Stupid is...
When I was in my early teens I read The Story of My Life, the autobiography of Clarence Darrow. It told the story of his more than fifty years as a corporate, labor, and criminal lawyer.
It included his most celebrated cases:
• establishing the legal right of a union to strike in the Woodworkers' Conspiracy Case;
• exposing, on behalf of the United Mine Workers, the shocking conditions in the mines and the widespread use of child labor;
• defending a teacher's right to present the Darwinian theory of evolution in the famous Scopes trial;
• fighting racial hatred in the anti-Negro Sweet and Scottsboro cases; and much more.
He lived his life on his principled terms, I admired that.
I hoped I would have a life of purpose and respect. As part of that hope, I hoped I would participate in an evolving world that would put the dinosaur bigoted views represented by many of his cases into the trash bin of history.
I believed we were evolving. I even thought having better frozen foods and Tang as by-products from our space program were examples of this evolution.
But by 1970 I was a long-haired, hippie freak, peace advocate marching against the War in Vietnam.
Then in December 1972 I enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. My writings from that period indicated that I believed I could only understand peace if I was willing to understand war.
It's clear that I was young, naive, and hopeful. I believed all learning was good learning. I had an in-bred sense of Justice which surfaced in boot camp when I defended another recruit against an abusive drill instructor and earned my own beating.
Then I became born again. Oh, not with Christianity - I'd already done my stint with the youthful, charismatic, evangelical Christian group The Way when I was trying to make a deal with Jesus for a certain young lady's virginity, he didn't deliver and neither did I, but that's another story.
My born again conversion was my commitment to my Oath of Enlistment:
I, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.
Most of us know elements of our revolutionary Declaration of Independence but fewer know what is really contained in the Constitution of the United States.
It has a Preamble, Seven Articles and 27th Amendments.
• It defines the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches of our government.
• The rights of States
• The authority to create debts
• The authority to administer oaths
• The authority to propose and ratify amendments
• And the ratification of the Constitution
Why does any of this matter?
Over the last several years we've created a created national dialogue about what is and isn't Constitutional.
How many of you have ever read the Constitution?
How many of you have heard the Constitution cited in a discussion?
In the movie Forrest Gump when Forrest, a man of limited intellect but a big heart, is called stupid, he replies "Momma always says, Stupid is as Stupid does."
What is stupid?
Stupidity is the refusal to explore information that goes against our own belief systems.
Albert Einstein said, "The Universe and stupidity are limited but I'm not so sure about stupidity."
Many in our national dialogue believe that there is only one answer to any question, and if you don't have that answer than you must be wrong and no other discussion is necessary. And that's our Constitutional Way.
Many of the individuals citing the Constitution would be well served to actually read it.
The lack of discussion, the unwillingness to discuss differences are the indicators of the growing stupidity in our nation and our national dialogue.
In addition, the infusion of religious dogma and beliefs into our national dialogue is encroaching on forcing rigid theocracy into our legislation.
Our country was founded on the separation of church and state, and principles which ask us to ensure the right of every individual to the unalienable rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
Our Constitution establishes the government
• to form a more perfect Union,
• establish Justice,
• insure Domestic Tranquility,
• provide for the common defence,
• promote the general Welfare,
• and secure the blessings of Liberty for ourselves and Posterity.
One of the definitions of wisdom is a wise outlook, a course or plan of action.
It seems the human race has had a convoluted approach to knowledge ever since the myth of Adam and Eve and the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden.
In the U.S. we no longer teach people to think or to obtain knowledge.
We tell them what to believe, no thinking necessary.
Most Americans are content with 30 or 60 second sound bite phrases as if they define an issue.
Jiminy Cricket told us, "You are a human animal; You are a very special breed; For you are the only animal; Who can think; Who can reason; Who can read."
But watching the degradation in our dialogue was making me feel frustrated and hopeless.
Then this past week I was speaking with a co-worker. He's in his late 20's, his degree is in computer sciences, he has his MBA, he's newly married, purchasing his first house.
For those who need labels we might even say he's a model citizen.
