When did the lowbrows take over the culture?

American Thinker ^ | June 26, 2009 | James Lewis

[neverdem]

I've been trying to grasp for a truth that is so obvious that all of us know it. But it's not a polite truth, so we don't talk about it. Yet I think it's important to say it out loud, because it is a truth that haunts our national discourse.

As a nation we are under the thumb of idiots. Not just indoctrinated, or wrong-thinking, or power-hungry, or manipulative, or even malevolent people. No, I mean real lowbrows, people who constantly fall for really stupid ideas. Neanderthals. (Look at the Governor of California just running the state budget into the ground. See what I mean? That's not just incompetence. It takes special stupidity, almost a deliberate, willful absence of real thinking.)

The Federal EPA is about to officially declare carbon dioxide to be a pollutant. That's not just false and unscientific; it's not just an excuse for taxing everything in sight, including breathing. It's not merely wrong. It's idiotic. It marks a low point in our national conversation. Scientists or engineers with a grain of sense shouldn't be taking the EPA seriously for a second. Forget the "climate experts," with their grossly inadequate computer models. Normally intelligent people should boggle at the EPA. They are bizarre. Only the truly ignorant could fall for this level of ignorance. Or those who just can't think.

Or look at Obama's unbelievable spending spree. No sane and sensible taxpayer could possibly believe that spending trillions and trillions of dollars on blue-sky fantasies makes any sense at all; the only reason Americans aren't in open rebellion yet is that half of them can't believe it's happening, and the other half are idiots. We haven't seen the effect (yet) on our pocketbooks. There's food in the stores still, and housing has gotten cheaper. But let Obama's budget affect our wallets directly and just watch the voters explode with rage.

The Democrats in Congress are trying desperately to put the brakes on Obama's egomaniacal ambitions because they can see themselves going over the edge in 2010. In a self-respecting, intelligent culture, the Obama budget would be dead on arrival. It's an insult to our national intelligence. (His foreign policy is more of the same.)

Or look at the global warming farce, still hotly pursued by the political classes in Europe and this country, although the Australians seem to be coming to their senses. China now has more millionaires than the UK, because they use all their resources, like coal, to fire their industrial plants. They will never sacrifice a single luxury car to the cap and trade fraud. Neither will India. China and India have been under the thumb of egomaniacal socialists (in the case of India) and communists (in the case of China). They've been there, done that, seen the suffering.

No wonder those Chinese college students fell all over themselves with laughter when Timothy Geithner assured them that Obama would never spend the United States into debt. What an idiot! They laughed because Geithner's stupidity or mendacity was too obvious for words.

That's how we should all react to the miserable frauds who are now in national office. You have to dull your senses with drugs or endless propaganda to fall for it. I've sometimes wondered how many people must have killed off their critical thinking with alcohol and drugs. I know a walking few drug casualties myself, people who just burned out their brains. I'm sure they voted for Obama.

Or maybe there's such a thing as learned stupidity. How else can so many people be so idiotic?  Our national IQ has dropped to about 75: Several standard deviations below normal.

Well, we have now voted in a President for the lowbrows. Yes, Obama himself is smart enough; even smart enough to say a few years ago that he didn't feel ready for the presidency. Well, now we can see why he said that. But legions of idiots voted for a man who was plainly unqualified, even by his own estimation, and surrounded by a bunch of malignant sociopaths like Wright and Ayers and all the rest.  How could he possibly win? Well, Obama cynically appealed to the idiots -- the young, the stupid, the naive, the silly, the rock idol worshippers, and probably the drug-addled masses, all the lowbrows in the land.

That includes the idiot savants of academia. Academics have a very narrow band of intelligence, something that satirists since Aristophanes have noticed and poked fun at. The first philosopher in Western history was Thales of Elea; Thales featured in Greek folklore as a man who walked around at night gazing at the stars only to fall into a ditch. That's probably a folksy giggle at the absent-minded professor who is constantly bumping into walls. But there's a big element of truth in it. Academics can be incredibly ignorant and dumb outside of their small areas of expertise. Professors and media scribblers generally lack human smarts. They are sure suckers for all the con artists of the day.

