I Cogitate
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Life for dummies, the 28 per centers
Is there a book, say titled "Life For Dummies" available?
That is, dumb being defined as lacking intelligence or good judgment.
Because, of those belonging in such a category, well, they certainly are around and about.
Now don't label me as an elitist -- someone who believes in rule by an elite group -- as my lacking the necessary money, power, prestige, brainwaves or, most importantly, desire, to lurch into such a category is my saving grace.
It's just that there are really some embarrassing people [embarrassing to the genus homo sapiens] living what we all call life. It's understandable -- well maybe not -- how some of the aforementioned mastered bipedalism but boy do they flop like the Congress facing George Bush when it comes to possessing or displaying a so-called highly developed brain capable of abstract reasoning, language, and introspection -- supposedly lines of demarcation from apes.
I know, I know, some will castigate me for confusing actual brain power with cultural intelligence but a line must be drawn somewhere and those who have no desire to engage the cranium and its tremendous capability beyond what they can see, touch, eat, taste, smell, excrete, fuck or be told [emphasis on the latter] are downright scary.
Call them the nominal sapiens -- half full or half empty, whatever the case may be even on a good day. If that doesn't work for you, call them the ones operating each day on the level of human capacity similar to what Baghdad residents receive in electricity nowadays, say 20% of normal.
What is unforgiveable is that for many it is a choice. Truth be told is not a phrase that registers with such as they rely on their 'masters' to delineate what to say, think, feel, watch, read, but worst of all, vote.
Here's an August 24 recent Huffington Post column by Stephen Collins titled "What do George Bush and Andrew Lloyd Webber Have In Common?" that drives home my point.
However, there is an exception to take with Collins' employment of the word 'us' in the last line quoted below. "We're not worthy" is a memorable line direct from "Wayne's World" but, in the case of the brainiacs not! who are the subject of this entry, it's 'they are not worthy.'
Here's the best excerpt from Collins' column:
"...The latest Deal or No Deal clone is called Power of 10, and I caught it the other night.Go here for the complete column.
If you haven't seen it, contestants guess the outcomes of national polls. The question I tuned in on was, "What percentage of Americans think that Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote A Midsummer Night's Dream?
English majoring dies hard - I had to know the answer.
A comely Alabama blonde was the contestant. Her husband, coaching from the sidelines, admitted he didn't know who Andrew Lloyd Webber is. (Hey, they're from Alabama, they're apparently straight, and she said she'd never been to a Broadway show. Why should either of them know who wrote Cats?)
The answer? The percentage of Americans who think that Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote A Midsummer Night's Dream? (insert drum roll).....28 percent.
The same percentage of Americans who approve of Bush don't know who wrote A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Wait, I thought -- is there...a connection?
Not really. But...28 percent is pretty amazing -- in both cases. How can so many of us be so clueless about...you know...that English playwright guy?
And how can so many of us still approve of Bush?"
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