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.