WE, THE DUMBASS PEOPLE

What Lies In Store For A Nation That Shuns Intellect In Favor Of Inanity and Chooses Form Over Substance? A Nitwit Nation.

In his 2006 film, Idiocracy, Mike Judge imagined a world where the collective IQ of Americans had fallen into the teens and a man of average intellect was the smartest person in the world. It is a brilliant satire and definitely worth seeing.

It is also fast becoming a reality.

How recently have you said, "Is it me or are people getting stupider?" You've seen these people. Can't make up their mind at McDonald's even when they have reduced the ordering to numbers. They talk, text and drive, endangering everyone. They only read books in school. They don't read newspapers, news blogs or magazines. They can't analyze the simplest issue but have strong opinions on everything. They misuse words-- with authority and they love anything that caters to the lowest common denominator.

I do not offer any scientific research or proof of what follows. It's just my opinion. But see, I'm smart and so my opinion is bolstered by good old fashioned brainpower.

We know the human brain absorbs data and processes it like no other machine on the planet. In fact, man's brain accounts for 100% of civilization. We also know that the brain is a muscle composed of white and gray matter and that like any muscle, it gets stronger when it is stimulated and used. "Learning" is a combination of memory and the collection and processing of data through the brain's binary process, you know, the opposite of TV news.

The best brain exercise of course is reading. In fact, if you've read this far, you are already smarter than you were just a minute ago and fifty times smarter than your average Senate Subcommittee.

The invention of the printing press changed the world more than any other invention because it made books available to masses of formerly unenlightened people. Free to imagine, think and reason, we read the great works of brilliant writers and man moved forward like an unbridled intellectual beast into the modern age by way of the book, the first technological marvel.

The knowledge attained by reading then sparked everything from art to bloody revolution, to a man on the surface of the moon and the splitting of the atom. And we've imagined everything from Bugs Bunny to time travel to the existence of God Himself.

And now we watch Real Housewives.

I could stop right here. I've really made my point. But let me continue to enlighten.

The mind needs stimulation to keep it nimble. For instance if there was no hard "C" and only "Q" no "W" but "R" then Re The People qould still qertainly qonqieve of Rhat I've just Ritten.

When we imagine, we grow smarter and open the door to great discovery. So it stands to reason that anything that does the work for your mind or makes "brainworking" easier, will lend itself to making you dumber. Ironically, the very intellect that lifted us up, gave rise to invention that has help make us idiots.

The first thing that dumbed down people was the radio. The radio helped us to imagine speeches, plays and the news. But our brain didn't have to work as hard and so we grew dependent on it and we tended to believe whatever we heard because it came through this incredible magical machine.

Then came the movies. We could now actually see the images and hear the words and we didn't need to imagine anything at all!. It was a short jump from there to television, the greatest "smart-robber" of all time. Now we had a brain-dimmer in every home and a whole generation of Americans started to allow machines to think and imagine for them.

Suddenly, American IQ's started to drop like the proverbial rock and intellect became not a goal but an assumption of a culture that had grown arrogant. Readership of books for pleasure and enlightenment went down. And because Intellectually-challenged minds cannot appreciate true talent or quality, the iconic representations in pop culture have fallen to our new cerebral low.

We now have singers that can't sing and (reality show) actors that can't act. We have newspapers that are more ads than news and TV media that is filled with pretty people who read from teleprompters and have no idea what journalistic standards are. We had a President who couldn't pronounce "nuclear" and a public who believe that jet fuel can melt steel. We have a business world where the only thing that matters is profit. We have politicians who don't believe in evolution, pander to biases and possess no noble purpose and religious leaders who use God as a weapon and ATM machine.

I know what you're thinking. "I grew up watching TV and movies and I have an iPod and I play video games and I'm pretty smart."

No, you're not.

At least not as smart as you would be if you had more imagining, more critical thinking, more wondering why and less Real Housewives. The sad truth is the baby Boomers are pretty smart. It's the successive generations that have arrived BDOA (brain-dead on arrival) to the world of adulthood. And by the way, the Internet is a combination of audio, video and reading and it's a wash, thank God.

