Stupid
is a constant I have accepted living around. Like tinnitus or a chronic neck
problem, I try to ignore it as best I can but sometimes it gets so bad I just
need to give it voice. This is one of those times.
I am
tired of stupid being the norm, of the sort of willful ignorance, the
suspension of logic, the ignoring of concrete data, the suspension of common
sense that has led to something as comical as Donald Trump running for the
presidency of the United States of America becoming reality.
When
did rational thinking become something decried and suspected, when did
intelligence become a weapon, especially when coupled with learning? When did
talking really loud and using blanketing untruths become the best way to
conduct oneself?
When
did we become so stupid?
I was
quite moved by a commencement speech I recently saw President Obama give. In
it, a president whose greatest failings have always been intelligence and
compassion when leading a country and world growing short on either expressed
his alarm at this growing acceptance of not knowing, embracing ignorance,
firing blind, glorifying the stupid.
Misinformation?
Try no information. People want to
maintain—no, celebrate—their right to
stick their fingers in their ears, eyes pressed tight, heads buried deeply in
the sand, while also spouting drivel based on gut feelings or interpretation of
Facebook memes, and making decisions that can affect families, constituencies,
nations, the world.
Science
and medicine are doubted. Street-vendor solutions see people killing their
children because they mistrust advancements in modern medicine but willingly
run to the natural healings of carnival hawkers. Climate and pollution concerns
are divided by a partisan wall and denying fact, denying evidence as completely
biased allows one to ignore anything one does not already agree with. Evidence
is valued for its alignment with our own preconceptions, rather than knowledge
being adjusted to reflect evidence.
Why?
Why be so willfully dumb? Why is the most powerful man on the planet needing to
remind us of our cultural and societal obligations for fear of being replaced
by the political equivalent of a three-year-old having a tantrum? That is,
Obama fears that his successor could be a maniacal buffoon who people—willfully
stupid people—are embracing because he “tells it like it is.” Meaning he says
whatever strikes him as appropriate and incendiary at the moment, and because
he doesn’t trouble himself with silly things like research and facts he is applauded. He is celebrated for being
stupid.
I
cannot tolerate it. I’m not the smartest man most people know, not an intellect
when people first think of one. But I am starting to feel like an elitist
because I consider issues before shooting my mouth off about them. This leaves
me a step behind because one thing stupid is, it’s fast. Just check Facebook
and Twitter.
In a
time we have access to the entire collection of human knowledge, I feel like
the few of us who will not willingly be stupid, the wave of ignorance threatens
to overwhelm us. The worry is, the solution appears to be to avoid all of this
dumb rather than sift through it logically. Ignorance as the solution to
over-stimulation by idiocy.
But I
can’t quit. That’s be stupid.
