The unwashed masses

America, like most countries, is still based on a pre-information (even a pre-industrialization) age mentality. That is, the bulk of the population needs to work as unskilled labor to ensure the integrity of the entire population. Thus, our education and social system is designed to make unskilled labor. Schools churn out undereducated, unmotivated bodies ripe for harvest into our industrial machine. Those that can afford it, opt for a higher level education that teaches them to lead the sheep.

In post-information age a country’s worth rests solely on the quality and consistency of information it can output, unlike previously were it was the quantity that mattered. The most stark test of this is war. Wars are rarely won through attrition anymore, but with electronic warfare and funding.

If the US can shuck it’s pre-info age mindset, focus on education and embrace automation of the nation, imagine what we could be capable of.