The Curse of Smart People (and what to do about it)

I’ll tell you what’s ruining America: Smart people. They’re what’s causing all our problems. Just think for a minute. Well, OK, “think” is a little much. Turn on your hate juices and let your guts churn for a minute or two here. Who dreamed up this global warming stuff? Right. Smart people. Goddam scientists and whatnot. There would be no global warming if it weren’t for those busybody smart people.

And the health care mess. That’s totally the fault of the smart people. I mean, if all those smart people hadn’t gotten involved, there wouldn’t be any health care to speak of in the first place, let alone a government trying to shove it down our throats. You cut yourself, you chew some leaves and paste over the cut, right? Don’t need some complicated government program for that.

Teaching evolution? Special rights for homosexuals? Separation of Church and State? Right. Smart people again. You’re starting to get the picture, aren’t you?

Here are the steps you can take to help fight smart people.

First, home school your kids. In addition, if you use the Bible as your only textbook, you can pretty much guarantee your kids will never turn into Smart People.

Second, try to help other people avoid turning their kids into Smart People. Always vote against school referendums, and vote for the most conservative candidates for the local school board.

Third, always remember that rich people and corporations are your friends. They, too, want to keep the government from interfering in your life and trying to better your conditions. That is one reason why private schools are best for all children: They are run by corporations, and they are specially designed to prevent their students from turning into Smart People.

Actually they are always among the first targets of repressive governments.

very dangerous for the right in any country.

mark

and educated people as a contagion - and we know how that ended in Laos and Vietnam.

This is the perennial battle between enlightenment and wilfull ignorance, and it is a pendulum that has swumg relentlessly throughout history. It is a little unnerving in the 21st century to see these country bumpkins and broke-brained oafs think that their views should be ascendant and representative of America.

when the class went on a field trip to a local library and we were allowed to get library cards (permission slips from our parents of course) and I remember the very first book I ever checked out of the library was "Harry The Dirty Dog"


OMG.

I felt like I had won a billion dollars.

From there it was a short trip to checking out two, three, books at a time.

When I grew up I would often check out six or seven or eight at a time.

Now I buy them second hand. If I couldn't read, I think I would go insane.


It's a passion I inherited from my father, and I can't fathom anyone not wanting/liking to read.

Yes...I suppose someone like myself dangerous to the "right" in this country as well...

:scared:

Hah, funny, that anyone would dislike this :shrug:

Anyway, I liked it, and isn't that all that really matters? :P


Bet you'd like the book, "Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free" by Charles P. Pierce

it's historical, it's topical, it's VERY smart (eeek!), and it's a rant almost as good as yours! ;)

woolly equations scribbled on chalkboards in fluffy trailer-labs propped up on cinder blocks next to land-fills in Georgia.

!!

I ordered that Pierce book.

You'll love it! GAR-oan-TEED!

:hi:



ya gotta tell me how you like it. otay?

you speak of?

Avail yourself of a copy! Forthwith!

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=idiot+america&x=0&y=0

and the MP3 instant download music....

but I better shut up, I don't want to wake the sleeping giant of addiction......

shucks!

the unwashed masses. The extra power grabs and corporate controls are also listed by evil geniuses within these flawed bills.

Need I name a few *smart people?*

Dick Cheney
Bill Kristol
Newt Gingrich

How about those right-wing think tanks and national M$M sources that are doing their best to increase the numbers within a large and compliant UNDERCLASS?

The Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Cato Institute, the Howard Pew Freedom Trust, the Business Roundtable, and later, entities like Fox News and conservative talk radio, succeeded in redefining political discourse in America in favor of the conservative agenda. The alliance with religious fundamentalists -- who were left out of the progressive New Deal-Great Society coalition -- beginning with Jerry Falwell and Pat Robinson, ensured a grassroots base for corporate power and an uncritical sympathy for right-wing Israeli governments. At the same time, southern voters (many of then fundamentalists) alienated by the civil rights commitments of the old Democratic party, moved into the Republican Party, a development heralded by Nixon's southern electoral strategy.

http://www.counterpunch.org/kuzminski08182004.html

Yes, I'm aware of the phenomena of Anti-intellectualism by the right wing. However, not all the *smart people* who make our legislation are both intellectuals and advocate for a robust middle class. Many ultra-rich intellectuals believe the chattering classes are too ignorant to allow "the people" to rule themselves.

I fear that's where we are now: A right-wing duopoly. What is likely is the continued consolidation of the right-wing duopoly, most evident in the erosion of civil liberties and the war on terrorism.

What this democratic republic now desperately needs are *smart people* SERVING in government who value the nurturing and maintenance of a robust middle class. I hope and pray that our present political leadership in D.C. embraces the foregoing goal. How we, as a nation, are going to maintain a robust middle class without a strong manufacturing base ... is a mystery?

