When Stupid Became a Virtue

It was sometime in the year 2000 when I realized what was happening around me in America, I was watching George W. Bush speak. I was a junior in high school, and I wasn't eligible to vote yet. Now, we can debate the merits of whether or not George W. Bush was actually stupid, or whether it was an act (I believe it was mostly an act), but we cannot debate the bottom line- it helped him. I realized something as I watched him- he actually represented an alarmingly large portion of America while he butchered our language. He would be elected President that year.

The late-1990's were a different time in America. The "most important" issue in the country was whether or not it was a big deal that President Clinton had an affair with his intern. The Cold War was over, we had no rival in the world, and 9/11 hadn't happened yet, so most people in this country couldn't find the Middle East on a map. "Conspiracy theory" at that time centered around who killed the Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur. A walk down the board walk in New Jersey would entail looking at lots of "Austin 3:16" and "The Rock" shirts. The entire 1990's could be summed up by Seinfeld.

I consider the 1990's to be the golden age of my life, the best of times, period. With that said, it's not difficult to trace the line from those days in the late-1990's, through the Bush years, to the point we're at today- the era of Trump. I recently read an article blaming our current state of affairs on the TV show "Friends," and while I wouldn't entirely put this mess on that, the basic point is 100% true- We made it a virtue to be stupid. From that piece:

The show ended in 2004. The same year that Facebook began, the year that George W. Bush was re-elected to a second term, the year that reality television became a dominant force in pop culture, with American Idol starting an eight-year reign of terror as the No. 1 show in the U.S., the same year that Paris Hilton started her own “lifestyle brand” and released an autobiography. And Joey Tribbiani got a spin-off TV show. The year 2004 was when we completely gave up and embraced stupidity as a value. Just ask Green Day; their album American Idiot was released in 2004, and it won the Grammy for Best Rock Album. You can’t get more timely. The rejection of Ross marked the moment when much of America groaned, mid-sentence, at the voice of reason.

Yes, my theory is that Friends may have triggered the downfall of western civilization. You might think I’m crazy. But to quote Ross: “Oh, am I? Am I? Am I out of my mind? Am I losing my senses?” Did you know the song that originally accompanied the Friends pilot episode was R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know (And I Feel Fine).” A blissful song with an apocalyptic message that goes largely ignored.

I was a teacher in 2004. I coached our school’s chess club. I saw how my students were picked on, bullied. I tried my best to defend them, but I couldn’t be everywhere. My students were smart, huge nerds, and they were in hostile, unfriendly territory. Other students would be waiting outside my room to ambush the chess club members who met in my room every day at lunch. During my tenure as a teacher, I gained the reputation of being a slayer of bullies and defender of nerds. I promise you: bullies can be mean, but they knew Mr. Hopkins was much worse.

Maybe intellectuals have always been persecuted and shoved in lockers, but something in my gut tells me we’re at a low point — where social media interaction has replaced genuine debate and political discourse, where politicians are judged by whether we’d want to have a beer with them, where scientific consensus is rejected, where scientific research is underfunded, where journalism is drowning in celebrity gossip.

I see Kim Kardashian’s ass at the top of CNN.com, and I am scared.

It's hard to argue with much of that. Ross, the smart guy on the show, is depicted as weak, inept, and just not cool in general. He has to chase around Rachel, who really isn't that smart, and fails basically for the entire show. He is not depicted as the winner in the show. In fact, it's hard to find anyone in the show depicted as more of a loser.

Intelligence is not an American value. To be fair, America has done some really intelligent things- an interstate highway system, NASA, built amazing Skylines, earthquake-resistant buildings, anything done by the Army Corps of Engineers, amazing research at universities, even the internet- but we don't view Silicon Valley or Manhattan as the epicenter of American life. American identity is much less vested in Ernest Moniz, and much more so in Donald Trump. We don't elect the "smart" or qualified candidates for President, like Hillary Clinton or John Kerry, but we elect the "cool" ones- as we've seen time and time again.

We like balance in our debate, even if that "balance" puts climate deniers on the same pedestal as scientists. Frankly, we don't like scientists, I don't like scientists, because they tell me behaviors I like (like eating a Big Mac) aren't good for me, and I shouldn't do them. Intelligence challenges the norms, it challenges our way of life, and we don't like it. What we like is strength, particularly in men.

I actually think we crossed the tipping point when Sarah Palin was elevated to a national platform, but it's unfair to blame her for being unprepared and incapable. Palin was essentially a byproduct of years of "priming" of the pump towards stupidity. It began when everything was bliss, under Bill Clinton. It reached a fevered pitch in 2016, when we elected a reality TV star over Bill Clinton's wife. Where we go from here is truly uncertain to me, but I am quite concerned that we will continue to elevate "stupid" as a virtue. We certainly don't value intelligence, deep thought, and learning as the key virtues to success today.