18] If we wish an eternal life filled with adventure, progression, ever higher levels of service we need to unconsciously manifest these fruits of the spirit, these evidences of our faith. It behooves us to assist our sisters and brothers who have fallen victim to this dumbing down, the system of sophistry and lies enveloping them; we need to grow and share spiritually.

An important component of society desperately needing to receive a breath of fresh air is religion; too often religionists become trapped in a rigid dogma. People today must shop for a religion based upon dogma. Formal religion restrains men in their personal spiritual activities instead of releasing them for heightened service as kingdom builders.^[19] Since the beginning of religious awareness on our planet, priests and other religious figures have promoted the idea religion can only be reached through their intercession. According to them, rituals or theology must come between the individual religionist and God.

God is literally within each of us; because of this, the relationship each of us has with God is the most intimate one possible. We interact with everyone else we meet “out there” while our Heavenly Father is truly within us. True religion is an individual spiritual experience. In the present crisis of our civilization only a real religion of personal spiritual experience can function helpfully and creatively.^[20] We have faith because He is with us and we have an actual experience based upon this intimate relationship with God.

Religion is the revelation to man of his divine and eternal destiny. Religion is a purely personal and spiritual experience….^[21] Religion reveals to the individual the glorious future of eternal service awaiting true believers. Why worry about material things when this glorious future awaits us? Churches and religious services do effectively socialize religion and bring religionists together socially, but true religion is the intimate relationship between an individual and God; even with the creator of all things.

When we accept this true religion we become faith sons of God, we find deliverance from the isolation of the self.^[22] We have the confidence of God in our lives and we have the guidance and courage to rise above the sophistry of those opposing truth; faith gives us the power to rise above this dumbing down.

Our society in general is not known for particularly deep thinking because we are caught up in the materialistic whorl around us. In the procession of pressing everyday events we think there is no time for deep thoughts; because of this there is no plan for our lives, no goal, and no direction. In order to have a more balanced civilization there is a need for incorporating philosophy, wisdom seeking, into our lives. A balanced person and a balanced society will give equal attention to science, religion and philosophy. When we are thus balanced we will be less susceptible to the falsehoods of those spreading lies. We must use philosophy to attain integration of the three phases of reality: physical, mental and spiritual.

This integration must then be applied to our daily lives. Science, religion and philosophy need to be a part of daily living; we need to think for ourselves. No doubt the mass of society will say this is a bit of highfaluting nonsense; this feeling arises as a result of the dumbing down process which has been going on for years and which has accelerated in recent decades. Each one of us Urantians can do better, each of us can improve, become better individuals. It is the goal of this book to give us assistance in this improvement process.

Table of Contents        Next Section

1. The Urantia Book, this refers to the page.paragraph of the one column edition. All references are to The Urantia Book unless otherwise noted. 883.7 ↑

2. “The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America” by Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt, Conscience Press, 1999. ↑

3. Iserbyt, p xix ↑

4. Sarah Leslie in Iserbyt, p xxvi ↑

5. Sarah Leslie in Iserbyt p xxvii ↑

6. Iserbyt p 265 ↑

7. “The Demon-Haunted World – Science as a Candle in the Dark” by Carl Sagan, Ballantine Books, New York, 1996, p 25-26. ↑

8. “The Assault on Reason” by Al Gore, The Penguin Press New York, 2007, p 17 ↑

9. Gore p 97 ↑

10. 801.14-18 ↑

11. 802.2 ↑

12. 816.7 ↑

13. See for example section 9 “The Plan of Universal Suffrage” starting at 817.5 ↑

14. 812.7 ↑

15. 812.3 ↑

16. 806.2 ↑

17. 1569.1 ↑

18. 381.7 ↑

19. 1092.4 ↑

20. 1087.4 ↑

21. 2075.6 ↑

22. 1985.1 ↑