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mistakes, paid for them themselves on the spot and learned as little as possible from the experience. But, gone now are the good old days when a person could go out and fail on his own at his own pace. Now he must join a firm which is overcharging its customers or work for the government, which is, true to the spirit of democracy, ripping off the people. Stupidity is now cultivated, developed and promoted by the calculating professional. It has become organized, streamlined, modernized, and incorporated. Mismanagement is now computerized so that errors which used to take weeks to unfold can be perpetrated in seconds. In a world in which stupidity has reached such bewildering bureaucratic complexity, Americans are justifiably confused and searching for something in which they can still believe.
The composite American today entertains a number of religious beliefs all of which predominated at one time or other and still comprise a significant part of his cultural heritage and national identity. The general American is sort of Christian in belief and/or behavior. Politically, he believes in democracy, although the Constitution guarantees and surprisingly provides a republican form of government. Economically, he is a devout capitalist, even if private enterprise has been pushed to the fringe by the systematic organization, ownership and control that government and big business fascistically exercise upon each other. Finally, he is socially egalitarian, at least within his own peer group. If there are contradictions in the expressions of these belief systems as they shape daily life, they are happily lost on most of us. First and last, we are pragmatists ill disposed to let beliefs disrupt the market place of life. Not only is American stupidity thus fragmented, due to the lack of a unified belief system, but we lack a basic knowledge about ourselves for exactly the same reason. In fact, if there is one subject upon which we are invincibly ignorant, it is America, and this self-unconsciousness is traceable to the multi-schemas which provide several ready-made explanations for anything. This is one of the distinctive features of American culture: we do not have "An" answer for or "The" solution to a given question or problem. We have a variety of answers and solutions from which we can pick the one which is most appealing if not most relevant. The pluralism of American society has not only made tolerance a necessity but has given American stupidity its anarchistic flavor. Each immigrant strain has made its contribution to the caldron of idiocy and made diversity our greatest weakness. The sloth of Hispanics contrasts with the arrogance of Germans. The self-righteous prudery of the English clashes with the emotional abandon of Africans. Each detracts in its own way from the self-confidence of the nation as every failing and drawback of
 stupidity.net 
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