Obama is a smooth-talking hustler who has specialized in charming academic liberals, like a smart graduate student who needs to impress his teachers with every word. They just dote on him, like a proud parent smiling on a favorite child. He's their dream, a black man who sounds so smart. 

In his press conferences he hypnotizes all the ink-stained wretches of the media. It's a sight to behold. The man swats a fly and the suck-ups of the media go ga-ga with applause, and go back and write articles about it. That's not just a reflection on their (lack of) character and judgment. It's not just their childish immaturity. It's a reflection on their brains, or rather, on all that empty space between their ears. Our media stars are just not very bright. They're idiots. That single fact explains a lot. (And yes, they are also corrupt, easily seduced, haunted by deadlines, decadent in their values, and very prone to mob thinking. But if they had any brains it might be harder to manipulate them like this. The White House just pulls their strings and they dance.)

Obama's 22 White House czars. That's really stupid. As well as a violation of the Constitution. But it's a Chinese laugh line. It's so obviously wrong and power-mad that it's not worth debating.

Legalizing drugs. That's really stupid.

Obama's power-grab over the medical sector of the economy? It's profoundly stupid. We can insure all the uninsured people in the country for a tiny fraction of all that money. We just need to fix the tire on our national car, and this guy tries to sell us a brand-new O-mobile, it can practically fly off the lot, all on credit, long-term payments, no money down. It's gonna be free!  So what if you have to mortgage your wife and children?  Even if we already have two national lemons in our garage, Medicare and Medicaid, which nobody likes. Now Obee is trying to sell us on a really, really expensive dream mobile that will fix our problems forever, plus it'll be cheaper than what we have now!

Can you believe it?

That sales pitch only works for idiots.

The rise to power and fame of the real lowbrows explains a lot. It even points to an answer of sorts. Because we've all been intimidated by the Cult of Nice not to contradict anybody who comes out with a really stupid, destructive idea. We can no longer call a really stupid idea what it is. I know that I censor myself all the time. We have been taught to keep our mouths shut when a word in time might make a real difference. We have allowed the national conversation to be dumbed down.

Here's my resolution for July Fourth: From now on I'm going to call idiocy idiotic. Not nastily, but as clearly as I can. It is high time for normal, intelligent common sense to become acceptable again. I'm happy to have a respectful argument with anyone who disagrees with me. But I'm going to start saying the magic words:

That's really dumb! That's really ignorant! You haven't thought about that much, have you? Have you ever considered another side of that batty idea?

I promise to be nice.

But honest.

Pass the word.

If we all start doing it we can change the world.

[Darkwolf377]

The lowbrow takeover began when people started thinking news and education had to be "fun" and that they didn't have to put a little effort into expanding their brains. Neil Postman pointed out that Sesame Street's arrival coincided with a lowering of children's reading skills.

Americans see the word "discipline" as dirty. You mean you have to actually WORK to improve your life, your health, and to attain what you want? Forget it!

Americans sit in front of that stupid TV instead of reading, or just talking to each other, or playing sports without it becoming some kind of hate-filled proof of their machismo (which isn't the same as manhood). Americans think there is no honor in passing up a chance to kick someone when they're down. It's EVIL to think you have the right to an opinion different from someone else's.

We label everyone as Good or Bad based entirely on a party affiliation, when in years past our parents had friends of different persuasions and political differences were not so great that "patriotism" was a dirty word to anyone.

At some point, in the 60's or 70's, the idea that the ultimate state of goodness was in behaving like a child. I think that's where all this started. IMHO.

[familyop]

I very much agree. There’s a “lowbrow” trend in leadership in more ways than mentioned. Even more of that is being lined-up by our political elite for our near future. Defaults at every level are probably the only way to needed corrections.

