# Stupidity Has Changed the World



## TheDeuce

As a young man I was taught a noble concept, that ingenuity, perseverance and integrity could change the world.  Now I've begun to have a different perception of the world around me.  I often feel that I'm surrounded...surrounded by people who are stupid (for lack of a better term).  Now I'm sure that many before have shared this haunting notion, but what scares me as I watch people scramble over eachother to catch a glimpse of Paris Hilton (as she is released from jail) is this...stupid people are changing the world as we know it.  No longer revered are the great thinkers of this modern age, the scientists, poets, and artists (unless you consider Brittney Spears to be an artist).  When you think about the fact that more people know who Public Enemy front man Flavor Flav is (due to the popularity of Flavor of Love) than know at least a few of our presidential candidates in this upcoming election, maybe you reach the same concusion.  It must be the seventh sign of the apocalypse.

Now, we must ask ourselves...what exactly is stupid?  Well in dictionary terms stupid is defined as _lacking ordinary quickness and keenness of mind; dull _or _characterized by or proceeding from mental dullness; foolish, senseless.  _And I believe that Merriam Webster would agree...there appears to be an epidemic of mental dullness in this new millenium, a global crisis if you will.  Now, granted, stupid is a pretty widely used term.  I suppose that many would make the argument that it is indeed ignorance, and not stupidity that is at fault for the idiocy we face on a daily basis on television and in our every day lives.  They may be right, but stupid just feels better.  So for the purposes of this idea of mine we'll just stick with it.

Better equipped now in the knowledge of what stupid is, you might ask...where could I find common examples of stupidity?  Well, believe it or not folks, stupidity surrounds you and affects you every day.  The next time you find yourself battling with the child proof (and quite adult proof) cap on a bottle of aspirin you can thank the countless stupid parents who didn't see fit to place their medications in a place their children could not reach or find.  Or perhaps when you notice that your coffee cup from McDonalds reads "Caution, Contents are HOT" you may ponder just how foolish one would have to be to assume for even a moment that a fresh cup of joe should be lukewarm, or even cold for that matter.  But alas, there are apparently enough people who do not understand the concept of hot coffee that it necessitates a warning label.  Truthfully, many of these exceedingly retarded saftey precautions are more directly related to liability issues.  A prime example being the thousands of smokers who believe (stupidly, of course) that they should be paid millions of dollars for thier pain, suffering, and candy corn like teeth.  Millions of dollars because they could not possibly be expected to have the basic insight to the fact that inhaling smoke of any kind into your lungs can not in any way be healthy.  An Oregon man's family was recently awarded 81 million dollars for his forty plus years of smoking Marlbros and susequent death from lung cancer.  So, frighteningly enough...it looks like we have stupid judges too.

Stupidity has not only left it's mark on the things many might find inane and inconsequential, it has worked it's way into the highest levels of government.  The poster child for governmental stupidity is (of course) our bumbling fool of a president.  Any man who believes that his constant unwillingness to yield to a higher logic (in liue of his own failing policies) is not only just, but also supported by God, Jesus and his 12 apostles must be branded as being undeniably and unflinchingly stupid.  In the words of F. Scott Fitzgerald "The test of first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function".  And yet we cannot let Mr. Bush take full responsibility for the woes of a nation.  This is, after all, a country that turned out in greater numbers (63 million) to vote for the middle aged crooner known as Taylor Hicks to win American Idol than ever voted for _any_ American president.  

So, what can be done to slay this beast we call stupidity?  Unfortunately, not a whole lot in immediate terms.  But I have grown quite fond of a notion that comedian George Carlin once dubbed "passive eugenics".  For those who don't know, eugenics was a movement in the early 1900's that proposed what was said to be the self direction of human evolution.  What this meant (in its action) was the sterilization of anyone whom the government deemed unfit for reproduction (deaf, blind, mentally handicapped, etc.).  Thousands of people in the United States and hundreds of thousands more were sterilized well into the 1920's.  Now, this was of course a brutal tactic that many felt was inherently immoral, and I would never suggest such a course of action.  Passive eugenics, however, is a much simpler and less intrusive method of moving the human race along in a better direction.  It simply advocates survival of the fittest, those whom aren't intelligent enough to place stock in their own survival (like smokers) simply do not survive.  And how can this be accomplished?  Well, to put it clearly...stop saving the stupid people from themselves.  Get rid of helmet and seatbelt laws, the warning labels on every product we buy, and the over the top safety precautions we have become accustomed to in this country and most likely around the world.  Let the fools drown, drink bleach, electrocute themselves, or drive their motorcyles into walls helmet-less...and the world will thank them for it.  As Carlin put it "The kid who swallows the most marbles doesn't get to grow up and have kids of his own".  I believe that as the accident rates in this country would increase, so would the numbers of stupid people decrease.  According to the law of passive eugenics, George Bush Jr. should have choked on a Lego as a child...but I guess that lady luck was on his side.


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## mammamaia

> *Stupidity Has Changed the World *


 
no, stupidity has _made_ the world!


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## Neva_Phillips

Very astute, though I think, Eugenics would have prevented The Bush family from EVER existing. Stupidity like that has to be genetic.


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## Fossy

Very, very well said, and extremely well written.

Just the other day, my hubby, dying from a cold, tried desparately to undo the cap of a bottle of cough mixture; cursing the stupid parents, who as you said, are/were too lazy to put the bottle out of their childs reach.

Now if we could just get the judges to agree with you, then theoretically, we should breed out stupidity.


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## Cipher2

It's a slippery slope that I see getting worse all of the time.

Legislation for stupidity exacerbates the effect because when all dangers are taken away you can switch off without worrying. If I know I live in a potentially dangerous environment I will be alert and if I slip I will suffer for it which will prevent me from doing it again. If people feel too protected they start acting irresponsibly.

But I think some examples you gave are wrong, like child proof tops. Since the child would suffer and not the parent for the parent's stupidity and children need to be protected anyway. And it may not even be the parent who has left it there, like in a shop.

I used to think that the (developed) world had moved from being religous and superstitious to being one of science and reason and logic, but it is not quite true.

The same stupidity that was behind the old ideas just shows itself in a modern form.


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## Jiri

*on stupidity*

Hi,

Good article. Some of the things we do today are based on past actions of negligent adults.

Jiri-


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## Brinsley

I found myself smiling and nodding at a lot of the points you made. 

Some people are simply not masters of the obvious. IE: Having to explained that coffee is typically served hot. (Though I believe that McDonalds was legaly mandated to print that on thier cups after a lawsuit where a customer held hot McDonalds coffee between thier thighs while driving, and sure enough scalded thier privates when the car came to a screeching stop. Not sure of the exact facts, but I'm sure you get the drift.:wink

I'd be interested in hearing two more things from you:

1: Your motivation to write this. Obviously you're sick of stupid people. But what was it that pushed you over the edge that you felt you needed to take pen to paper? Was it one person in particular? Or a bombardment of damn fools so wretched you actually considered locking yourself in your home for days on end like it was Shawn of the Dead outside?

2: I thought the solution presented by Carlin to actually be a bit distrubing. Not sure why though, can't put my finger on it. Granted, I'm sure it was meant tounge in cheek, but it gave me the skivees none the less. Maybe more focus on having stupid people weed them selves out, and less on Carlin. It just seemed cruel in the context of the factual examples that you listed out.

Just my two cents. 

I really did enjoy it. Maybe you can post a blog about stupid people of the week and give them some stupid award. I'd subscribe to that puppy in a heart beat.

As Carlos Mencia says..."Dee dee dee!"


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