Pubdate: Sun, 16 Aug 2009
Source: Santa Maria Times (CA)
Copyright: 2009 Lee Central Coast Newspapers
Contact: http://www.santamariatimes.com/contact/letter/
Website: http://www.santamariatimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/396
Author: Randy Alcorn

RECORD LEVELS OF RIDICULOUSNESS

As a child, I believed in the infallibility of adult authority. With 
age, I began to observe, with some discomfort, that adult authority 
could be arbitrary, contradictory and often wrong.

The illusion of a well-ordered society presided over by intelligence, 
justice and logic was completely shattered by the time I entered high 
school. By the time I graduated from college, it was obvious the 
adult world I was joining included a large minority of idiots - many 
of whom were in positions of authority.

Now, after a lifetime of observing the world, I realize that idiots 
actually comprise the majority of the adult population. What else can 
explain the epidemic ridiculousness that plagues society?

Anyone who thinks I have overstated the pervasiveness of intellectual 
anemia needs only consider the display of moronic behavior that has 
transpired in Sacramento, as state government attempted to balance a budget.

Of course, this is just another repeat performance of intellectual 
ineptitude by California government. If intelligent adults were the 
majority of the electorate, how could there continue to be this 
perennial idiocy in government? Who elects these idiots? The answer - 
other idiots.

If the Great Recession has done nothing else, it has brought into 
sharper focus the painful consequences of idiots being in control of 
government. These consequences affect us all, especially the most 
vulnerable of society.

Recently, a group of pre-school children along with their teachers 
and some parents planned an outing to Santa Barbara's Oak Park wading 
pools. This was part of a program to reward the kids for their 
academic efforts, as well as afford them a safe opportunity to 
develop the concept of swimming.

Upon arriving at the park, the group was stunned and dismayed to 
discover that the wading pools were closed. A blaring sign posted on 
the gate blamed the closure on city budget cuts.

Meanwhile, the city's chief financial officer, a competent, dedicated 
fellow who looks to be well under what most of us would consider 
retirement age, announced that he would be joining the growing legion 
of public servants who retire at a relatively young age, with 
lifetime, six-figure pensions and medical insurance.

How ridiculous is it to curtail services to children, services that 
help protect them, and help develop them into productive adults, 
while we spend an increasingly huge segment of public funds on lavish 
retirement packages for public servants?

Governments at all levels are struggling financially because they 
continue to reach record levels of ridiculous spending - mostly on 
themselves and on their supporting clients. Idiots, however, will 
believe government struggles because taxes are not high enough. Taxes 
will never be high enough, when spending is uncontrolled.

The local police have uncovered and destroyed yet another huge 
clandestine marijuana farm. What is this, the fifth or sixth such 
major marijuana farm found locally in just the past year? How much 
tax money is being expended on finding and destroying endless 
marijuana plants, and on prosecuting and incarcerating people who use 
or sell drugs?

The war on drugs continues to reach new records of ridiculousness. 
Because the law mandates disproportionately high prison sentences for 
drug users and dealers, our overcrowded prisons must release robbers 
and rapists early, so marijuana smokers can serve their full sentences.

Our law enforcement system is so obsessed with pursuing this 
perpetual game of cops and druggies that cops are falling into their 
own traps. Recently, in North Carolina, one undercover police officer 
arrested another undercover officer in a sting operation during which 
one officer sold drugs to the other.

Is there such a shortage of real crime with real victims that our 
legal system has to elicit crime, or create crime by making 
victimless free choice illegal? Ridiculous.

Certainly, the explanation of this record ridiculousness includes the 
surrender of critical thinking to conventional "wisdom," political 
ideology and theology. Once a mind adopts a doctrine or accepts the 
common thinking, it no longer has to exercise reason, evaluate facts 
or consider opposing arguments.

It simply parrots the party line. It's like taking a diet pill 
instead of going to the gym. No need to exercise the brain when you 
can just take a smart pill off the shelf of the ideology pharmacy.

And, isn't it comfortably reassuring when your formulaic thinking is 
shared by millions of other parrot-people reciting the same 
catechism? This compliant numb-skullery has never been more evident 
than in the debate over national heath insurance, in which flocks of 
parrot-people are screeching out the party line about the evils of 
"socialized medicine."

Like there are no evils with the current system. Ridiculous.

"Polly wants private health insurance." Well, Polly better hope she 
never loses her job, her money or gets sick. The other parrots are 
not likely to pay her medical expenses.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom