Age of Stupidity

One of the truisms I stumbled upon at a young age, in a moment of precocious clarity, had to do with the nettlesome issue of stupidity. It suddenly occured to me that one could never overcome another's stupidity, but could learn to take advantage of it. As the world turns, I find this fact never changes, and many folks, from Barnum to Bush, have put this axiom to practice.

Stupidity has been weaving its noxious way through our society and is more evident than ever today. To the universe it is merely a small period in wich a minor planet revolves once about its axis. To the charlatans of this world it is June 6, 2006, or in a numerical abbreviation, 06/06/06. That neat coincidence was enough to generate all sorts of doomsday predictions from the Idiots of the Apocalypse, who continue to misinterpret the writings of the Scriptures to decide that "666" represented the number of the AntiChrist.

Now sensible scholars have studied the texts and proposed that #666 was a contemporary allusion to Nero, a rather nasty Roman emperor, whose name, when spelled out in Hebrew characters--which are and were also used as numerals--comes out as 666. I'm sure the persecuted Jews of that day saw him as a great beast and could certainly fear his resurrection as much as any one in the next few millennia. But of course those Idiots who choose to read the Bible literally are all agog about the number. I remember one otherwise rational friend who went apoplectic when the last three numerals of her credit card number were 666.

But for marketing, what a wonder the number makes. This is especially too for the opportunistic producers of the remake of "The Omen," a nearly iconic horror film of the vivid '70s, which followed the shocking climax of its progenitor "Rosemary's Baby" with a devil-wins-out denouement of its own. I will not be celebrating this date by attending the opening of yet another remake, but there are surely millions of stupid folks out there who will, and then will go home to read their "Left Behind" novels and start storing up on duct tape. Stupidity wins.

Another issue in the forefront today, speaking of more stupidity, is the "Defense of Marriage Act" that President Bush is trying, insincerely, to foist on congress, as a salve to his most cretinous supporters, the fundamentalist crackpots who believe that their marriages are so fragile that they cannot stand in the face of two lesbians in Massachusetts taking a vow and kissing. There is actually a debate going on now in the Capitol, but I can't imagine what actual evidence the proponents of the bill (and would-be Constitutional Amendment) can provide to illustrate how any one marriage has been harmed by the desire of a small minority of same-sex couples to live in monogamous support of each other. As usual with this Administration, the new "law" has been given an Orwellian twist in its title. Gays aren't attacking marriage; they are supporting it. Far be it from the bill's advocates to call the bill what it is, which is the "We Hate Fags Amendment."

Meanwhile 50 people a day are being slaughtered in the ongoing Iraqi quagmire, and they are being kidnapped and beheaded and occasionally slaughtered by angry American marines. But how important is that compared with the need to keep Barney Frank from tying the knot with his boy toy? And how coincidental that Bush's anti-gay marriage onslaught occurs on the day that several states are having their primaries. Well, homophobia won him an election in 2004, so it's worth a try. Bush knows how to take advantage of stupidity; as Woody Allen once said of his prowess in sex, he "practices a lot when he's alone".