Dumb ideas

At 6th Annual Rat-A-Rama, Mitsu,
a Russian Blue Wheaton Burmese (rat),
won best of show in solid color category.

For a species that is supposed to have intelligence so much superior to all other creatures we certainly have a long legacy of really dumb ideas. In fact, we have such a long history of dumb ideas I doubt they could all even be exposed. The introduction of the mongoose in Hawaii, for example, was a really dumb idea. Introducing raccoons to Germany also. Putting beavers in parts of South American was really dumb. Rabbit in Australia likewise. Taking Indian children from their parents and forcing them to go to white schools was a dumb idea. Trying to get people in the Sepik River of New Guinea to plant rice was a dumb idea. Trying to get New Guinea Highlanders, who had never even seen cattle, to raise them was a dumb idea. Abstinence only sex education is a dumb idea. The “war” on drugs is an even dumber idea, just as prohibition was a dumb idea. Damming many of our rivers with no thought of the consequences was a dumb idea. Unregulated capitalism is a dumb idea, as is most deregulation. Smoking was a really dumb idea. The idea that everyone needs a personal automobile, rather than adequate public transportation, is a truly dumb idea. Now there is talk of subsidizing nuclear energy, an idea so dumb as to be suicidal. Need I continue? As a species we have done so many dumb things it boggles the mind. I see no end in sight.

But perhaps the dumbest idea of all was establishing a Jewish state in the middle of the Arab Middle East. I suppose one might argue that at the time it was somehow a good idea, as no one seemed very eager to take in Jewish refugees, including our own United States and Britain. So what better solution than to give them their own nation in Palestine. If the Palestinians were not so unreasonable about having their land stolen maybe this would have been a good idea. On the other hand, if the Israelis had not been so greedy for land and water maybe it would have been a good idea. Of course any serious thought about it, before it happened, might have been a warning that no people, anywhere, including the Palestinians, would be happy about having their lands usurped and given to others. But colonial powers are known for having been all-stupid rather than all knowing, and the consequences of their stupidity and arrogance are now haunting us on a daily basis. The Israelis, not content with their slow process of genocide, are now threatening to retake Gaza (and speed things up), and seem also to be determined to drag the U.S. into a war with Iran, if not Syria and Lebanon besides. They want us to believe not only that Iran is working on a bomb, but if they get it the first thing they will do is drop it on them (this is a fantasy that makes beliefs about space aliens look reasonable). I don’t know if the Iranians are developing a bomb or not. I do know they are not crazy enough to immediately go out and drop it on Israel, even if they had it. What makes this even dumber is the fact there is no real evidence they are even close to having such a bomb. So true to our heritage of truly dumb ideas we demand they give up what they may not even be doing before we will even discuss their giving it up. That is to say, we want to have a meeting with them, but only if the subject matter of the meeting has been decided in our favor in advance. Is that not a dumb idea? It’s certainly dumb enough that we ought to know it isn’t going to work, but we insist on it anyway. Furthermore, the idea that our much vaunted military will be the solution to all our problems has been demonstrated to be false, but we continue to insist on it anyway (a true mark of insanity as well as a really dumb strategy). Oh well, if all of our dumb ideas haven’t destroyed us so far, why should we not just continue on into the future. I mean, dumping waste into our rivers, lakes, and oceans haven’t killed us yet, so why not continue? Overfishing and overlogging haven’t yet done us in, so why not continue? The dams haven’t yet managed to destroy all the salmon, so why worry. The Bush/Cheney approach to the Middle East has proven to be a complete and utter disaster, so why not let McCain continue that? And as global warming is just a myth created by that mythmaker, Al Gore, why cut emissions or anything? We have not yet proven that we are, in fact, about the dumbest creatures on earth, but we are certainly on our way.

LKBIQ:
“Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago.”
Bernard Berenson