stupid war

The war on intelligence. Kinda has a nice ring to it.


Inevitably, though, an unwinnable "war." Just like the war on drugs, the war on poverty, and more recently, the war on the middle class. What exactly does that mean anyways? War on the middle class. Humph. We brought it on ourselves and it pisses me off.

So what does that have to do with intelligence? It is true that we Americans, as a society, have really become very accepting of mediocrity. Our food is bland, our music is lifeless and dull, the movies that Hollywood mostly puts out suck, and people don't even read anymore, so forget about books. Mcdonald's, Starbucks, American Idol, Will Ferrell (get another character to play- please!). We love it. We pay out the ass for all this crap, knowing that it's crap. We don't need any of this crap but darn it, Wilbur, we sure did get a good deal.

Then there's social norms that aren't very normal to me. Kids playing soccer (soccer?) and they don't keep score. We all win. Hooray. We're winners. Schools don't give grades because you might hurt some kid's feelings. Poor bastard. There's not one valedictorian in high schools. There's thirty seven. Tests are too hard. Homework is too hard. Timmy needs time-out time all the way to senior year, so let's just be nice. Give me a break.

So we think that it's ok not to excel. You don't have to rise above because we're all nice and polite for the most part, so you'll be ok.

We accept that in our politics as well. Uncle George got elected by being the guy you'd want to go and have a beer with. Mccain is pretty manly too. What a pal. Hillary is, well, white. So for the members of the left who go Dem, she's safe. But Barry (I'm biased- you knew) gets lambasted for being Harvard-educated. Too uppity. Too many big words. Wow. I mean, wow! Really? Of all the choices you have, he's the one to be questioned? Hill has $103 mil in the bank in the last 7 years. She's down with the people? Maybe the guy you want to have a beer with?

We like our stuff, and we like our gadgets. We like good deals from Mexico and China (although we don't really like THEM), and who got eliminated last night anyways? So its easy for us to have become like this. We now let a lot of things happen around us and to us that sanitize us more and more each day. All the stores, bars, malls, condo buildings, haircuts, they all are starting to look the same. You've got a machine that pays your tolls (maybe, anyways), and a camera that takes your picture on the highway or at the corner of Belmont and Sheffield. We've got ear buds in and ipods on and we shut it all out. Politely.

I don't think its very smart.

Mike says: "People really need to vote and its no joke."