Last week, Newsweek reported on a potential creativity crisis in America. We talk about our education system failing us with standardized tests. But standardized tests produce what a segment of our society wants; standardized graduates. Workers that are as interchangeable as the parts we used to manufacture. Entrenched interests in the form of corporate and governmental bureaucracies want to maintain the status quo. They want predictability. The Tea Baggers rally against big government, but miss the mark. The Boston Tea Party was a protest against the privileged position granted the East India Company by the crown. Read Thom Hartmann’s Unequal Protection for a good history of corporate entrenchment and the origin’s of the Boston Tea Party.

Entrenched interests in all forms stifle creativity. When empires collapse, we lose knowledge. The knowledge of how to build the pyramids embalming were lost in Egypt. The secret of cement was lost with the fall of Rome and the Dark Ages followed.  Thanks to the printing press less information is lost these days, but what risks are we taking by simply teaching our children to pass tests and consent to maintaining the status quo.

In a BBC News article today about the WikiLeaks Case there is a quote from an intelligence analyst that highlights the arrogance that permeates the field.

“Diplomatic cables don’t usually contain huge secrets but they do contain the unvarnished truth so in a sense they can be even more embarrassing than secrets.”

The idea that in an age of democracy that average citizens simply can’t handle the truth disturbs me. The mind set that the government needs to coddle its citizenry is a dangerous one. If we are never challenged with tough truths we can never develop in better citizens. Then again, we have warnings labels on hairdryers telling people not to use them while showering.