[Salamander]

“Liberalism is an infirmity that gives psychotics identity”

[driftless2]

Some people (sounding like Obama) believe that it’s a good thing that most Americans are uninvolved in politics. Uninvolved is one thing, and ignorant is another. The fact is the great majority of Americans of all political stripes are ignorant. Conservatives fare better than liberals, but even many Republicans I know, though anti-Obama, are mostly apathetic. I guarantee you the Big Game still garners most or more of their attention than what goes on in Washington. Obama and his cohorts have kidnapped American, and most people are content to water their lawns. Uninvolved and ignorant means libs triumph.

[saintgermaine]

This excellent article says it all. It is a pleasure to know that there are still a few people out there who can think straight.

[nathanbedford]

The author' s description of the problem is spot on especially when he observes:

He's their dream, a black man who sounds so smart. in a

In this observation he's getting close to the efficient producing cause which is not, however as he suggests, that America is lowbrow, although that might well be true, or that half of us are idiots, although that too may well be true, the real cause is that we are the victims of a cult.

A national pathology in which intellect or education have virtually nothing to do with the process. We are knowingly but happily being deluded. Some of us are expiating guilt for imagined generational sins of racism and slavery. Others are playing out psychological grudges against the world. Others are wallowing in utopian orgasms. For almost all of these, the phenomenon of reinforcement by surrender to the group is fully at play. In no case will a resort to reason prove an effective therapy.

If you want to bring a teenage child out of the clutches of a cult you cannot do it with adult discussion about the folly of his worldview you must utterly crack the wall of defenses so carefully corrected around the subject's ego. This is why I said before the election that Obama must be morally destroyed or the election was lost.

To attack the mentality which is now controlling America by appealing to reason-we're talking about the bulk of the country who remains under Obama spell-is hopeless. They key is to find a new emotional trigger.

[fr_freak]

The author is absolutely correct, but he leaves out a key part of this game: political correctness. We all know the effect that it has, though. For example, you can call people stupid all day if you want, as long as they aren’t black, brown, yellow, or gay. Obama himself is proof of this. This guy should have been labeled a goofball dumbass from the get-go, but everyone is afraid to say so because he is more or less black. Even the Republicans fall all over themselves to say things like “I disagree with Obama, but he sure is a smart guy”. He’s not a smart guy - he’s a dumbass who can read a teleprompter with feeling. If he were white, he wouldn’t have been able to get elected dog catcher.

[NoLibZone]

The day the NEA Unions took control of our schools.

[arbooz]

As a nation we are under the thumb of idiots.

I don't think so. We are under the thumb of evil statists filled with hate for traditional America. The idiots are us.

[Darkwolf377]

This excellent article says it all. It is a pleasure to know that there are still a few people out there who can think straight.

It seems like 75% of the articles I find interesting on FR are posted by neverdem. He/she is a great flag for the good stuff.

[Miss Behave]

Another home run of a post, neverdem. Thanks, it's excellent. And I need to start memorizing my lines:

[That's really dumb! That's really ignorant! You haven't thought about that much, have you? Have you ever considered another side of that batty idea?]

Power to the (sane) people.

[donna]

No God = No Common Sense.

[Vaduz]

The Democrats in Congress are trying desperately to put the brakes on Obama’s egomaniacal ambitions because they can see themselves going over the edge.that part is right dumming down works.

[shibumi]

"When did the lowbrows take over the culture?"

In 1933, with the publication of The Humanist Manifesto I.

[Tares]

bttt

[pieceofthepuzzle]

Spot on. It’s ironic that the left has deemed themselves ‘the intellectual’ party. This characterization must not be left to stand in the public domain If we are to bring common sense back to political debate.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

Spot on. It’s ironic that the left has deemed themselves ‘the intellectual’ party. This characterization must not be left to stand in the public domain If we are to bring common sense back to political debate.

[ZeitgeistSurfer]

While the author is generally correct, he does tend to confound stupid with evil and corrupt. The cabal in power is not just being ignorant, just as Stalin and his crowd were not just being stupid when they killed 30 million of their own people. These people know what they are doing. They have a goal and a plan - socialism. It's stupid for Americans to fall for any of it, but what the Obamanoids are doing is pure evil.

[greedo]

From now on I'm going to call idiocy idiotic.

