The Telegraph newspaper is a quality publication, a shiny pearl in a polluted sea of plasticine publications. Dry Brittish wit and (usually) fact-confirmed news stories make it one of the very few sources a person can depend on to get closest to truth.

So it was with great anticipation that I read this article. The grabber title is most apt. ‘Entering The Age of Stupid’ is a bit of a misnomer because we’ve been in this age for quite some time. The definitive starting point varies according to one’s political pursuasion. But it has a causal relationship with the lack of civic indoctrination in schooling. 

Indoctrination is what schooling  is, basically to support the status quo. Doesn’t provide the tools to fix the proles plight. Just remind them of their duty to support the machine. Go against the machine, and you’ll wind up on the Black Helicopter Squadron list of extraordinary renditions. Go with the machine, and receive promises of a better future for you and yours. Citizenship ‘rights’ are not guaranteed; nor is there a warranty stating that performing  civil behavior will even see you alive for the chance of a better future (Google ‘Philando Castile‘).

Okay, digression. The result of my unfocused mind. Why not have voting shirts that read, “I’m With Stupid” with the arrow pointing in one direction…and circling around the back to point at the statement?  The comic’s character, Pogo, stating, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”, while taken out of the original context (Earth Day strip, 1971), is applicable to so many human endeavors – especially politics.

Earth Day strip, 1971

But, can we not think, or act, stupid? I remember an episode of Star Trek (TOS) where Kirk is trying to stop that war between two planets:

Kirk paraphrases himself in this episode, stating, “Man rose above primitiveness by vowing, ‘I will not kill, today.'” While this line is never explicitly spoken by Kirk in any previous episode, it does echo the meaning of a speech that Kirk makes in TOS: “A Taste of Armageddon”, in which he states, “We’re Human beings with the blood of a million savage years on our hands, but we can stop it. We can admit that we’re killers, but we’re not going to kill, today. That’s all it takes. Knowing that we won’t kill, today.“

So, substitute “be stupid” for kill. Repeat that line, EVERY MORNING, up through Terrible Tuesday in November. Share this notion with your family, friends, cleric, drug supplier – whoever. Maybe, about the same odds as a planet-killer asteroid striking Earth, this country’s denizens can survive the political apocalypse. #NotTheMachine