globalized stupidity

I was reading a post in my subscriptions on google reader and I realized all of a sudden what I couldn't put my finger on, about the latest trend in western (especially American) society: it is simple, plain, stupidity!

(Maybe I realized this because Bruce Schneier said it plainly in his post; that is beyond the scope of my ramblings here eitherway.)

(Disclaimer:)I know it sounds pretty inflammatory and I realize there have been lots of people talking about "typical American stupidity", which, in my opinion, goes right there with "women are inferior", "blonds are stupid", "policemen are idiots" and other ... well ... stupid generalizations.

I'm not trying to generalize here, because I couldn't: America is the last superpower (well ... maybe China is somewhere near, at least in potential), and you clearly don't get there by being stupid. Infact, I believe strongly that being smart and being stupid, are not mutually exclusive: I don't see stupidity as lack of thinking ability, but as lack of thinking willingness, as not taking responsibility of your thinking process.

Once one gets to this point of view (that stupidity doesn't mean lack of capability), stupidity is plain to see wherever you look, especially in intelligent people. Its like participating in your own version of Idiocracy:

You see the CIA-orchestrated bombing of a mosque, and fifteen years later the US starts a terrorist war on terrorism (consider that no heads in the US fell for that CIA attack, so basically they can perform terrorist attacks with total impunity; its others that should be punished):

A second candidate for most extreme act of Mideast international terrorism in the peak year of 1985 is a car-bombing in Beirut on March 8 that killed 80 people and wounded 256. The bomb was placed outside a Mosque, timed to explode when worshippers left. "About 250 girls and women in flowing black chadors, pouring out of Friday prayers at the Imam Rida Mosque, took the brunt of the blast," Nora Boustany reported. The bomb also "burned babies in their beds," killed children "as they walked home from the mosque," and "devastated the main street of the densely populated" West Beirut suburb. The target was a Shi'ite leader accused of complicity in terrorism, but he escaped. The crime was organized by the CIA and its Saudi clients with the assistance of British intelligence. NOTE{Boustany, _Washington Post Weekly_, March 14, 1988; Bob Woodward, _Veil_ (Simon & Schuster, 1987, 396f.).}

(from here)

You see censorship at UN level.

You see mafia officially deciding on state affairs in a small European country (to also point at my own country).

You see people in the streets deciding (sometimes enthusiastically or with a small smile on their faces) "whom we should nuke next".

These are just part of the things I see stupidity in, and I'm tired; look for your own proofs of lack of critical thinking, of stupidity; its ... educational :).