Is Stupid the New Black?

Patriotism may or may not be a good thing. If you don’t understand what I mean by this, this blog probably isn’t for you. While this isn’t really my point, it is the premise I’m starting from. What I mean, of course, is that in the John Lennon sense of imagine there’s no country, patriotism isn’t really helpful in so far as it serves to divide us further from our fellow humankind.

And while these days it is far from the no-brainer I think it ought to be, I believe it is not helpful because it feeds the let’s fear and hate others mentality all too common in certain circles. For the sake of argument though, let’s say that it is good in the (larger) community-oriented let’s take care of each other kind of way.

This isn’t the sort of thing I usually write. Really. I am less interested in taking political (or religious or…) sides and more interested in finding common ground. Having said that — as well as the above thesis regarding patriotism – I guess my question is: Is stupid the new patriotism? Because that seems to be the base requirement. Indeed, it seems empirically true that in order to buy into the Glenn Beck Nation’s worldview (also known, entirely inappropriately on both counts, as the Tea Party or sometimes, the Tea-Baggers), and to be considered therefore as a true patriot according to the new American brand of crazy fundamentalism, one must be stupid.

That is, one must be willfully ignorant. Or incapable of absorbing actual facts. Also, one must possess some radical disinclination to look up words one does not understand, like Fascism, or Marxism, or Stalinist, or even Nazi. Oh yeah, and one must NOT have ever traveled anywhere near either pole, so as to avoid at all cost witnessing any actual ice melting at the speed of light.

Further, one must demand all the services the local, state and federal governments now provide (and have also provided under all recent Republican Administrations) and yet be completely unwilling to pay for any of these services through any such Communist means known as taxes. One must prophesize about the imminent destruction and decay of life as we know it should Obama be successful in passing any kind of now-room-temperature health care plan (otherwise known in these circles as — gasp — socialized medicine), and yet demand that Medicare and Medicaid continue to be available to them, free of charge of course.

In short, one must demand fulfillment of the god-given right that the government give each and every one of us a pony, which we may ride whenever we damn well please, wherever we damn well please and also to refuse to lift a finger to feed that pony. Or to clean up after it.

Praise peas and pass the pizza.

Namaste,

TQ