---

meghan's new pic

meghan's latest thoughts

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

It’s ironic that the left has deemed themselves ‘the intellectual’ party.

And the right was complicit. Read "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life" by Richard Hofstadter.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

It’s ironic that the left has deemed themselves ‘the intellectual’ party.

Ever since the first leftist carved out that territory in Eden!

[Darkwolf377]

In 1933, with the publication of The Humanist Manifesto I.

That's not true, and a misreading of "lowbrows"--the 'highbrows" were much more interested in that.

[Darkwolf377]

If you want to bring a teenage child out of the clutches of a cult you cannot do it with adult discussion about the folly of his worldview

You keep giving me excuses to praise you--it looks like logrolling, but there it is.

As someone who works with emotionally-disturbed teens, I can say you are 100% correct here. I've seen so many foolish, idealistic just-out-of-college counselors standing there talking "reason" with (to site one example) a girl who has just responded to a redirection by dropping her pants and going to the bathroom in the middle of a room that isn't the bathroom. People like this, believe it or not, don't change their approach after such an event--they just think they have to talk slowly and look in the kids' eyes, and eventually, tears will fall, music will swell, and teacher and student will walk together on the road to recovery.

It doesn't happen that way.

Yelling certainly doesn't work, neither does calling names.

You've hit on the solution. It's not "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" to find out what the kid will respond to and start using it. It's learning the language they speak, and then finding what to say in that language which will communicate the truth. As with maladjusted kids, the masses need to be dealt with on an emotional, not a logical, level. Things we mock like Triumph of the Will-like sets won this last election--appealing to "common sense" didn't.

Obama isn't intelligent--he's a stupid person's idea of an intelligent person. And...he beat us. (Let's not get into yet another pointless distraction about how the party let us down, you know what I'm saying.)

We must learn the code he used, and then we have to use it. To say "No, no, we can't do that, that's so...common!" is the same as standing in the corner with arms crossed until we get invited to join the party. Everyone else is too busy partying to bother with those seeking to be invited.

[SkyPilot]

Our national IQ has dropped to about 75

I don't know if it is that low nationally, but definitely is not what it used to be.

The nations with the lowest IQs are in Sub-Saharan Africa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_IQ

Equatorial Guinea has the lowest at 59. Here we get into the the book "The Bell Curve" and all of its controversy - but facts are facts.

This is an excellent reference as well.

Has America been dumbed down (literally) by immigration from other nations in recent years.

Undoubtedly.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

Yes, Obama himself is smart enough

Whoa nelly. No he isn't. It's all in the delivery, and even there it's kind of spotty. The voice, the tone, the wpm all tend to advance the spell and disguise the uhs and ers.

Only 2 days ago this "smart" imposter spewed one of the stupidest things I've yet heard from a POTUS: "...then why is it that the government, which they say can't run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That's not logical.”

If one reads him rather than listens, the spell is void. He's no smarter than a Hollywood actor playing the role of a wise man.

[Crolis]

Thanks Neverdem, an excellent article.

[Markos33]

“That’s not true, and a misreading of “lowbrows” —”the highbrows” were much more interested in that.”

---

Those would be “lowbrows” passing themselves off as highbrow.

[LibLieSlayer]

I said it two years ago and I have said it since... and I have been attacked on FR for being “stupid”... but hussein is dumber than a box of rocks and he is actually nothing but a mind numbed robot for alinsky.

LLS

[Quiller]

When did the lowbrows take over the culture?

Laugh tracks.

When "comedy" shows stopped relying on talent, and began using laugh tracks (or in Letterman's case, squinty cues) to let people know what was funny.

At that point, any stupid comment became "funny".

Any slam of a good person by an a$$hole could be highlighted as funny.

Any diminuation of Dad by an arrogant, clueless teenager became 'funny'.

Any effort to maintain civility and consideration that lost out to guile and rudeness became 'funny'. If you want to erode something of value, use it as a target of derision -- the laugh track lets viewers accurately identify the current target of derision, and promotes the (false) concept that it is wide-spread derision.