There was a time when we wanted to be smart and we wanted our leaders to be smart. Now we just want to be rich, famous, beautiful and in charge. We now ask our leaders to tell us what we want to hear not what we need to hear. Without exercise, our brains have weakened and we are now fascinated by the nearest shiny object and susceptible to being influenced by our prejudices and greed with minds impervious to reason.

Appropriately, I end this by asking: What do you think?

Copyright 2011

America's Second Civil War (Redux)

Class, Gender, Sex And Ideology Fuel The Second Civil War And This One Is Not Between The States But Between States Of Mind.

America was basically founded by two sets of pioneers. One group sought social freedom and an end to tyranny. They were progressives who questioned the status quo and defied a king. The others were seeking religious freedom and they were, you guessed it, conservatives and believed in freedom from tyranny and put God, country and family first.

Together, they changed the world.

And they did it because they had a wild land to conquer. They forgave each other their weaknesses and myopia. But even as they did, the conservatives drifted south to be in like company, leaving the progressives to the north. Good fences make good neighbors.

Later, after they had combined to kill and then take the land of Native Americans, they were at odds over the subjugation and enslavement of other human beings and denial of their humanity in search of commerce and easy wealth to fund their newly stolen nation.

The conservatives felt slavery was justified by their God and the liberals felt it was unjustified sin and bad for a free society-- and economy. In the bloody contest that followed, it is ironic that today's liberals (Democrats) supported slavery and today's conservatives (Republicans) opposed it. In the end, the progressives won and slavery ended.

For the next hundred years or so, America slowly became more and more liberal and progressive as her power grew. But it was the conservative and religious values that held together our society and allowed us to overcome fear, adversity and even more domestic growing pains. And it was the liberal and progressive America that pushed her forward in the acceptance of other races of people forming the greatest heterogeneous society the world had ever known. We built a thriving workforce and made America a manufacturing powerhouse.

And then, the 60's.

After slavery ended, other lesser forms of oppression began and as long as they did not disrupt commerce, America tolerated them. And so the Blacks rebelled, culminating in The Civil Rights Act of 1964 which basically guaranteed the rights the Founding Fathers had given to white American citizens almost 200 years before. The difference implicit in the Act was the admission that America had failed to extend these rights to blacks and women.

At the same time, the counterculture movement (the white civil rights movement) supported Black power and also demanded an end to many of the traditions of sex and societal convention. They demanded free love, free sex and freedom of expression wherein anything goes. The last vestiges of Victorianism, religion-influenced culture and accepted gender biases were about to fall.

The Democrats who had divided the country a hundred years earlier with their support of slavery now led the charge for liberal freedoms and called for an end to America's adherence to old-fashioned values, customs and biases. The conservative religious side fought back warning that without their foundation, America would lose its delicate balance and the nation would fall.

They were both right in theory but terribly wrong in the way they defended their arguments.

For the next decade and a half, America plunged head first into self-indulgence. The family structure began to crumble thanks to no-fault divorce and the rising acceptance of disposable relationships. This was in part due to the acceptance of changes in sexual morality, which subverted Biblical teachings. People had always had premarital sex but it was a sin. Suddenly, it was a lifestyle.

From 1960 to 1980 America saw the liberals win the culture war and while Blacks and women made historic gains in education, business and politics, we also slid into the excess, vanity and the greed of The Me Generation. And despite the widely held belief that women and Blacks were innocent in this failure, we were all in the ship as it was sinking. White men were blamed with all of America's ills and given little credit for any of its good, because after all, they had murdered everyone.

Resentment followed and so it was not shocking when in 1980, after two decades of liberal sentiment dominating our culture, there was a backlash and the second war for America's soul began.

Under the conservative rise was the notion that we had sold out American values for greed, vanity and sexual self indulgence that went against the tenets of religion, the balance of freedom and civilized restraint. Also intertwined with this thinking was the silent idea that Blacks and women had ruined prosperity by being given opportunities based on guilt connected to past wrongs and not merit. Liberals felt that this was so much white male whining by people afraid to compete on a level playing field and who walked around with millions of deaths on their moral tab.

