The Ignorati, those who talk publicly and loudly about things they are not experts on, pose a threat to social order and growth if not counteracted by the truth.1
When I was twelve-years old I received, as a gift, a brand new Panasonic cassette tape recorder.
The year was 1974 and the number one headline news topic was Watergate. The United States of America was consumed with the revelation and unveiling of the crimes of then President Richard M. Nixon; his crime in a short phrase was—domestic espionage, by way of attempting to surreptitiously audio-record (via tape recording) the private conversations of the Democratic Party’s leadership. While to be sure his attempt to gain a decisive advantage over his Democratic political-party opponents’ was actually comprised of an extensive web of various actions and decisions, all of which ultimately led to his resignation from office, at its core root his crime was one of conducting an illegal action/operation because he wanted to know what his ideological enemies were talking and thinking about.
This all took place fifty years ago, and at that time I was a sixth-grade student in my small town’s elementary school. Now I definitely remember Watergate for what basically amounts to two reasons. Those reasons are as follows: one, Miss Jordan who was the teacher that taught the Social Studies component of my sixth-grade curriculum talked about Watergate almost exclusively during that entire school year, not that all that much of what she talked about stuck with me, because, well I was only twelve-years old, and seriously what young teen-aged child is actually interested in such things; Two, one day during lunch in the cafeteria I had brought along my new tape recorder to show off to my friends in school. Naturally we as young boys spent many minutes of our lunch time with me recording things that we said and playing them back to listen to, for simple fun, again being young boys that we were. Now before our lunchtime was over a few of the boys got into a, let us call it, heated discussion. I naturally without thinking about it recorded the discussion. Oh, how little did I know what that action would lead to for me.
After lunchtime was over and I had stopped recording the conversation, and like everyone else, I went back upstairs to my primary classroom which happened also to be Miss Jordan’s classroom. I do not recall what the classroom subject was for that next hour after lunchtime, but I do recall that there was a brief indoor recess time that lasted about fifteen minutes before the next subject was taken up. So again quite naturally I gathered together with some friends, some of whom had been present with me during lunchtime earlier and some who had not, and by common consent began to replay the heated conversation that I had recorded during the end of lunchtime. Unrealized by me and my friends Miss Jordan apparently had been paying attention to me and my tape recorder. She came over and asked in a very stern voice what we were listening to and I told her about what I had done. She was furious!
She then proceeded to lecture me and my classmates about the seriousness of Watergate and how I had essentially committed the same crime as President Nixon. After she was done lecturing us she made me delete the conversation from the cassette tape and then she took the recorder away from me and threw it into the small paper waste bucket next to her desk, as a punishment.
The most importantly stated words that I still remember her saying when she started lecturing me was “DO YOU KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THIS COUNTRY?!” Those words I have never forgotten.
Now here I am fifty years later wondering to myself ‘Does anyone know what is happening in this country?!’ To be perfectly clear I am thinking about the vast numbers of people whom I have encountered here on Substack and by way of any number of comment sections in the myriads of news media I read on a daily basis. So many, innumerable people, seem to be so casually and seemingly unaware of the truly serious nature of what is currently happening within our country’s government policy-making systems, especially at the Federal levels.
Naturally for many who read my newsletter, and any number of other like-minded writers, all of whom are essentially left-of-center ideologically with regards to politics, the most immediate and recent events to have taken place here at Substack have merely served to emphasize what I am focusing on here with this essay tonight; namely the controversy of the presence of Nazi supporters and sympathizers, and the flood of Ignorati with their verbiage aimed directly in an attacking barrage of commentary against those of us who dared to stand up to and against the presence of Authoritarian minded, bigoted, racist, thinkers and in particular the disingenuous libertarian double-speak of the website’s founding/managing leaders.
Now I would like to say that due to the entire controversy I found it necessary, for myself, to do some investigating, reflecting, and serious thinking about Substack and my place within and use of the website overall. I have concluded that this website is a genuine and very large disinformation bubble, and that genuinely true, objective, accurate information comprises a significant minority presence here; but to be perfectly clear nearly every social-mediatized website presents with the same dichotomy, wherein fact-based, objective, thinking is nearly always a minority position.
So then what should those in the minority knowledge position try to learn and understand from this revelation? And what, if anything, can be done to mitigate this situation?
These two questions and others like them will now in all likelihood guide my writings here at Substack from this point onwards. In fact it has been my nascent goal up to this point in time to try and present my readers with valid and more or less little known information that would help them to better understand the various factors and forces at work in our society that seek to undermine the tenants of our democracy’s classic liberal foundations, for the purposes of supplanting our historically developed freedoms and hard won civil rights, with dogmas rooted in deistic epistemologies, that rightfully by this point in time should have been consigned to the trash bins of history alongside with the myriads of failed methods of understanding the realities of Reality.
So with all these things in mind I would like to suggest that in order to understand America’s Ignorati problem it will be necessary to take a good hard look at American Education in general with a more specific focus on the exaggerated elevation of the Higher Education spheres of influence and perceptions thereof.
For the moment and until I return with my next piece of writing to continue this particular conversation, about what the minority knowledge position should try to learn about and understand so as to mitigate the effects of the American Ignorati, I would like to bring to your attention and for your contemplation a rather remarkable statistical fact.
