Ignorance. Again.

Nattering Naybob: Hello, The Red Ranger. A particular theme that I come back to time and time again, both in our little blog and in pre-Second Grade Minds emails that we have exchanged (on our companys’ time I might add), is ignorance of the general public and the decreasing level of intellectual curiosity among our populus. Oh, we generally know which are the hottest iPhone and Android apps, and we can decipher the complex mechanism of the latest smartphone we have purchased, and how to transfer pictures from said phone, via our TV, thru our MiFi device, and divide half of the gallery and send one half to our desktop computer in the attic and the other half of the gallery to our spouse’s smartphone (“You mean you don’t know how to do that? It’s simple….”), but when it comes to basic knowledge about civics, government, current affairs, or anything not related to amusement, electronic gadgets, or entertainment, most people don’t care anymore.

This article by CNBC’s Dan Mangan that appears NBCnews.com, shows how the general public’s ignorance of how the new features of Obamacare (the President himself calls it that), is costing us money and restricting us from taking advantage of some of the hard-earned victories of the Health Care battle.

Here is a key passage from the article

Making the job of selling the brand-new exchanges even more difficult is the public’s general ignorance about health insurance. A recent Journal of Health Economics study found that just 14 percent of people were able to correctly define all of four insurance terms that could affect plan-buying decisions: deductibles, copays, coinsurance and maximum out of pocket costs.

But the persistent ignorance about the Obamacare exchanges is striking given extensive news coverage of the health-reform law upheld by the Supreme Court last year as well as a presidential election, which was seen as a referendum on President Barack Obama’s championing of the legislation.

Now I know what you are going to say, Red Ranger: that the Health Care plan is too complicated and too confusing. That may have some credence, and I am sure that the President and his staff did not do the best job they could have in explaining its features. But still, is it not another example of how in this age of supposed unprecedented access to learning (especially via the internet), the general knowledge level, and maybe more importantly, the desire of citizens to learn about topics that affect them, is a sad commentary on the state of our society. Now wouldn’t you agree with that, The Red Ranger.

The Red Ranger: I do agree with you that the general public does not take the time to educate themselves in regard to many of the issues that impact them the most.  How else could you explain an inexperienced, buffoon like Obama being elected President.

However, I too am not all that well informed about how the exchanges work.  One of the key reasons being that I have insurance thru my employer and I was ensured by Obama during the debate regarding Obamacare that I would be able to keep this insurance so there really is no reason for me to spend time learning about the exchanges at this point since I should not need to avail myself to their services.

For something as large as Obamacare the government should have undertaken a media information campaign similar to all the infomercials that are on TV.  They should have created short 30 minute max, informational videos and then bought time on the airwaves and posted on YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, Facebook, Twitter and any other social media site that people are flocking to these days.  For an administration that is supposedly so media savvy they really haven’t done a good job here.

Nattering Naybob: With the exception of a couple of absurd sentences, I find some merit in your retort, especially the last paragraph. That is essentially the crux of my point, that all the social media and internet-based means of communication should be put to better use than simply showing videos of people walking out of restrooms with toilet paper stuck to their shoe. And you are right, some of the ingenuity and innovation that went into his two election victories, should have been employed in the public review portion of Project Obamacare.

London Olympics: Closing blog-emonies

The Red Ranger: Well the Olympics are over and I would have to give them a solid “A” rating.  I think NBC did a good job overall and I am not just saying that because the Nattering Naybob is a big fan of NBC.  Of course, there were some highs and lows but I rarely ever felt like I could not watch them any longer.  Unless of course gymnastics were involved, then the TV was programmed to automatically switch to the Emergency Broadcast System.  Although gymnastics did give us one of the best moments with McKalya Maroney, I was still not impressed.

Being a track & field fan I wish the US could have provided a stronger contingent in the 400m.  The 100m and 200m were a foregone conclusion that Bolt would win.  I was surprised to see some US contenders in some of the longer races.

One big question I have is what happened to boxing.  I can remember when I was younger that this was a high point of the Olympics.  Who could forget the Spinks brothers or Sugar Ray Leonard?  I don’t remember seeing any boxing coverage.  Not that I am a big boxing fan but is was always interesting to see an American fighting a Russia in the finals of the 165 lb. weight division.  I guess this just shows how far boxing has fallen.

I think that the US women overall were far more impressive than the men.  I chalk this up to Title IX passed in 1972 where women were given greater access to funding for athletics at the expense of the men.  This Olympics had the first generation of female athletes raised with the benefits of Title IX.

Nattering Naybob: I believe boxing was featured exclusively on CNBC, of all places. In between rounds, the analysts probably checked the status of their distressed equities bonds. My sense is that boxing is not as widely popular as it once was, it now reaches more of a niche audience. I used to be a big boxing fan in the 70’s and early 80’s. One of my most distinct boxing memories was when Jimmy Young almost beat Muhammed Ali in 1976, the general consensus after the fight was that Young was robbed. I remember by the 15th round, the crowd was chanting loudly “Jimmy Young, Jimmy Young!!”. Now when I watch boxing I get queasy. Even though the amateur boxers are well-protected about the head area, they are still trying to inflict physical harm on each other, and this is the sole purpose of the sport. I do not condemn anyone for watching, I just don’t understand how they can watch it.

But back to the Olympics. I did not see as much as I would have liked. I did not even get to see the Marathon, which is my favorite event, since it involves the same brand of endurance required to withstand the withering attacks of The Red Ranger in these blog postings. I recently saw a YouTube of Frank Shorter giving an address a couple years back in Chicago, his main theme was the prevalence of performance enhancing drugs in the Olympics. He claims now what he felt would be sour grapes back when it happened–that Waldemar Cierpinski of East Germany’s victory over Shorter in the 1976 Marathon in Montreal, was aided by performance enhancing drugs that were widespread among the East Germany athletes by that time. Cierpniski went on to win the 1980 Olympic Marathon as well, becoming the first (and most recent) man to win the Olympics Marathon back-to-back since the immortal Abebe Bikila did it in 1960 (barefoot) and 1964 (only a few weeks after an appendectomy). Ironically, Shorter would have held that distinction instead of Cierpinski, had the “running field” been level.

I am glad to see that you recognize the value of women getting equal access to participating in competitive sports, via Title IX. I guess government “intrusion” for the purpose of providing equal opportunity to traditionally under-served and overlooked groups who would ordinarily not have any means to obtain this equal opportunity, is not always a bad thing, is it Red Ranger?

I have linked to a YouTube video that features perhaps my all-time favorite Olympic memory. Enjoy.