Tuesday, January 06, 2004
WHY DOES 50% OF THE AMERICAN POPULATION SUPPORT AND/OR APPROVE OF GEORGE W. BUSH? Because these people are stupid!
Upon re-reading this piece, I wonder whether this isn't merely a feeble attempt at satire a la Swift's "Modest Proposal." I can only hope so. Then again, I'm probably too stupid to figure it out.
The answer, I'm afraid, is the factor that dare not speak its name. It's the factor that no one talks about. The pollsters don't ask it, the media don't report it, the voters don't discuss it.Let's assume for a moment that Mr. Starkman is correct in his assertion. Furthermore, just for the sake of argument, let's assume that Mr. Starkman's unspoken assertion that those who don't support Bush aren't stupid is also valid. How does he propose to win these stupid folks over to the cause of correctness and justice? The direct frontal assault--"You're stupid, so you should listen to me--doesn't seem likely to change many minds of the mentally challenged. Starkman's "modest suggestions" don't seem much more feasible:
I, however, will blare out its name so that at last people can address the issue and perhaps adopt strategies to overcome it.
It's the "Stupid factor," the S factor: Some people -- sometimes through no fault of their own -- are just not very bright.
It's not merely that some people are insufficiently intelligent to grasp the nuances of foreign policy, of constitutional law, of macroeconomics or of the variegated interplay of humans and the environment. These aren't the people I'm referring to. The people I'm referring to cannot understand the phenomenon of cause and effect. They're perplexed by issues comprising more than two sides. They don't have the wherewithal to expand the sources of their information. And above all -- far above all -- they don't think.
an intelligence test to earn the right to vote; a three-significantly-stupid-behaviors-and-you're-out law; fines for politicians who pander to the lowest common denominator and deportation of media representatives who perpetuate such actions.
Upon re-reading this piece, I wonder whether this isn't merely a feeble attempt at satire a la Swift's "Modest Proposal." I can only hope so. Then again, I'm probably too stupid to figure it out.
