In Other Words

the Stupid factor

Ah, an article in the guardian on Bush’s intelligence. I don’t know how many of you are interested in this kind of stuff and it does wind and twist a bit, but have the feeling that it does cover some of the important points about the Stupidity of Bush. What it also does well, I might add, is discuss the inability of the Kerry camp to capitalise on it.

The article points out that basically Kerry is too intelligent for his own good. Kerry understands that the world is immensely complicated and made up of a thousand grades of grey. Kerry understands that everything is nuanced and the world is in the grip of Chaos theory. What he doesn’t understand is that the American public doesn’t want to hear about. His mind is great for a president, but terrible for someone aspiring to become president.

Bush is an idiot. The problem is that many Americans like idiots. They can understand an idiot. They can grasp what an idiot is trying to do. John Kerry, on the other hand, is too intelligent. He confronts the world as it is, rather than as he would want it to be. American voters don’t want that, they want their president to wear rose tinted glasses and to tell them that everything is great. Many American voters actually consider it a bad thing for a politician to be too ‘European’ (i.e. nuanced and cultured).

Of course I’m generalising terribly here. There is a good 50% of the population that doesn’t want this. The intellectuals, the liberals, etc. These people understand the danger of Bush. Karl Rove (that’s Bush’s campaign coordinator) probably said it best when he said that as people grew wealthier they were more likely to vote Republican, that is unless they were too well educated.

That probably explains why the Republican party is more keen on having money spent on bombs then on schools. They’re well aware that if they over educated the American people, they will lose their voter base. (Look at Europe, the most educated countries are almost always the most liberal and socialist). No, don’t educated, indoctrinate. Don’t solve problems, pray. Don’t turn the tide of anti Americanism, shoot those rag headed bastards, instead. What does it matter if we’re wrong? We’ll just change the history books a couple of decades from now and make the intellectuals responsible.

Interesting fact: 10% of Singaporean women and 5% of Singaporean men can’t read.

posted by Symbol @ 27.8.04