If you want to take something which was previously unacceptable or immoral and make it generally accepted, use opposition to it as the butt of comedy -- and the laugh track lets the public know exactly what is being presented as the butt of the joke.

If you want to rescue the public mentality and preserve traditions, get rid of the laugh track.

Because too many people cannot distinguish between what they see on TV, and how reality functions.

[don-o]

ping to a fine article.

As Exhibit 1 in support, I offer the MSM obsession with the death of Michael Jackson.

[Miss Behave]

I tend to agree with you, 668. I see Zero as a too-smart-by-half vessel whose hocus-pocus focus is fueled by anger and a disdainful need to "get even."

I also see him as a sort of Marxist mountebank.

[corlorde]

"Everything moral has become immoral, everything insane has become sane"

~Savage

[raybbr]

Is that her or a parody? What does the NO H8 stand for?

[greedo]

It's this guy's idea:

Adam Bouska's Blog

[raybbr]

Sigh! I guess some people will do anything to get their name in the paper.

[TalBlack]

“How else can so many people be so idiotic?”

PC. Political correctness. All through history it is the same. PC is the pressure wave that forms as a result of the driving thrust of Evil. There is nothing new under the sun.

[Red Dog #1]

In deed it's no accident, Antonio Gramsci's "long march through the institutions," is bearing fruit. Of course the left could very well succeed at destroying western society as we know it but their dream of enacting a utopia will never be achieved. Instead all we'll end up with a an oligarchy presiding over mediocrity. But isn't power an ends to it's self?

For some interesting reading and to understand Gramsci's impact on the modern, I highly recommend Googleing his name. It'll provide several days of reading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Gramsci

[bert]

They have already destroyed the society and replaced it with dysfunctional urban enclaves

[Wilhelm Tell]

And the right was complicit. Read "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life" by Richard Hofstadter.

On the right there is too often anti-intellectualism. Leftists are myopic in spite of their utopian pretenses. The left views everything through a narrow Marxist filter and this severely limits critical thinking. We need to get beyond the anti-intellectualism of some on the right (again, I say just some) vs. the faux-intellectualism of the left.

It is a shame that all of the right gets saddled with accusations of anti-intellectualism because of perhaps a few flat-earthers. Many ideas on the right (a dynamic market, federalism) are newer and more sophisticated than the ideas on the left (a planned economy, rule by an oligarchy or dictator).

[rockinqsranch]

I too am fed up with the game of watching what I say, and have asked of the Leftist idiots this:

“Do you believe in Pixie’s and Fairydust!?” If the person stops to think about it I leave quickly, but if they answer right away “NO”, as most do, then I ask them “then why do you believe in Democrats?”

The usual response is a bewildered expression with a sort of laugh.

I don’t know if it’s doing any good or not.

[PGalt]

HOORAY James Lewis! OUTSTANDING article! Thanks very much for posting, neverdem.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

I think many of the responses in this thread and find myself agreeing with almost all of them.

My $.02 is that 0bama politics to me is along the lines of dope-smoking politics. All this stuff makes sense - as long as you’re sitting in a room somewhere puffin’ on a big Bob Marley joint, looking at black light posters.

If you’re out in the cold light of day, working for a living in the real world none of it makes sense.

Our national nightmare is (to me) the equivalent of a nation sitting around the bong, listening to reggae music, eating Doritos, and talking about how we’re going to “change the world”.

This is what (to me) gives so much of it an air of unreality.

[Anima Mundi]

I agree with you and nathanbedford:
find a new emotional trigger...and learn the language they speak. Any ideas anyone? I would love to work on this because I really do see the cultish nature of the Left and have not yet successfully managed to reach them. Reason really does not work at all. They will simply look confused and run away like a vampire from a cross.

[nathanbedford]

DarkWolf: I would be very grateful if you would let me have the benefits of your thoughts about a phrase in my reply it did not slip in there by accident: in a"For almost all of these, the phenomenon of reinforcement by surrender to the group is fully at play."

