Idiot fatigue
I haven’t been posting much lately. I go through periods where I blog a lot and then I hit downtime. But with so much going on, I got to wondering why I haven’t had much to say. A recent chat with drdenny provided a clue.
It really hit me yesterday, when I saw that Bush is framing Britain’s decision to begin withdrawing from Iraq as proof that things are working. Now, pay attention here. England decreasing troop levels = good news. At the same time Dubya is pushing for more US troops.
Depending on your perspective, this is either doublespeak, newspeak, or shameless lying. Or all of the above. But I couldn’t muster the energy and time to knock off a few lines of snark. Me, of all people – I mean, this is who I am, right? Add to this my ennui over the Anna Nicole Smith debacle, which is actually something of a marvel when you get right down to it. And Britney checking into rehab, then checking out, then shaving her head and getting some ink, then checking back into rehab, then checking back out… Gods, I’m out of breath just thinking about it. Now Hil and Osama Obama are trading smack…
And the press is all over the trivial crap. There’s been comparatively little outrage over our president’s Iraq Dubyaspeak and barely a peep over the EU’s new mandate to significantly reduce carbon emissions, a story that actually does matter, and a lot.
A little bread, a lot of circus, and I find myself wondering what the hell is going on that we aren’t hearing about right now. And I’m too beat down to even take a cheap shot.
I realized – it’s idiot fatigue. The stupidity in our culture is too much, too out of control, too over the top. There isn’t time to comment, even briefly, on every dumbass thing that Bush does, and never mind that he’s hardly the only monkey loose in the factory. This is how ignorance carries the day – it overwhelms us. It throws so much volume at us that we get tired. We give up.
[sigh]
I’ll try to do better. America’s War on Intelligence is too dire not to fight back.
Meanwhile, I know we’re all looking forward to the press blowup when Brit-Brit ODs…
:xpost:
lullaby pit 
The best comment I’ve heard about this in awhile: Bill Maher said that the election has already turned into an episode of Survivor.
The best comment I’ve heard about this in awhile: Bill Maher said that the election has already turned into an episode of Survivor.
I can’t help thinking that we’re going to have a bad case of campaign fatigue by about August. Fatigue makes us tune out. And tuning out allows those who need to be stomped to have their way.
I can’t help thinking that we’re going to have a bad case of campaign fatigue by about August. Fatigue makes us tune out. And tuning out allows those who need to be stomped to have their way.
Thanks for that. It certainly serves to amplify my own worst nihilistic fears for the future of what passes as American culture 😉
At my worst and most jaded, I lay the vast majority of America’s blatant stupidity crisis and the requisite fallout that you describe at the feet at that most humble of America’s political institutions…the board of education. Though, if I think about it hard enough, maybe that’s not so much cause for cynicism. It might just be the opposite. A brilliant sparkle of optimism? Nahhhh, who am I kidding?
Our information consumers are trained in their consumption where and how? So given this (and similar) administrations War on Education, given the religio-Luddite composition of so many boards of education across the country, and given the sheeplike, devil-may-care attitude of our information consumers, it’s no wonder at all that the religion, media and political machines have been able to run roughshod over those of us who at least make the effort to think, and less wonder that we should feel weary to death of the constant uphill battle. Hell, we’re practically proxy thought-warriors for a population that couldn’t care less. Worse, we’re actively despised by those for whom we only want the best…the capacity to live an examined life.
So where’s the room for optimism? It’s a huge stretch for me, especially as I know so very little about the underlying mechanisms of board of education elections, but as political battlefields go, somehow, perhaps naively, this one seems the most likely to fall to a concerted revolutionary effort to take back our schools and the formation of young minds in hopes of a better-educated electorate, a better-equipped class of information consumers, and hell, dare a say it? a brighter tomorrow?
Thanks for that. It certainly serves to amplify my own worst nihilistic fears for the future of what passes as American culture 😉
At my worst and most jaded, I lay the vast majority of America’s blatant stupidity crisis and the requisite fallout that you describe at the feet at that most humble of America’s political institutions…the board of education. Though, if I think about it hard enough, maybe that’s not so much cause for cynicism. It might just be the opposite. A brilliant sparkle of optimism? Nahhhh, who am I kidding?
Our information consumers are trained in their consumption where and how? So given this (and similar) administrations War on Education, given the religio-Luddite composition of so many boards of education across the country, and given the sheeplike, devil-may-care attitude of our information consumers, it’s no wonder at all that the religion, media and political machines have been able to run roughshod over those of us who at least make the effort to think, and less wonder that we should feel weary to death of the constant uphill battle. Hell, we’re practically proxy thought-warriors for a population that couldn’t care less. Worse, we’re actively despised by those for whom we only want the best…the capacity to live an examined life.
So where’s the room for optimism? It’s a huge stretch for me, especially as I know so very little about the underlying mechanisms of board of education elections, but as political battlefields go, somehow, perhaps naively, this one seems the most likely to fall to a concerted revolutionary effort to take back our schools and the formation of young minds in hopes of a better-educated electorate, a better-equipped class of information consumers, and hell, dare a say it? a brighter tomorrow?
Maybe I have teh dumb
or am just being really disingenuous.
But rather than the Brits pulling out of Iraq, why don’t they go and help the US in the hot spots?
Sorta like, why is Chrysler laying off thousands when the military needs armored up vehicles?
