The Idiot Generation

After overhearing a conversation about the artistic merit of ‘modern masterpiece’ films such as “Knocked Up” and “Wedding Crashers” for their ability to represent our generation, I nearly vomited. It was at this point that the cold realization hit me, that these mediums are the ones whom indeed represent my generation-and I am the one who does not.


Anna Nicole Smith-can I get a witness? This debacle of a human life is a prime example of this nation and the media’s clear obsession with celebrities and the pointless drama-much of it media fueled and created-that plagues all of us. Why is it that even on such ‘informative’ channels such as CNN, NECN, or even Fox News, I can not seem to find any ‘news’? Is there any outrage over the media’s obsession with celebrities? I mean, for pete’s sake, there are a couple of wars going on. (Albeit a couple of them are taking place in countries that the majority of us could not find on a map even if Britney Spears or Seth Rogan whispered clues in our ears).

After viewing painfully ‘full and complete’ coverage about the marriages, addictions, and car accidents of the rich and famous, I embarrassingly acknowledge that this is not the problem, but the symptom of a much deeper cancer afflicting the minds of our nation. Indeed, this sickness is deeper than the macabre thrill of watching a rich, beautiful, famous individual succumb to human weakness and hubris. It is a sign that our culture is starting to tank and taint this generation as The Idiot Generation.

How many people do I know that simply don't read? That can not even remember the last time they even contemplated opening a book? How many people can name, by heart,
the characters from 'Heros' and the actors that play them, but not the secretary of state,vice president, or speaker of the house? Is this a reflection of our government’s squandering of time and money over stupid and trivial issues such as political correctness in regards to holidays, or is this what gives them the gall to lie to our very faces?

If, perhaps,more Americans reluctantly opened books, we would have more intelligent citizens, and more intelligent representatives. I can't help but believe that the election of George W. Bush (twice!) is a direct symptom of this Idiot Culture that we breed with our electronic distractions and alternatives
to genuine operation of the brain.

Free circus and bread, football and cheap beer, keeps the masses slow, docile, and stupid the way we need to be if wars are to be started under false pretenses or if our civil liberties are to be stripped from underneath our feet as we stand watching, mouth ajar with drool oozing down our chins, Hannah Montana or Lost. As other nations who have not had the luxury to get fat on Mcdonalds and prosports and Hollywood hash start to multiply and modernize, as their economies will inevitably pass ours, I can't help but wonder, will anyone I went to high school with even notice? Or will I instead get a call describing the season finale to "The Amazing Race" even though India and China’s total GDP has surpassed ours?

Perhaps these dismal electronic distractions, which offer no perspective or comparison, no critical thinking or analysis, reduced to unreferencable half hour memories, are the reasons why our clowns, actors and athletes are paid considerably more than even the most deserving humans contributing to our existence and evolution.

Reading is not the same as sitting in front of an electronic stimulation device all day. By reading, ideas are exchanged and acknowledged,compared and contrasted, blended and balanced. A thirty minute television program can be similar, but rather than absorbing like a sponge, television pounds and tenderizes like a hammer one view home, one ideal of life where everyone is beautiful, cars are fast, the weather is sunny, and all conflicts can be resolved in thirty minutes. Instead of the notions of Freeman, King, Huxley, or Orwell living vicariously through modern youth, I see the tight jeans, pierced navels, tramp-stamp tattoos and pretentious selfish attitudes embedded within the all too ignorant youth who lack the perspective to know any better.

Art is an important aspect to life, but modern entertainment is akin to a thirty second car crash,
with no sympathy or thoughts about the event itself, but merely appreciation for the screeching breaks and crashing of glass. Perhaps this is an isolated view of a bitter man who watches uneducated, chiseled human hamburgers each Sunday afternoon in the local bar, bashing each other apart, as I slowly drink myself to death, trying to escape the harsh fact that these jesters
get free rides thru school and make millions of dollars more in one year on their respective stages than I ever will in my whole life-times a thousand.

Or perhaps this is a symptom of a more wide spread disease, one I callously refer to as The Idiot Generation.

Regards, Esortnom