The Sun Sets in the West: A relative of mine sent me an editorial by the great opinion writer for the NYTimes, Maureen Dowd. The article she wrote entitled “Egg Head and Blockheads” (link below) hit the essence of the American know-nothing mentality on the head. The stupidity of the right wingnut voting public runs deep into their creationist DNA and is welcomed.
She wondered why so many candidates appear to be so stupid and why that has become such a laudatory quality so much so that it is required in the GOP to get one the presidential nomination and, indeed, vital to be elected to the presidency.
The general description of a large part the American electorate – especially certain Republican Party candidates such as Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann -- as staggeringly dumb and worse actually proud of that adjectival description is heartbreaking. Instead of running away from dumb and dumber they gravitate towards it and Rick Perry is proud of all the “D and Fs” he racked up in his educational experience even boasting about getting a “C” in gym!!
Dowd satirizes this as only she can and tells of her crush on William F. Buckley, Jr., the famous American conservative of the preceding era. Whether one agreed with Buckley, or not, ONE could NOT deny his fundamental brilliance and intellectual depth. He had a penchant for the exquisite expressiveness of the English language.
But it is when she characterized Buckley as possessing a “sesquipedalian facility” that she captured my heart. I admit that I had to look that word up. The NYT defines it as “given to or characterized by the use of long words.” What a FABULOUS arrow I can now put in my quiver of verbiage. I LOVE Maureen Dowd’s writing and that is exactly why.
The woman's knowledge knows no boundaries as she weaves into her narratives quotes from Shakespeare to Zang Grey. She is EXACTLY correct in her description of a large part of American cerebral ineptitude. I truly believe an IGNORANT and stupid electorate does, indeed, elect know-nothing leaders. If one were running for dog catcher that would be quite fine but running for and achieving the presidency while proud of being stupid gets people killed. I loved William F. Buckley for the very same reason that Maureen Dowd does. One needed a dictionary when one listened to him speak. Good, I grabbed one.
As another relative of mine said “We are suckers for smart.” I agree. There is NOTHING I value more than intellect and nothing I would loathe more than my epitaph to be that I was not too bright! Shame on this country. It is slowly going down the intellectual sewer and proud of the fact that it is doing so. Evolution, though, will run its course.
The ability and willingness for man to use his rational brain, which distinguishes him from other mammals, gives him the competitive advantage. In 100 years I bet the reality of superior intellect and scientific veracity will have won the day but it will be China rising as the sun sets on the old, intellectually, rationally and scientifically inferior American empire.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/opinion/sunday/dowd-egghead-and-blockheads.html?emc=eta1