Or is that part of where the Idiot part comes in?
Maybe I have teh dumb
or am just being really disingenuous.
But rather than the Brits pulling out of Iraq, why don’t they go and help the US in the hot spots?
Sorta like, why is Chrysler laying off thousands when the military needs armored up vehicles?
Or is that part of where the Idiot part comes in?
Re: Maybe I have teh dumb
This is the issue, actually. If victory has been earned where the Brits are, fucking great – let’s redeploy them to the areas where we need help.
Of course, that only works if we’re being told the truth. Which we aren’t. The truth is that while it took a couple years longer than I expected, Dumbya has killed Blair’s political career and coalition of the willing is soon going to be down to a coalition of one.
Re: Maybe I have teh dumb
This is the issue, actually. If victory has been earned where the Brits are, fucking great – let’s redeploy them to the areas where we need help.
Of course, that only works if we’re being told the truth. Which we aren’t. The truth is that while it took a couple years longer than I expected, Dumbya has killed Blair’s political career and coalition of the willing is soon going to be down to a coalition of one.
Re: Maybe I have teh dumb
and the 17 guys from fiji or where ever.
When is everyone going to get so outraged and disgusted that we make the media accountable and make this administration flee?
Re: Maybe I have teh dumb
and the 17 guys from fiji or where ever.
When is everyone going to get so outraged and disgusted that we make the media accountable and make this administration flee?
Those who need stomping are in for a heap of it now: General Zod has declared his candidacy for the 2008 election.
Those who need stomping are in for a heap of it now: General Zod has declared his candidacy for the 2008 election.
I need to get my dirty tricks people on this right away.
Re: Maybe I have teh dumb
Oh, I haven’t this hard all day….
Re: Maybe I have teh dumb
Oh, I haven’t this hard all day….
This pretty much sums up how I feel sometimes.
Some days, I feel like the entire scientific community in the US should say, “No Technology for YOU!” and stop teaching science to anyone who doesn’t deserve it.
This pretty much sums up how I feel sometimes.
Some days, I feel like the entire scientific community in the US should say, “No Technology for YOU!” and stop teaching science to anyone who doesn’t deserve it.
Hell, I’d just be happy if they’d stop force-teaching religion/ideology to those who don’t “deserve” it, heh. I have my own nutty ideas about the way things are, but none of those ideas include “it’s the *only* nutty way”.
Hell, I’d just be happy if they’d stop force-teaching religion/ideology to those who don’t “deserve” it, heh. I have my own nutty ideas about the way things are, but none of those ideas include “it’s the *only* nutty way”.
Yup…
This particular entry spoke to me more than anything else I’ve read, seen, or heard in the last week or two.
I’m tired, too – tired of idiocy passing not only as journalism, but as entertainment, education, foreign policy, environmental stewardship, health care….
Hell, I’m too tired to continue this. I was even too tired to read the previous comments to keep from sounding only like some other poster’s echo.
My late friend Chris Yopp used to tell a story about his Vietnam experience that he said summed up the debacle (as it sums up this current malaise riddled debacle) there perfectly. He was in Bangkok on R&R and sitting in a bar talking to a couple of other troops. All three guys were getting ready to go back to their posts. He and one of the two, both of whom were Green Berets, were having a deep discussion of the insanity of the war over bottles of vodka. The third guy silently drank scotch for the entire evening.
As they got ready to leave the bar and weave their way back to their hotel, the talkative Green Beret turned to his taciturn comrade in arms and asked if he had anything, ANYTHING to say about the war, the evening, life in general.
The guy stood up, looked at his buddy and my pal Chris, and said quietly:
“Fuck it all to hell. Just fuck it.”
My sentiments about the current state of affairs exactly….
Yup…
This particular entry spoke to me more than anything else I’ve read, seen, or heard in the last week or two.
I’m tired, too – tired of idiocy passing not only as journalism, but as entertainment, education, foreign policy, environmental stewardship, health care….
Hell, I’m too tired to continue this. I was even too tired to read the previous comments to keep from sounding only like some other poster’s echo.
My late friend Chris Yopp used to tell a story about his Vietnam experience that he said summed up the debacle (as it sums up this current malaise riddled debacle) there perfectly. He was in Bangkok on R&R and sitting in a bar talking to a couple of other troops. All three guys were getting ready to go back to their posts. He and one of the two, both of whom were Green Berets, were having a deep discussion of the insanity of the war over bottles of vodka. The third guy silently drank scotch for the entire evening.
As they got ready to leave the bar and weave their way back to their hotel, the talkative Green Beret turned to his taciturn comrade in arms and asked if he had anything, ANYTHING to say about the war, the evening, life in general.
The guy stood up, looked at his buddy and my pal Chris, and said quietly:
“Fuck it all to hell. Just fuck it.”
My sentiments about the current state of affairs exactly….
I guess I could be more optimistic if I saw somebody somewhere who seemed to be getting the education issue. Well, let me modity that – somebody in a position to DO something about it.
But I don’t. I just don’t. The only movement I see is in the wrong direction. And I don’t know why it has to be that way.
I guess I could be more optimistic if I saw somebody somewhere who seemed to be getting the education issue. Well, let me modity that – somebody in a position to DO something about it.
But I don’t. I just don’t. The only movement I see is in the wrong direction. And I don’t know why it has to be that way.