The Age of Stupidity

What will historians say of this era in which we live? What will our heirs say of us? Assuming that humanity will survive another one hundred years, what will be said of the years between 2000 and, just for the sake of argument, 2009? What will they think when they open up rusty tins of VHS videotape containing, raw, unedited, footage of a typical day's programing on, say, New York's W-PIX? Or E? Or MTV? Or FOX News? What might they discern from the fact that the network we all should have been watching, C-SPAN, actually had the lowest ratings? We're going to look like a nation of assholes.

Are you ready for the dirty little secret? We are a nation of assholes!

I'm just old enough to remember the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite and the NBC Nightly News with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley. Can you even imagine any of them giving a half/second to Paris Hilton or Brad and what's-her-name or Tom Cruise's baby? Is it a coincidence that the American people were better informed in that bygone era? Is it just a happy accident of history that our parent's generation had a better grasp on affairs of state than ours? If you don't think that they were better informed, I've got a little assignment for you: Go out and purchase yourselves copies of the Kennedy/Nixon debates of 1960 and the Bush/Gore debates of 2000. Videotapes of both series of programs may be obtained through the American Broadcasting Company.

Say what you want about Jack Kennedy and Dick Nixon, both men were possessed of a keen intellect and a strong opinion as to American goals - even though they differed considerably as to the means to achieve the ends. During their televised debates of forty-six years ago next month, both of them, for all of their disingenuousness - and there was a lot of that, politics being what it is - at the very least attempted to "talk up" to their audience. When either of them addressed the TV cameras, you got the definite impression that they believed the average viewer had somewhat of a tangible intellect.

And as for Bush and Gore? Well, let's just say that I labeled that particular videotape, "Dumb and Dumber: The Sequel". And why wouldn't I? They were playing before an atrociously dumbed down American public. In 1960, the candidacy of George W. Bush would have been as pathetic as that of a village idiot, who is the son of the richest man in town, trying to run for mayor. No one would have taken him seriously. He wouldn't have even made it to the primaries!

When the 2000 debates were finally analyzed, it was generally acknowledged that, while Al Gore easily won all three, the public liked George W. Bush better. Gore, the electorate seemed to be saying, came off as a "know it all" policy wonk, whereas Bush seemed like "a regular guy", the kind of person that most people, men in particular, would like to sit down and have a beer with.

Huh?

Here where I live in Goshen, NY, there used to be a bar called The Orange Inn. It's still there but recently, as a result of a change of ownership, it has gone somewhat "trendy" and has lost all of its much lamented saloon atmosphere. It's now the type of place where one might walk into and order a white wine spritzer instead of a bottle of Bud. Back in its salad days, when I was still drinking, there were a number of regulars who used to throw back serious amounts of brew. As much as I liked - even loved - most of those characters, I can't, in my wildest dreams, imagine handing over the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to any one of them. And yet sending any one of them to the White House would have made at least as much sense (and in a few cases much more sense) than what we eventually did by sending a half-witted, murderous little thug like George W. Bush . It's as if a significant minority (although not most) of the American people were saying, "Al Gore knows too much. But this guy, Bush, from Texas is as incurious and as ill-informed as I am. He's got my vote!

Are you able to detect just a smidgen of pathos here? Ah! I thought as much!

George W. Bush's very real lack of intellectual depth would be disturbing enough if he were your average County Highway Commissioner. That he is sitting at the pinnacle of world power should give every thinking person pause. To paraphrase Bob Herbert in a recent New York Times column, anyone who still thinks that sending this guy to Washington was a good idea is either not reading the newspapers or is in need of therapy. Good one, Bob! Either that or they're taking Stupid Pills.

As the bumper sticker on my truck says, "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention".

Pray for peace.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

tomdegan@frontiernet.net