PLUTOCRACY REIGNS BEST OVER IDIOCY

ENFORCED STUPIDITY AS A TOOL OF DELIBERATE OPPRESSION.


Talking heads in the media complained that Obama did not tell just little anecdotes during his description of the problem of the health care system. Krugman opines that: "what are the talking heads really complaining about? It’s not what Obama didn’t do — it’s what he did, namely talk seriously about policy. How unpresidential of him!"

But there is a deeper problem. And that is that enforced stupidity has become an instrument of deliberate oppression.

Talking heads in the media and their public are like children: they want to be told bed time stories, so that their tired little minds can go to sleep.

They cannot handle culture and logic, they are not trained for it. All what appeals to them is what would appeal little children talking to each other, little anecdotes with a strong imaginary component.

As the Roman republic went down, culture and art went down, and they went down ahead of the military and economic capabilities. Rome became idiotic first, and then was progressively completely incapacitated.

Why did Rome become idiotic? Because the Roman republic had been kidnapped by the hyper rich "Senatorial" class. The hyper rich tolerated only dummies. During the transition to generalized idiocy, those who refused to cooperate were killed. The philosopher and Consul Cicero, saw the hands he was writing with chopped off, and nailed to the Senate door. And that is not an imaginary anecdote a la Reagan. It was meant to impress those too willing to keep on writing down smart, progressive thoughts.

Finally the plutocracy mixed up with the theocrats, and any knowledge or thinking was denounced as an insult to "God". This episode is called the Dark Ages. But it started with the rise of the stupid, paid to reign by the hyper rich.

This is exactly what is going in the media today. The venality and stupidity of the "debate" on health care is deliberate, it is made to encourage stupidity, it teaches stupidity. Wisely, Obama is gambling that he can defeat the stupidity head on, by rising the mental level. If he fails, the USA will keep on collapsing mentally, and the rest will follow. After all, the financial crisis, and the way it was solved (replenishing the perpetrators) is the sort of idiocy that history shows change the fate of civilization, and not for the best.
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Patrice Ayme
http://patriceayme.wordpress.com/
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(published in Krugman's blog comments, #10)
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Here is the full Krugman blog post.
July 23, 2009.

"What’s in a name?
OK, so let me get this straight. The initial reaction of the cable talking heads was that Obama blew it because he didn’t couch his argument in terms of personal anecdotes, Reagan-style. Then, when it was pointed out that he did, in fact, offer a number of specific examples of people harmed by our current system, the whine became that he didn’t give their names.

Now, it’s true that George Bush liked to give names of people who would benefit from his tax cuts; but Ronald Reagan’s anecdotes — about, say, the Cadillac-driving welfare queen — generally didn’t name names. And there was a good reason for that: with rare exceptions, Reagan’s folksy anecdotes weren’t true.

So what are the talking heads really complaining about? It’s not what Obama didn’t do — it’s what he did, namely talk seriously about policy. How unpresidential of him!"