Thursday, June 09, 2005

A Meme Grows Hair

A month or so ago, I began to grope my way toward the Dumb-Fuck Theory of History, a sort of variation on the Great-Man Theory but in a sorta, kinda, opposite way.

Lance Mannion got the same idea at about the same time, and wrote a great post about it.

Now we've got one Naman Crowe, in the op-ed pages of the Chattanoogan, with a stemwinder of a rant on the topic. I don't know who he is, but I'd like to buy him a beer, wind him up and watch him go.
We are born much more stupid than intelligent. And we are born into a world that is much more stupid than intelligent. Our environment - from our family and playmates, to our churches and schools, the things we read and the things we see and hear on our TVs, to the workplace, the marketplace and all other places where people congregate and socialize – is like a sea of stupidity soaking into our brains without letup, leaving minds by the countless millions as dead as drowned rats way before the individuals are literally and physically dead.
Although Frank Zappa said it more pithily:
Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, a refreshing idea.

I well remember a Learned Professor of Psychosomething, as I ranted about something stupid someone stupid had done, stopping me in my tracks.

"Listen," he said, "by definition half the world has an IQ of less than 100, and you barely know any of them."

That's one I remind myself of from time to time.

The Viscount LaCarte said...

Speaking of Zappa, this clip is a MUST. I was telling the Viscountess last night as we were watching Episode 5 of "Evolution" (PBS available on DVD - how I got from there to this clip could be an entire post - but suffice it to say we are surrounded here in Cobb County GA by stupid people who think that Evolution is a secular humanist plot to destroy America!) that had I seen this back in 1986 I would have thought, "Nahh - he is exaggerating. It isn't THAT bad."


Right.

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2658805

Anonymous said...

My take is usually along the lines of PEOPLE ARE MORONS. As in (as I explain to someone why this or that extremely stupid thing happened/is popular/won't go away), "No, you don't understand: people are morons."

But DUMB FUCK as a better ring and more weight to it. A College of Morons might not fly. But a College of Dumb Fucks? I think there's any number of them already.

Neddie said...

Viscount: Boy, that John Lofton was a real piece of work, weren't he.... "Are you seriously trying to tell us, Mr. Zappa, that the nation's young people might be given hope by registering to VOTE?!?!?!" (Voice dripping with sarcasm...)

The Viscount LaCarte said...

Ned: "Are you seriously trying to tell us, Mr. Zappa, that the nation's young people might be given hope by registering to VOTE?!?!?!"

I know. I almost fell off of my chair at that one.

But the comment that really haunts me from that show was this one:

"Could I make a comment about National Defense: the biggest threat to America today is not communism. It's moving America toward a fascist theocracy. And everything that's happened under the Reagan Administration is steering us right down that pipe."


Anyone besides me notice that most of the liberal / progressive personalities with any sort of charisma or power are gone? Sure, Frank died of natural causes, but what about the rest of them?

I hate conspisracy theories. I read the Fenton Bresler penned "Who Killed John Lennon" some years ago and dismissed it. Since then though, Mel Carnahan, Paul Wellstone and John F. Kennedy junior have all died in small plane crashes. Never mind the assasination of the 60's, Kennedy, Kennedy and King. Didn't Lennon once say something like "If I turn up dead and it looks like an accident it wasn't!" They thought they saw the last of Howard Dean, but he is still here. So is Barak Obama. Let's see for how long.

Key Riced, I need to go put on "A Hard Day's Night" and forget about this shit for a few days.

Vache Folle said...

Once you realize how stupid people are, it is easier to love them. You don't get as angry with them. "Aww," you say, "they just don't know any better, the silly f***wads."

Someone somewhere once said something like "Never attribute to evil that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." I try to follow this in my thinking. Otherwise, I am always enraged about something.

Anonymous said...

FYI:

Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity.

- Nick Diamos

The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.

- Harlan Ellison