Singin’ dem Wal*Mart blues
sirpaulsbuddy has a dead-on take this morning on the Wal*Martization of America.
At what point does the reality begin to set in that maybe, just maybe, we’ve allowed power elites who don’t care about anything but their own wallets to imprison us with our own ideology and rhetoric? Seriously – how stupid are we as a country?
lullaby pit 
How stupid are we?
The intelligence of the country as a whole I would put at about a 3rd grade level. The average intelligence may be higher but people sure as hell don’t act like it. Hard work and earned rewards is ignored in favor of instant gratification. Dumbed down issues and philosophies for easy digestion take the place of careful analysis. Fevered jingoism replaces rational thought and even logic.
Maybe I am being too harsh but the fact that Nascar is the number one “sport” in the country, and “American Idol” is a consistently top rated show just convinces me of my conclusion. Sure there are pockets of people that genuinely care and think about something beyond Paris Hilton, but if they are anything like me they are growing more and more disenfranchised by the whole goddamn thing with each passing day. Politics, journalism, entertainment, etc is being run by very intelligent people pandering to the lowest common denominator. How else to explain the large number or people that STILL BELIEVE there are WMDs in Iraq? Not only are the inmates running the asylum but they are burning it to the ground and erecting a big statue dedicated to the wonderful freedom that comes when one no longer has to think for oneself.
Re: How stupid are we?
Testify, brother…
this:
“Hard work and earned rewards is ignored in favor of instant gratification.”
is exactly why people, for better or worse, voted Republican this year. the Republicans presented their party as the party of morality and hard work, and the Dems as the party of weakness and pandering (how else so explain the Dems’ lack of backbone on the Iraqi war? Political instantgrad!) most conservatives believe that liberals ARE the party of instant gratification in all spheres of life, from hollywood to society – how else, they believe, can one explain the marriage between two women? it has instant grad written all over it, they think.
the thing is, we have to turn it around and get some of these people – the ones that haven’t been completely brainwashed – to vote for us. i know a lot of Dems that swallowed the rhetoric, hook, line, and sinker. we gotta keep fighting and turn it around. there ain’t NO OTHER WAY to gain power back in this country.