He and I were talking about the national dialogue when he made a statement that he knows he has strong beliefs about certain things,
• but he doesn't know what he'll believe five years from now so he wants to hear all sides of a discussion so he can learn what he doesn't know, and that may change his beliefs.
His response was the adrenal infusion of hope I needed.
I began to see that the changes I hope for may not be achieved by the generation that preceded mine, or my generation, or even the generation directly behind me,
...but it may be achieved by the generations who have yet to reach the positions of authority.
So once again I intend to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And that includes stupidity at home.
First, we all need to reinforce that this is a country of the People, by the People and for the People. The People are the power brokers,
• not the corporate entities,
• not Wall Street bankers or brokerage house,
• not Insurance Companies,
• not a single Corporation, or Oil, Gas, Coal or Electric Company
The people are the owners of this country, that is the message of our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution.
The people need to reclaim their country.
The second thing is for all of us to turn off our TVs and read.
• We are a human animal who can think, who can reason, who can read.
• The TV mania of sound bite statements, such as the 'Ground Zero Mosque' are corporate sponsored doublethink brainwashing statements designed to incite, shut down dialogue, and encourage the listeners to not have to think.
• They can state their opinions based on these doublethink sound bites without knowing the details behind the issues.
• And they can feel informed, but it's a false feeling, they are just being lazy and stupid.
The last thing to understand is that there is still a large segment of the United States that only receives right wing talk shows and information in their media markets.
The information is controlled by conglomerates who control the type and style of the information the way William Randolph Hearst controlled what was news with his media empire at the beginning of the 20th century.
Knowing that the information some segments of the population receives is carefully controlled may not make them stupid, it just may make them uninformed.
It is up to each of us to make the difference. We need to be the informers, in our own way.
However, if at the end of the day someone doesn't want to be informed there is nothing we can do to force that.
As Max Ehrman states in his poem Desiderata,
• "Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
• and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant, they too, have their story."
And Aristophanes told us: "Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, drunkenness sobered, but stupid lasts forever."
The choice to be stupid is a personal one. What do you choose?
It included his most celebrated cases:
• establishing the legal right of a union to strike in the Woodworkers' Conspiracy Case;
• exposing, on behalf of the United Mine Workers, the shocking conditions in the mines and the widespread use of child labor;
• defending a teacher's right to present the Darwinian theory of evolution in the famous Scopes trial;
• fighting racial hatred in the anti-Negro Sweet and Scottsboro cases; and much more.
He lived his life on his principled terms, I admired that.
I hoped I would have a life of purpose and respect. As part of that hope, I hoped I would participate in an evolving world that would put the dinosaur bigoted views represented by many of his cases into the trash bin of history.
I believed we were evolving. I even thought having better frozen foods and Tang as by-products from our space program were examples of this evolution.
But by 1970 I was a long-haired, hippie freak, peace advocate marching against the War in Vietnam.
Then in December 1972 I enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. My writings from that period indicated that I believed I could only understand peace if I was willing to understand war.
It's clear that I was young, naive, and hopeful. I believed all learning was good learning. I had an in-bred sense of Justice which surfaced in boot camp when I defended another recruit against an abusive drill instructor and earned my own beating.
Then I became born again. Oh, not with Christianity - I'd already done my stint with the youthful, charismatic, evangelical Christian group The Way when I was trying to make a deal with Jesus for a certain young lady's virginity, he didn't deliver and neither did I, but that's another story.
My born again conversion was my commitment to my Oath of Enlistment:
I, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.
Most of us know elements of our revolutionary Declaration of Independence but fewer know what is really contained in the Constitution of the United States.
It has a Preamble, Seven Articles and 27th Amendments.
• It defines the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches of our government.
• The rights of States
• The authority to create debts
• The authority to administer oaths
• The authority to propose and ratify amendments
• And the ratification of the Constitution
Why does any of this matter?
Over the last several years we've created a created national dialogue about what is and isn't Constitutional.
How many of you have ever read the Constitution?
How many of you have heard the Constitution cited in a discussion?
In the movie Forrest Gump when Forrest, a man of limited intellect but a big heart, is called stupid, he replies "Momma always says, Stupid is as Stupid does."