We can look at a soldier's buddy system, a maniacal suicidal Islamist, a ladies sewing circle, or the Michael Jackson fan base, and we see the dominating power of the group and the psychological boost accorded to the individual who submits to the ethos of the group.

I am groping toward some sort of idea that the surrender phenomenon has been brilliantly exploited by Obama. You mention "Triumph of the Will" and Leni Riefenstahl could have written Obama's celluloid primer. I'm beginning to think that the phenomenon applies generally to liberals and it is why they are indifferent to reason and utterly shameless in their illogic. I have floated this idea several times without response. Just this morning in commenting on the fabulous Marine of Carlson' s Raiders fame, I floated and it's again. Again no response. I would be grateful if you would take a look at that thread and see if you think there is anything to this. Here are the relevant parts of my comment:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2279723/posts

A fascinating character and clearly one of the historical characters used as a model by Griffith for his hero "Killer" McCoy.

I find Carlsons flirtation with the left fascinating and worthy of exploration. Evidently, he was remarkably successful in inculcating unit cohesion by copying the Communist Chinese methods which he described as, "gung ho."

For some time I have been suggesting that there is tremendous psychological power which comes to the individual when he surrenders his ego. Understanding the power of this phenomenon imparts understanding of the power of the left over the mind of those in the cult. This is part and parcel of the evangelical Christian experience, for example. The left induces the individual to surrender himself and his own identity and submerge it into the group instead of God. When the individual accomplishes this, he is rewarded with a wave of emotions and a feeling of well-being, integrity, identity, and belonging which replace an aching unease and sense of apartness which plague so many in this world. This phenomenon has been well recorded by psychologists.

I believe this has much to offer in explaining the power of the left and and why lefties are immune to logic, why their political alignment is a matter of emotion and not of logic and therefore immune to reason. One might say that the Marine Corps, for example, strips away the ego of the recruit in boot camp and replaces it with a group a identity. "Once a Marine, always a Marine." It seems that Carlson has taken this one step further. It is interesting that he insisted that his men be indoctrinated politically.

It also might explain why the Democrats are so invested in identity politics. Why they see the world as a collection of groups rather than as individuals. Why, for example, healthcare or college admissions should be doled out not to individuals but to group recipients.

Of course, my hope is that if we can generally understand what we are up against we can cope with it. Right now we conservatives/Republicans seem to conceive of our political enemies as either unwashed versions of ourselves, stupid, venal, or or just evil. I don't bring any of these explanations is the real key.

What do you think?

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

anti-intellectualism of some on the right ...vs. the faux-intellectualism of the left

The former often arises from the latter. Some on the right are solid, commonsense folks but they can't engage the "egghead" left in articulate debate. The contempt they feel is genuine and the faux-intellectual deserves it, but the only response is ridicule and dismissal, without careful demolition in logic. Argument is a skill not everyone has.

Then too, when most of the so-called intellectuals in this world are the products of leftist universities and the saturating propaganda of the media, one can be forgiven for generalized anti-intellectualism. You run into an intellectual, odds are he's a lib and a poseur phony.

[Need4Truth]

Very interesting post, Sir!

They key is to find a new emotional trigger.

or perhaps a spiritual revival.

[MrB]

The beginning of all wisdom is the reverence for God.
Conversely... without reverence for God, all are fools.

And the basis of all earthly ideological error is the concept that “man is basically good”. Stamp it out, confront it, whenever you see it or hear it.

[Peet]

You keep giving me excuses to praise you--

You should talk, Darkwolf! You dropped a gem, and absolute jewel, in your screed that sums up not only Zero, but most especially the pseudo-intellectual leftie Zero-worshippers I've met recently.

To wit: "Obama isn't intelligent--he's a stupid person's idea of an intelligent person."

Thanks for summing it up so well...

Peet

[RoadTest]

It’s the clay. Daniel 2:32: “ This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
33: His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.”

The image was of the four successive kingdoms that have ruled the world; from top to feet: Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome, represented by gold, silver, brass and iron, successively.

However the iron (representing the early and latter Roman empire) is mixed with clay. That, to me, represents the dumbos getting ready to run the world today.