by L G Hoel

Created on: January 22, 2012   Last Updated: May 27, 2012

What is a no-brainer? A no-brainer is something that requires little or no thinking. That must include education in many young people's minds today. The country that has been "dumbing down" for more than a generation. High schools have become high-tech institutions where our children are supposed to get an education. They have failed miserably by graduating some students who are nearly illiterate. The nation's school system has shown everyone that pouring more money into education with computers has not worked. It must be a no-brainer that something is lacking with the students, the teaching staff, the curriculum, or all of the above. The dumbing down of America raises serious questions about the future of the country. Maybe we have become so lazy we are turning ourselves into no-brainers.

The high-tech world today produces electronic devices that will do your thinking for you. The demand for devices that require minimum brain use has created a revolution in the electronic industry. Gadgets are being mass-produced at prices nearly everyone can afford. The no-brainer revolution is finding millions of brains in neutral all over the world.

We have Republican and Democratic law makers in Washington D.C. We elected them to serve all of us. They have brought a new meaning to the term gridlock, as they refuse to work together. Each one has his or her brain set on one thing: it is going to be my way or no way. What if they would actually work together for the good of the country? That should be a no-brainer, but they just don’t get it.

When the United States was preparing to go to war in Iraq, CIA Director George Tenet assured President Bush that Iraq had WMD. He said, "The case for weapons of mass destruction was a slam-dunk." He could have used the term no-brainer, but it was neither one.

Human beings seem to have evolved to a point where it is easier to just kick back and relax when it comes to physical or mental exercise. We choose to let machines control our daily lives by having them do everything for us. The easy way is becoming the only way. That must be a no-brainer too. It is a real no-brainer that computer hackers will have the power to wage cyber wars in the future. They will be able to bring the most powerful governments to their knees. They can hack into military computers, disrupt power grids, throw the economy into turmoil, and much more. We live in a world of brains and no-brainers. 

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