So the battle began with no one being honest about what they believed because now after so much bloodshed and murder in the 60's, a new thing called Political Correctness ruled free speech and if you said anything that didn't support the idea that Blacks and women were just as good as any white man, you were excoriated, demeaned and could even lose your job. When this prohibition was extended to the handicapped, the old, gays and anyone who wasn't a white straight male, chaos ensued.

Conservatives were sure that Liberals believed that if white men were not forced to be fair, they would never be fair and would subjugate and enslave Blacks and women in new and improved ways and that in fact, minorities and women were superior to the evil white men.

Liberals were sure that Conservatives believed that white men were ordained by God to rule and everyone else should accept their second class status, believe in the white male God and never complain about His choice even if it meant you were discriminated against and forced to live below your talents and strengths.

Now that we had conquered the wild country, the two sides felt free to tear each other apart.

Conservatives won't admit that they lost the culture war and we have passed the point of no return. Americans will never go back into the sexless Victorian closet where women were once considered chattel. Blacks were never going to go back into pseudo-slavery. I dare say we would rather die first.

The Progressives won't admit the extension of liberal philosophy has turned the American family into a fractured nightmare, given rise to bitter divorces, created a generation of lost children and a relationship landscape that has devolved into juvenile sexual gamesmanship and that these facts have caused many of our society's ills.

And so with no more hearts and minds to win, our two intrepid groups, the progressives and the conservatives have reduced themselves to dirty tricks, lies, deceit and name-calling. And no one seeks to restore the balance that will save us because now any concession to liberalism or conservatism feels like defeat to a people who have enjoyed over 200 years of freedom and now believe they are never wrong about anything.

It's time for the grown-ups to take over. We have to ignore the extremists no matter how sweet their entreaties to our self-interest. We have to forgive good men and women who have made reasonable mistakes and not ban them from public service. And lastly, we must all take moral inventory and be brutality honest with ourselves and ask not which side we are on but why are fighting in the first place.

The delicate balance of Americanism has to return or we are lost no matter which side wins.

©2011

THE UNITED STATES OF SISTERS PART 1

You Can Think Of This Piece As Fictional. I Prefer To Think Of It As Inevitable.

Part One: America Falls, Sisters Rise.

Ten Years Ago Today, Back Women Were Called Upon To Save America.

America was doing very well as the only superpower in the new millennium. White men had been in charge for five hundred years and white women were doing well as their partners. Even Black men had done okay, because although they were Black, they were at least men.

But the Sisters were left behind.

Cursed with dark skin and female plumbing, Black women were always the last ones to get the blessings of the greatest country in the world. It is the nature of any society to ride on the backs of the strong and reward those who only appear to have that strength. We were no different. We held the Sisters back, thrived on what they built and gave them neither credit nor love for it.

And then things started to go bad.

Those who ran the power structure became weak and complacent, having lived too long getting everything they wanted. Men were corrupted by privilege and their women by the gift of a beauty standard that favored them above all others. Even Black men tumbled because they didn’t realize that their power derived from close association with the majority and as they broke their ties to Black women, they faltered.

It didn’t happen over night. It was a sly, creeping influence, a slow-moving disease of apathy, indecision and mental weakness. One comedian said "It was like we’d all swallowed a “national retarded pill,” and no one could function."

The government could not function, unable to pass even the simplest of legislation without fights, digression and corruption. The economy went sour and all facets of American life faltered. The parents had abandoned the house and left it to aimless children. The white and male leaders of our country fell apart and were unable to hold the weight of the great society they’d created. What we were missing was strength, a basic toughness that could cut through the bullshit of politics, societal ills and global strife.

This was crystallized by The Great Indecision of 2055. It was a six month period of national tension and fear. Our enemies abroad saw our new weakness and internal troubles as a chance to finally topple us and they began to make aggressive moves worldwide, defying the once mighty United States.

And we did nothing. For half a year, Congress locked up in debates trying to make a decision. No one offered a solution and all they did was bicker and scratch their heads. The dumbness culminated in a Presidential press conference where the Chief Executive bumbled like a schoolboy who hadn’t done his homework.

And so the U.S. was assaulted from all sides. There were skirmishes with our troops in the Middle East, Asia and Europe. As our economy weakened, foreign corporations seized the opportunity to grab market shares in all businesses right here in our own backyard. Some thieves, even hijacked a small naval supply ship bound for Hawaii.

