Is Civilization Dying from Terminal Stupidity?
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Homo sapiens have always been stupid. Maybe it's our reptilian ancestry; maybe it's criminal sloth; maybe it's our diet; maybe it's human (i.e., grasshopper) short sightedness; but if we're an example of an advanced species, then why is the history of the "human race" the history of irrationality incarnate? If advanced species have an IQ, we've got to be down there around 40.
Certainly, there are magnificent exceptions and moments, e.g., art, science, statesmanship, etc., but these (alas) are exceptions which prove the rule, since the legacy of our species is overwhelmingly cruelty, violence, war, and self destruction.
Limitless greed, for example, is necessarily grounded in infinite stupidity, such as the Texas corporate energy rape of Mother Nature which is killing the goose which lays the golden eggs. Is this hard to see? No, not unless you have defective synapses. Not unless polluting the Earth's air and water is "good business" (even though you're guaranteeing that all your customers are going to be sick or dead in the very foreseeable future).
George Bush is the quintessence of Homo sapien stupidity. And speaking of low IQ's, there’s the perennial planetary dead weight of religious fundamentalists (Christian, Jewish, Muslim, whatever). One would expect the EEG’s of Armageddon types who expect the Earth to go boom in the next week or two to be rather flat.
The thrust of the argument is that if we were a sane and rational species, we would have a sane and rational civilization (and we would be sane and rational stewards of planet Earth). If p, then q is the syllogism, and not q implies not p, e.g., if you're in Albuquerque, then you're in New Mexico; hence, if you're not in New Mexico, you're not in Albuquerque (don't worry about it George -- let a congressional aide explain it to you).
Point being, since we (in general) do NOT have a sane a rational civilization, we are NOT a sane a rational species.
A further implication is that violence and greed are symptoms of fundamental stupidity, since where rationality reigns, the "stupidity of evil" (shall we call it that?) is simply moot. It serves no purpose and has no payoff.
The heart breaking tragedy is that the stupidity of evil CAN be transcended, but it happens very, very rarely. In the big picture flow of human history, Homo duhians are the river and transcenders are the occasional rivulets.
Stupidity and money have also always danced a destructive dance, since Dictatorships of the Rich (i.e., basically every country on the planet – including us!) are ultimately "allowed" by their intellectually challenged populace. When 99% of a country is resigned to cleaning the commodes of the 1% Greek God like elites, this is surely absolute proof of nation wide stupidity.
"Politics" is an elaborate game invented by Greek God like elites to delude the 99% that they have some (any!) role in the national and international policies of that country. In America, that means our ONE party system (i.e., the Republican/Democratic Party), is the only game in town and they answer only to their pig, pig rich masters, i.e., Nazi pugs and diaper dems alike.
Historians do not extrapolate optimism from the march of stupidity-ruled civilizations and cultures.
We can only hope that the Internet may have significantly jumped our social IQ. Certainly, there is some hope to be found by comparing where we are now to where we were 3 or 4 years ago and surely most of that change comes from this electronic quantum jump in communication. Hopefully, this avalanche of raw communication is waking us up from consensus stupor at a rate never before seen in human history.
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W. Christopher Epler
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