Recent reporting per the National Science Foundation (NSF) via the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics with “new data from the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED)” has determined with data from 2022 that the total “number of research doctoral conferrals… [Doctorate Degrees; Ph.D.s] …in a single academic year [2022]: [was] 57,596”2
Now with the figure of 57,596 in mind juxtapose that number with the total reported number of Doctoral Degrees reported by the Census Bureau of the USA for reporting from the year 2021 in which we learn that out of the adult population of 18-years and older persons (a total of 253,418,000 persons out of a total calculated population of 331,449,281—Source: 2020 Decennial Census) that the reported total of all Doctoral Degrees was only 4,740,000 persons.3
Given the numbers and data/information presented above a simple rough statistical analysis demonstrates that slightly less than 1.5% of the total American population has a Doctorate degree.
I do not know what anyone else might think when they are confronted with that remarkably small number, but I will say that it seems to me that it is an indication of how woefully under-educated American Society is actually and factually, with regards to the highest level of education. The remaining 31+% of college degree educated persons are spread out across the spectrum of degrees from AA to BA to MA and along with the Ph.Ds make up less than 1/3 of the total American population.
Is it any wonder that the Ignorati seem to have the upper hand in any conversation?
Until we meet again.
Robert J. Rei, January 22, 2024
"There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self." -Aldous Huxley
“The Rise of The Ignorati” INDVSTRVS, November 29, 2022, https://indvstrvs.org/the-rise-of-the-ignorati/ (This is an excellent one page commentary that is well worth reading, for its discussion about “All those who talk loudly, and very publicly, about things they are not experts on.” Of whom can be observed in the profundity of ineffably sub-par comments proffered up by the uncountable masses of self-aggrandizing social media commenters.)
"Research Doctorate Conferrals Rebound, Leading to Record Number of U.S. Doctorate Recipients in 2022” Ruth Heuer, Peter Einaudi, and Kelly Kang, September 28, 2023, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES): National Science Foundation (NSF), https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf23353
"Educational Attainment in the United States: 2021” The United States Census Bureau, February 24, 2022, https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2021/demo/educational-attainment/cps-detailed-tables.html (Table 1. Educational Attainment of the Population 18 Years and Over, by Age, Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin: 2021: All Races [<1.0 MB] https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/demo/tables/educational-attainment/2021/cps-detailed-tables/table-1-1.xlsx
Thank you for speaking the truth as you have identified it. I hope you will share not only accurate information but suggest others in whom you have confidence. I have a Master’s Degree in Nursing which does not contribute significantly to understanding the situation in our nation today. I do have the time to read extensively as I am retired and homebound with few other responsibilities than to share what I believe to be true to others to preserve our Democracy and salvage our planet 🌎 if possible. My goal is to simply share truth when I find it. The science behind climate is challenging so my ideas are likely simplistic. Any truths you share are appreciated.
As you contemplate next steps, you may want to read this article by Thom Hartman. It capsulizes where America is today and how it got here. The links to other articles are critical in getting a full picture.
https://open.substack.com/pub/thomhartmann/p/can-america-and-the-world-survive-281?r=1dkp2g&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
I’m thinking the Ignorati are a product of these forces and cannot be viewed in isolation. Education is the key for all of us. Being able to be non-elitist and get an education, or a doctorate, is critical.
Thom correctly identifies neoliberalism as the root cause, and that most people in this country have no idea what it means or how it has affected and will continue to affect them going forward. Thus, they glom onto whatever conspiracy theory du jour they perceive to “speak” to them and blindly follow those “messiahs” who “promise” to “cure their ills” because he/they are the “only ones who can do that.” Charismatic Crooks and Dominionism are bedfellows, and their followers are being led like sheep to slaughter.
And yeah, too many people write lots of things about the results of neoliberalism, but mostly in viscerally reactive terms out of abject frustration. Worse, the GOP architects of neoliberalism encourage them to do so in order to continue the corporate political donation gravy train that keeps them in power, and fight to eliminate any obstacle in their way. And 50 years of consistently stacking Congress and the Judiciary with neoliberal supporters is allowing them to get away with it.
One of the links in Thom’s article discusses Biden’s Chips and Infrastructure programs and the great things it’s accomplishing. Jake Sullivan gave a speech about it that was very enlightening, but which was not widely reported. Sullivan said that Biden has specifically and with a hard nosed intention announced that it’s time for neoliberalism to disappear. The Chips and Infrastructure Act did that. How many of the Ignorati and the rest of us are even aware of that momentous event and what it means going forward? I dare say very few. MSM won’t report on it and few folks are aware of it.
And yeah, there are authoritarian and Nazi voices everywhere, but when folks get the messages that change is under way, those voices will eventually be shouted down. It won’t happen by decree.
Is Substack perfect? Nope, not by a long shot. But, it does have a wide and growing audience that is worth talking with. Siloed information is dangerous and inherently limiting. Thus, porting out articles to other communication venues must occur.
Is finding a way to help the Ignorati and the rest of us see what’s actually been going on a worthy cause? Just a question to a friend who digs deeper and writes much more eloquently than me. Grins.