POSTED RESPONSE TO AN ARTICLE BY TOBY HARNDEN IN THE TELEGRAPH
There are two basic kinds of stupidity, Mr Harnden.
There is the original sense of the word, meaning a lack of intelligence.
There is no reason to suppose that the frequency distribution of IQs in America is much different to that anywhere else.
So, in that sense, yes, Americans are not stupid.
But the word has at least one other basic meaning, and that pertains to the holding of beliefs or views which appear to thoughtful people to have been devised by those who are stupid because their full implications are destructive.
America, having spent countless billions of dollars on two pointless wars and having caused the world financial crunch through a lack of any financial discipline in their laws, the last a reflection of the "I want it all and I want it now" attitude which dominates the society, is, very much, in this second sense characterized fairly as stupid.
Millions of lives disrupted all over the Western world because Americans insisted on buying their three-car garage homes with no down payments and with the legal ability to walk away from the mortgage when the price fell after purchase.
An entire generation of people in Iraq having their lives ruined with no jobs and even still many with no clean water or dependable electricity. A million dead, two or three million refugees, and countless cripples – all to no good purpose? Now that must be regarded as extremely stupid.
And how will America pay for a great deal of this destruction and havoc? Certainly not by reaching into its pockets for additional taxes.
My God, taxes are un-American. No, America will exploit its unique position as having the world’s main reserve currency. It will inflate and default on its obligations to billions of people, just as it did after the equally pointless war in Vietnam, and just as it did in the financial crisis.
Now a man of extremely mediocre intelligence was responsible for a great deal of this, and today we have a woman, not even of mediocre intelligence, barking at podiums, being paid millions, and being talked about as a candidate for the presidency.
That surely reflects a kind of profound stupidity.
I am disappointed in Obama, although I never expected huge changes, but I am even more disappointed in America falling for the same tired rhetoric and giving no clear thought to the future.
Sarah Palin, the Tea Party – it’s all been done before. Its nothing but a big feel-good meeting by political evangelists moving their tent crusades across the countryside.
Never mind, buckling down to hard work and sacrifice. Never mind recognizing the needs of the future. “You can have it all, and have it now!” is the message embraced.
Stupid, surely, and on a grand scale.