After being humiliated by pirates, we knew we had to so something. Unfortunately, none of our leaders could act decisively. The Great Indecision found us impotent in all areas.

That’s when the Sisters stepped up. There were already many Black women in government and they were the first to exhibit the strength we so desperately needed. Sisters in the military took command on the battlefield and posts around the world, saving lives and defeating our enemies. Hell, it was more than defeat, the Sisters obliterated them, whipped their asses like they stole something, it was a global, high-tech military smackdown.

Scientist found that Black women were impervious to the mental breakdown suffered by all others. No one could explain this. Doctors, scholars and even religious leaders speculated on why this was so. But in the end, no one had an answer. I think it was best said by a Black woman who stated “We used to clean houses and care for babies and somehow that has given us the power to own those houses and lead those babies.”

The Great Indecision fell upon the shoulders of the Sisters, and they handled it with the ease you might display brushing your teeth. They commanded on the battlefields of the world, took over the failing corporations and healed the cities by becoming mayors, governors and police Chiefs. There was resentment, of course, but no one could muster enough mental strength to stop them and the suffering masses embraced the Sisters like an old friend.

But what would America look like now? How would the women reshape the country in their image?

NEXT: PART TWO: TAKING OVER.

Copyright 2011

THE UNITED STATES OF SISTERS PART 2

After Their Ascension, The Sisters Started Taking Over

The Sisters took their new power and status with grace and humility. They didn’t oppress, gloat or otherwise belittle anyone. They did what they had always done; they fixed the damned problem and moved on.

So, it stood to reason that one of them, a comely woman named General LaTonya Wilkins came back to the U.S. and ran for public office. She was elected mayor of New York, Senator, and then President.

Soon after the Wilkins administration came to power, the U.S. declared what we’d all been thinking: that the strength of our Black women was a national treasure, a precious resource that had to be protected and used for the good of the people.

Wilkins passed the National Sister Act, which officially acknowledged that Black women had a special gift that had to be preserved and employed for the good of America. In its preamble, Wilkins wrote:

To preserve the greatness of any society, we must have freedom and the strength to protect it. if that strength is embodied by a certain group of citizens, then we must protect that group because by doing so, we are protecting freedom itself.

It was a controversial law that was attacked by lawyers and religious organizations. In the end, the law was passed because it was righteous, based on a plain and undeniable truth and six of the nine Supreme Court Justices were Black women

Immediately, sisters became the first choice in all things American. The beauty standard changed and millions of women poured into tanning salons trying to become “more beautiful.” The hairstyles and body image of the sisters became the fashion and Playtex made a fortune selling butt pads.

White men turned away from other women by the millions, trying to attain the new symbol of power, a Sister. And the intra-racial male/female conflicts which had been the plague of the Black race were now belonged to other races.

Black men who already had black women in their lives realized a new sense of worth about these creatures they had taken for granted. It was like finding out that the old, rusty penny in your sock drawer was a treasure worth a fortune.

Even the language changed. “Sister” became a word which described various positive notions. “Very Sister of you,” indicates that you had done something nice for someone. That’s so Sister,” denotes a clever, smart action. “A Sister move,” was anything that’s a powerplay, and “Get some sister in you,” which means to become better at navigating your existence, becoming a better person.

The face of Black women also became a symbol of strength and positive imagery. The smiling visages of Black women now stand for the resurgence of the American way. She looks down from billboards and the sides of tall buildings. She watches over us on TV and provides inspiration in films. The Sister is an all-powerful hero, who is comfort to the domestic masses and strikes fear in the hearts of our enemies.

It seemed only natural to me that Black women would rise to power in this country. They were dragged here to work as slaves. They were raped and torn from their families and watched their men beaten into submission and killed. Later they were rejected as second-class citizens by the majority and even some within their own race.

Even in the age of liberalism and enlightenment, Sisters watched helplessly as women of other races were lifted above them as preferable and the images of Black women were reduced to fat, silly caricatures. While others were given their due, the double curse of Black women lead a pathway straight to the bottom rung of the ladder.

For years, the oppression of the Sisters was turning the coal into a diamond. Black women developed an unshakeable core of strength and power that was passed down from generation to generation, mother to child, sister to sister, friend to friend. This power evolved into an indefinable quality that everyone could see, but none could touch or emulate.

