Film: Born Yesterday

“I want everybody to be smart. As smart as they can be. A world of ignorant people is too dangerous to live in.”

Those words are spoken by a journalist. They are one person’s idea of what should be the credo of a good journalist. The journalist is Paul Verrall (William Holden) in the 1950 film adaptation of the 1946 play Born Yesterday by Garson Kanin.

Paul is hired to educate Billie, the girlfriend of tyrannical businessman Harry. Harry thinks Billie is embarrassingly dumb and wants her to be less so in social situations that may affect his business ambitions during his time in Wash. DC. So Paul goes about introducing her to the ideas behind our form of government. But as you can see from the above quote there a bit too much emphasis on the ideas of The Enlightenment. And then it gets worse (or better, depending on which tribe you are in):

Paul: Think about it. You'll see Harry's a menace. Has he ever thought of anyone but himself?

Billie: Who does?

Paul: Millions of people, Billie. The history of the world is the struggle between the selfish and unselfish. All that's bad around us is bred by selfishness. Sometimes selfishness can even get to be a cause... an organized force, even a government. Then it's called fascism.

I've read some long-winded attempts to define fascism but this one is refreshingly simple. History defined as the struggle between the forces of willful ignorance and organized greed vs the forces of boundless knowledge and universal equality also struck me as a highly useful one in this age of Trump.

I will be continuously adding to this essay. Especially on the idea of education in a humane society should aim for each person to be as smart as they can be...contrasted with Trump's statement that he loves the uneducated.

Education as something more than just learning to perform a specific trade or skill well, as something that gives you enough general knowledge about the world to know when you're being lied to by those with power and authority. Adorno saw the right kind of education as a tool for preventing fascism. Born Yesterday has the same view of education.