When Intelligence Becomes a Sin

In the last election I noticed a phenomenon that is either new to our political landscape or it just recently resurfaced. When did having intelligent, informed politicians make them unfit to lead our nation. Ex-Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, seemed rather comfortable attacking the "political elite" in Washington. Their ability to articulate opinions on key issues was simply a symptom of their ignorance to the needs of the American public and their own obsession with money and power. President Barack Obama provides an excellent example of the disconnected political elite. A black man who carried himself into Harvard and graduated in the top of his class, obviously a man incapable of understanding the needs of American people. 

When did intelligence become a sin? The more I learn, the more rooted in knowledge my ideas become, the more often I feel others dismiss me. Instead of being rational human beings, it seems our other half would prefer the President and Congress consist of uninformed people who need to read notes off of their own hands to express the most basic of their own beliefs.

There is a reason that America was founded and established by the most well read, most intelligent men in the country. They were capable of understanding the needs of the nation, the needs of human beings, and the best ways to establish a government in that time. They were capable of articulating their beliefs intelligently, and the public was able to understand it. But now, most are incapable of even understanding the principles of the very nation they live in. For a group of people so obsessed with returning America to the principles it was founded upon, they seem so unprepared to understand those principles.

The culprits most responsible for the decay of our minds, for the decay of the American spirit are the ones most vocal about returning to that state. Tea Party? How inappropriate. A political movement based entirely on refusal to cooperate, compromise, and work together is not in the spirit of '76. You are not promoting the America ideal, tyranny is not an ideal. You have become that which our founders despised and feared most, that which our founders fought hardest to prevent from returning.

Frustration Tirade

Seriously, why do I EVER look at user comments on political articles? The only people that bother saying it are morons who do not understand politics or basic political theory. Communism and socialism aren't the same you fucking morons. Also, please stop talking about how its racist that black people have the NAACP but white people can't have a similar organization.

You're morons and racists. You know why white people don't have anything like the NAACP? Our entire system of government and law legitimizes white supremacy in our nation. We do nothing to help improve conditions in the inner city, but have no problem spending over 600 billion dollars a year on military expenditures. Not including the undisclosed amount of money that goes into the CIA, the same CIA that trained Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. For a group of people who claim to hate big government (Yes, that is you Republicans), you sure as hell don't mind big government when it's using the military as the apparatus. Fixing our healthcare system would cost a FRACTION of what our military budget is, but we're too obsessed with fighting off socialism, or communism as some morons like to call it, to understand the benefits. 

Hate socialism? We better privatize the police and fire departments, as well as all education. Student Loans? Throw them out the window. Progressive tax rates? Fuck that. Medicare and Social Security? Old people don't need help surviving.

Oh, and you want to whine about welfare? It makes up less than 1% of our budget, so get over yourselves. Like I said, why don't we try getting our priorities straightened out and fix this ridiculous military budget. When you're spending 7 times more money than the second largest military spender, something has gone awfully awry.

I don't know

I experienced something today that happens very few times in some one’s life; everything before me crumbled. Meaning and purpose were lost as I became overcome with hopelessness. The experience was a culmination of events from the last few weeks, or months, or even years. 

I will start at the beginning of today though, because it seemed to be the catalyst for everything I have experienced in the last 12 hours. I was in my German class and the professor was talking about how upset she was that a bill proposed, I presume by Democrats, was shot down. It sought to require grocery stores to charge 5 cents for every plastic shopping bag some one used. How terrible, a step towards a cleaner world and sustainability at the price of carrying compact and light reusable bags. Immediately there was outrage. What kind of world would we be living in when the government made such ridiculous laws. “Its not the place of the government to regulate businesses and destroy plastic bag making companies.”

Even after the professor explained that a similar law had existed in Germany her entire life, and that she could not recall herself nor her mother ever once using plastic bags and paying the 5 cents, so many seemed to outraged. They refused to even acknowledge the idea.

Later today I found myself skimming through news articles on the CNN.com website. Why? Because I’m a ultra left wing nut job. No, because it just happened to be the links that show up on my google home page. All three articles were on politics, and none of them seemed controversial really. Yet when I scrolled to the user comments, almost every single one was bashing the article and the journalist. I found myself baffled that so many people took so much time out of their day to go to read news from sources they already hate and despise, only so that they can attack everything about them.

It was at this point that everything began to fall apart for me, that I was truly in awe at the state of the country, the government, and the political environment. Everything I saw today, everything I have seen in the last year really, has slowly eroded my faith. People no longer listen to what politicians say. Their opinions on every issue are made up before the know what the issue is, their arguments are formulated by bombardment. Bombardment from political parties, buzzwords and catch phrases that can be easily regurgitated over and over until the other side gives up. 

What can I say to this, what can I do? I am in a constant political state, everything I see in the world is something worth considering, worth analyzing. I am not a Republican and I am not a Democrat. I am not a conservative and I am not a liberal. I am a rational human being, analytical and skeptical. The unfortunate result of this is that the opinions I form and defend are corralled together with the “left.” I am labeled by all and my opinions matter only to those who agree with me. Every time I open my mouth, type into a chat box, or write an essay, I am already judged and my opinions become worthless.

Meanwhile I examine this country, and I am overcome with an unbearable sadness. The common good is dead and with it the “American dream,” the “city upon a hill,” and every other sad cliché that has described America. Do people even understand their beliefs anymore? I can’t tell. I find myself surrounded by white, middle to upper class kids who think the world starts with them and only moves up. The poor are a small part of our country and are poor because they are lazy and make no effort. Even if this were true, there is no justification for just leaving them for dead. And since it is not true and so many people are impoverished in our nation for reasons they cannot help, it is all the more painful to see so many people so utterly apathetic to these problems.

Our country is falling apart and the best argument I can get is that its falling apart because the government needs to get out of people’s lives. That we need an unregulated economy. That we need lower taxes and to compensate we need to cut more social welfare programs, while we let our budget be consumed by the military industrial complex, a relic of World War II. Terrorized into thinking that everyone who does not agree with our cultural values is an enemy that must be killed or converted. I say all of this knowing that those who I wish to persuade are the ones least likely to give this any thought. That they have already rejected me because I do not agree with them and am therefore wrong by default. Why do I try, why do I do anything? I see nothing but personal attacks and insults. I am not perfect, and I do lash out. But I have the decency to apologize most of the time.

In all of this, I still have failed to explain the emotions I feel today, the despair. The common good is dead and there is nothing I can do to resuscitate it. Discussion and cooperation are dead and replaced by ignorance, ignorance to everything different. Merit is irrelevant today. All that matters is what party you claim to be. What can I possibly hope to salvage from this mess?