04-Aug-2007: Stupid Things I've Read Lately
Sometimes, the profound stupidity of some people stuns me. I am left wondering: how can they have so limited
their intelligence and insight that they wind up spouting absolute nonsense?
Case in point: a few days ago someone wrote an article in the Ottawa Citizen arguing that global warming
is a sham perpetrated by those with an vested interest. The writer's proof: the average temperature in July 2007
for the City of Ottawa was two degrees Celsius less than the average temperature in July of 2006. Thus, everyone
has it all wrong: the earth is actually cooling off!
That left me reeling with the enormity of the stupidity. Where has this person been for the past ten or twenty years? Can they not observe what's going
on around them? Is their vision so narrow that it does not include anything beyond the borders of the City of Ottawa? Does it all, ultimately,
boil down to: only the things that affect me directly are real; all the rest is political? In others words, it's all about me, me, me.
On a similar vein, for years Environment Canada has been released the "UV Index" for regions of the country, along with the rest of
the weather information. For major cities (all four of them), they release the "smog index." This year, they were asked to stop updating the smog index because
it was felt that, by constantly reminding citizens that the Greenpeacers and tree-huggers people might have a point when arguing about global
warming, they would be giving left-wing politicians a boost. Better to keep people ignorant.
This is just like the press's approach to science: the overwhelming majority
of scientists who specialize in the topic at hand agree on something important. The press then goes out to find an "expert" who disagrees with the scientific community
and then present his point of view on an equal footing—as though both positions have equal merit. The "controversy" about
global warming was created entirely by the media who felt that "truth" and "fairness" demand that opposing views be treated equally. Isn't it ironic that every "scientific study"
that shows that global warming is overstated, it's just another cycle in the earth's history that will automatically correct itself, have been funded by oil companies?
It is this very weakness of the press that leaves people with ideas such that "Darwinism," "Creationism," and "Intelligent Design" are all equally valid. The meaning of the word
theory has been so thoroughly commingled with the meaning of the word opinion that a lot of people have no idea what truth is anymore. Any idiot
can call himself an expert—there are no qualifying exams. And that suits Big Brother just fine.
Totalitarianism demands that the population be kept as ignorant as possible.
The other markedly stupid thing I read in the paper in the past few weeks was this: a woman in her 80's was assaulted and raped during a burglary of her home. A tragic
event. But it caused a letter-to-the-editor that called for the arming of our senior citizens. If only they were allowed to keep a pistol in the bedside table, the argument
went, they would be able to defend themselves against intruders.
Yeah....Picture this: a woman in her 80's is living alone. She hears a sound during the night. She is frightened and takes the gun out of her bedside drawer. She is confused
by her fear and can't remember what it was that her nephew told her about safety catches and such. Her hands are shaking violently when a man steps into her room, takes the
gun from her hand, and shoots her dead. Or, she does manage to arm the instrument and fires at a dark figure in her doorway, only to discover she has just shot her eldest daughter
who had used her key to her mother's home to get her up and ready for an early medical appointment.
Okay, there's one idiot out there who writes stupid letters; but in the ensuing days, several people wrote in to support his position. And then I'm reminded of all the gun-slingers
south of our border who think they have a constitutional right to arm themselves and shoot at anything that moves in their homes at night. Lots of dead grandmothers and
children later, they are buying more guns than ever.
Actually, I thought the entire issue of arming citizens to the teeth to protect democracy was summed up brilliantly by Archie Bunker in an episode of All in the Family in the
early 1970's. The media had not yet learned that labelling people "terrorists" would sell news. They were stuck on aircraft hijackers at the time. Well, Archie came up with
a plan to rid the world of hijackers and went on his local television station to broadcast his idea. It was this: arm every passenger as they board a plane. That way, the
hijacker would be guaranteed to be out-gunned! I'm sure every viewer in the world
who saw that episode got the point immediately.
I don't often use the word stupid. I usually try to be somewhat diplomatic, though I am getting more direct in my speech as I get
older. But sometimes, stupid is exactly the right word.