:thumbsup:

the "duopoly" point...yesssss, I see what you mean, absolutely!

it's a kind of disunified union--the intellectual oligarchs, who loathe the peasants, and their minions, the GUT, a term I got from the Pierce book, describing that idiot segment of the population that shuns the frontal cortex and makes decisions based on their gut feelings, which the oligarchs manipulate superbly. Who, in turn, hate the oligarchic "elites", which they mistakenly identify as "liberals" -- just as the PR arm of the oligarch party projects.

wrong.

It "balanced out" my literary, artistic, and musical interests.
And made it much easier to negotiate playground politics.

I'm only a person of average IQ, but I'm intellectually curious and the only democrat (much less liberal) in my right wing libertarian extended family. I was either going surrender peacefully as I was absorbed into the GOP Borg or I would have to fight and resist the assimilation. :silly:

My best playground line was at a family reunion when my older brother bragged that Bill O'Reilly was 6'5" tall. I immediately quipped, "I didn't know that they could stack sh*t that high."

Our beloved democratic *smart people* should not forsake their like-minded brethren in the trenches. ;)

by your posts so far on this thread you have irretrievably unmasked yourself as one of those Smart People.

That was a beautiful comeback on O'Reilly, BTW.

But I mostly wanted to take note of your longer post above. Your analysis is exactly correct imho. Regardless of your academic attainments or measured IQ, your perceptiveness and insight are very apparent.

We're all in the trenches.

I appreciate your thoughtful comments.
I'm too busy blushing to type on ... I'm so not worthy. :blush:

somebody owes me a new keyboard!
:spray:

(In spite of my brilliance, I guess I'm not smart enough to not drink while reading DU).

These people still think "smart" means unwilling/unable to defend yourself and they love to crow about killing us all.
Won't be as easy as they think.

mark

the intellectuals will be targeted first, even in this country.

USA1 U>S A!; U.s.a!!

A daily treatment of at least two hours of Rush Limbaugh will help you avoid becoming a Smart Person, particularly if you add at least a weekly dose of Glenn Beck.

You must always be on guard against being infected by Smart thinking.

Here is a quick little test you can take to keep tabs on yourself. Just circle the number from 1 to 5 depending on how much you agree or disagree:

1) Fox News is fair and balanced. Disagree..1..2..3..4..5..Agree
2) God wants Sarah Palin to be President. Disagree..1..2..3..4..5..Agree
3) In the old days, people rode dinosaurs. Disagree..1..2..3..4..5..Agree

Add up the numbers you circled. Any score less than 12 means that you are in danger of catching Smartness and need to listen to Gordon Liddy in addition to Rush. If your score gets as low as 10, you should immediately contact your sponsor in the Tea Party and arrange to receive an immediate infusion of irrational rage.

No Shit!!!

now quit getting people upset....

:toast:

I taught at Morehead State U. in Eastern KY.

I literally had a student who was brought up and learned to read and write at home using only the KJV Bible and the collected works of Shakespeare.

He was also a self-taught artist with works in the National Gallery. A really good artist and a really smart guy.

The "only educate them with a Bible" will cut out the smart ones, but not the really smart ones.

BTW: he was also a Yeller Dog Dem.


Like I said: Really Smart.

The Bard has magical curative properties when applied to ignorance. And likely whoever had Shakespeare in their home wasn't a fundie, at least one of the unthinking variety, to begin with.

do so because their kids are VERY SMART and the traditional classroom just "doesn't work" for them.

Homeschooling - it's not just for fundy nutjobs!

There are many legitimate reasons for homeschooling a child, and it can be done very well if people are willing to do it properly. My point was about those who homeschool in order to keep their children from exposure to religious or political diversity.

does make sense.

If you lived in Texas, for example, I'ma thinking homeschooling is a VERY good option!!



(Sorry if it seemed like I was focusing on that "one comment", but imo, one must be vigilant against negative "memes". Let them go and next thing you know, they're freakin' gospel!!)

There are many legitimate reasons for homeschooling a child, and it can be done very well if people are willing to do it properly. My point was about those who homeschool in order to keep their children from exposure to religious or political diversity.

I'm one of those "gifted"types.....well to the asshole ignorant pigs I'm dooomed..eh? Cursed by birth by intelligence, double cursed because I'm curious,triple because I'm creative, quadruple cursed because I do not recognize any so called 'authority',hell-bound because I'm too queer ,too deep and think too much,care too much, to ever live among these ass hats long enough being stuck in vapid babbling bullying cluster-fucks of stupid ..to become like them.I'd run away as fast as I could get away.The stupid and callous hurt people like me.

ends up focusing on people like you? Tough break for you, but I knew there had to be a downside to all this stupidity somewhere.

the good and evil fruits from that tree of knowledge taste exactly the same,and they just get more stupid and never realize their selfish ignorance begets more evil and suffering in this world than any wisdom from a smart person ever could do.

His is a sarcastic ironic look at the anti-intellectual
streak that arose in middle America way back and still
runs its ugly hateful course.

Both are full of sh!t!