The Standard Changes

Black women were revered by other women who wanted their power, but not their burden. They were secretly loved by white men who lusted after their sexually, but were afraid of the package it came in, and they were forgotten by their brothers, who saw the jewel, but were afraid of the work it took to get it.

I watched women suffer through all the indignities I’ve mentioned. I watched them be abandoned by their men and looked over by life. I’ve seen the subtle pain in their eyes as they watch other women be adored and watch themselves vilified and made fun of.

I’ve also been witness to the joy of their living, the happiness they’ve brought into the days of others. I’ve seen them take tragedy and mold it into triumph, take death and spin it into wisdom and catch hell and turn it into sunshine. And I have marveled at how they perform these miracles and never seem anything more than your sweet big mama, your blessed mother, loving sister, favorite teacher and the girl next door with the pretty smile.

So now that the Sisters are the leaders of the free world, I am happy. There are still some people who grouse, but they are just jealous or unenlightened. But America is back and for the foreseeable future the Sisters will be in control.

Copyright 2011

JESUS CALLS BULLS**T ON PROSPERITY RELIGION!

The Savior Is Fed Up With Prosperity Ministry, Hypocrites And Preachers Named After Money.

LAS VEGAS - The world was shocked today when Jesus, revealed Himself and stated that He was angry about the current state of religion in His name. The Savior indicates that if something doesn't change soon, He may have to "exert himself in this realm." No one knows what that means but everyone is afraid of what it can mean. Jesus was apparently feeling very "old testament."

Jesus was seen in Las Vegas and said he came there to make a point then noted that it is no longer Sin City.

The Son was asked to leave several casinos because every time He entered, everybody won at every game they were playing. The Wynn was hit for $27 million in less than an hour and had to close its doors.

Jesus then took to the street and addressed thousands of excited people as he spoke against the idea of prosperity religion.

Prosperity ministry is a form of Christianity that teaches people that they will be rewarded on Earth for godly acts and faith. Before this teaching, Christians were told that their reward was in the next life.




In the last few decades there was been an erosion of the church marked by sexual scandal, financial thievery and all manner of sin. At the same time, church attendance is down and in the black community, black men have literally disappeared from the houses of worship.

Jesus, no stranger to controversy, spoke on this subject and had this to say:

"There is nothing in this life worthy of your faith except The Father. Any force of the human spirit given to any earthly thing is misplaced and any love focused in the first instance away from God is a rebuke of His First Law."

Divinity experts say that this quote means that Jesus considers any faith placed on anything in this life a violation of the First Commandment "Thou shall have no Gods before me."

"We are reminded that money was not cited as the root of all evil but the love of money," said Dr. Rev. Arthur Young, a scholar and pastor of First Cathedral Church in Nevada. "God wants your love first and I don't think he's willing to compromise. We are so glad Jesus is back and my flock will heed his words."

Jesus spoke for over two hours about love, life and the concept of eternity. He took a few digressions to say that he was not fond of politicians who use His name in vain, reality shows and people who put self-serving Bible quotes on their Facebook pages.



But not everyone is in agreement. Rev. Creflo Dollar and Joel Osteen, noted prosperity ministers say they doubt this man is really Jesus. "We are trying to help people by letting them see that God can make their lives better," said Osteen from his $8 million dollar church. "Is it wrong to have a church that asks for money every week and tells people that God will give them that money back ten fold? I don't think so. I think it's good and I think God loves money, too."

"If this man is really Jesus," said Dollar from his G3 jet, "then why don't he come to my church? God wouldn't have created money if it wasn't good, right? I mean is a man not godly because he wears a $3,000 suit, has lots of jewelry, two Rolls Royces, a Jet and two mansions...." Dollar started rambling and then his wife pulled him away saying he was late for a sermon.

Jesus did not respond to either man but reminded us that when He was betrayed, Judas was not given power or even jewels, he was given man-made money. Then He made one last statement:

"You cannot see God with a doubtful heart nor hear Him with a doubtful spirit. The tragedy of the faithless is that God will always love them but they will never know His Grace."

Copyright 2011