What is stupid?
Stupidity is the refusal to explore information that goes against our own belief systems.
Albert Einstein said, "The Universe and stupidity are limited but I'm not so sure about stupidity."
Many in our national dialogue believe that there is only one answer to any question, and if you don't have that answer than you must be wrong and no other discussion is necessary. And that's our Constitutional Way.
Many of the individuals citing the Constitution would be well served to actually read it.
The lack of discussion, the unwillingness to discuss differences are the indicators of the growing stupidity in our nation and our national dialogue.
In addition, the infusion of religious dogma and beliefs into our national dialogue is encroaching on forcing rigid theocracy into our legislation.
Our country was founded on the separation of church and state, and principles which ask us to ensure the right of every individual to the unalienable rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
Our Constitution establishes the government
• to form a more perfect Union,
• establish Justice,
• insure Domestic Tranquility,
• provide for the common defence,
• promote the general Welfare,
• and secure the blessings of Liberty for ourselves and Posterity.
One of the definitions of wisdom is a wise outlook, a course or plan of action.
It seems the human race has had a convoluted approach to knowledge ever since the myth of Adam and Eve and the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden.
In the U.S. we no longer teach people to think or to obtain knowledge.
We tell them what to believe, no thinking necessary.
Most Americans are content with 30 or 60 second sound bite phrases as if they define an issue.
Jiminy Cricket told us, "You are a human animal; You are a very special breed; For you are the only animal; Who can think; Who can reason; Who can read."
But watching the degradation in our dialogue was making me feel frustrated and hopeless.
Then this past week I was speaking with a co-worker. He's in his late 20's, his degree is in computer sciences, he has his MBA, he's newly married, purchasing his first house.
For those who need labels we might even say he's a model citizen.
He and I were talking about the national dialogue when he made a statement that he knows he has strong beliefs about certain things,
• but he doesn't know what he'll believe five years from now so he wants to hear all sides of a discussion so he can learn what he doesn't know, and that may change his beliefs.
His response was the adrenal infusion of hope I needed.
I began to see that the changes I hope for may not be achieved by the generation that preceded mine, or my generation, or even the generation directly behind me,
...but it may be achieved by the generations who have yet to reach the positions of authority.
So once again I intend to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And that includes stupidity at home.
First, we all need to reinforce that this is a country of the People, by the People and for the People. The People are the power brokers,
• not the corporate entities,
• not Wall Street bankers or brokerage house,
• not Insurance Companies,
• not a single Corporation, or Oil, Gas, Coal or Electric Company
The people are the owners of this country, that is the message of our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution.
The people need to reclaim their country.
The second thing is for all of us to turn off our TVs and read.
• We are a human animal who can think, who can reason, who can read.
• The TV mania of sound bite statements, such as the 'Ground Zero Mosque' are corporate sponsored doublethink brainwashing statements designed to incite, shut down dialogue, and encourage the listeners to not have to think.
• They can state their opinions based on these doublethink sound bites without knowing the details behind the issues.
• And they can feel informed, but it's a false feeling, they are just being lazy and stupid.
The last thing to understand is that there is still a large segment of the United States that only receives right wing talk shows and information in their media markets.
The information is controlled by conglomerates who control the type and style of the information the way William Randolph Hearst controlled what was news with his media empire at the beginning of the 20th century.
Knowing that the information some segments of the population receives is carefully controlled may not make them stupid, it just may make them uninformed.
It is up to each of us to make the difference. We need to be the informers, in our own way.
However, if at the end of the day someone doesn't want to be informed there is nothing we can do to force that.
As Max Ehrman states in his poem Desiderata,
• "Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
• and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant, they too, have their story."
And Aristophanes told us: "Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, drunkenness sobered, but stupid lasts forever."
The choice to be stupid is a personal one. What do you choose?
Labels: alchemy, Beck, Christianity, Fox, good vibrations radio, Hannity, KRXA, Mosque, O'Reilly, Palin, religion, Republican, Solarzar
posted by Solarzar at 11:27 PM
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