Karl Marx
13-04-2004, 11:34
"We love freedom, but thinking is rough"
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Tuesday, April 13, 2004
By Reg Henry
One of the tiresome things about the human condition is the onerous burden of thinking. As much as possible, the happy and well-balanced person will avoid thinking, beyond engaging a few basic issues, such as, "What's for dinner?"
Thinking is very hard work. Worse yet, even if you bother to think deeply, nobody knows you have done it because all the heavy lifting goes on inside your brain, and you get no credit for the effort.
In fact, the only way to draw attention to your thinking is to assume the pose of "The Thinker." In this famous sculpture by Auguste Rodin, a man sits naked on a rock, with his hand on his chin and his arm propped up by his knee, while the words "hmm" seem to hover above him. But this is hardly a decent posture that most of us can adopt at home or work, so it's better to give the whole exercise a miss.
Thinking only causes confusion and despondency anyway. If you examine all sides of an issue, not surprisingly, you are left with all sides of the issue to consider.
Facts only get in the way of an uncomplicated viewpoint, and it would be much better if you just listened to Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly, selfless fellows who will do all your thinking for you.
Moreover, thinking is a known cause of baldness. The brain scrunches up with the mental effort, and the follicles are forced up and out of the scalp. That is why intellectuals grow beards -- they are forced to compensate.
Fortunately, American culture has invented many diversions to keep us away from the dangerous temptation to think for ourselves.
As you know, television was specifically invented for this purpose.
Even the best schools, which are ostensibly in the business of thinking, put great emphasis on sports, so that grinding the brain gears is kept in its proper perspective.
Any successful president of the United States knows that people don't like to think too much.
A true leader knows that the people who go to NASCAR races aren't sitting in the stands, quaffing a few beers and discussing Nietzsche.
Bill Clinton gave the appearance of being a commendably basic fellow, all feelings and no thoughts, but he was a phony in this and everything else. In fact, he was very smart -- not smart enough to keep his pants zipped up, to be sure, but he did have sophisticated thoughts that he was smart enough not to overemphasize.
In George W. Bush, we have a fine example of the uncluttered mind.
Consider this wonderful quote he gave the other day on the deteriorating situation in Iraq: "We've got tough work there because, you see, there are terrorists there who would rather kill innocent people than allow for the advance of freedom," he said. "That's what you're seeing going on: These people hate freedom, and we love freedom, and that's where the clash occurs."
Here is a statement luminous in its simplicity and clarity. It is foreign policy as fairy tale, understandable by kiddies and adults alike.
It is, in short, a no-brainer.
Of course, bald fellows with beards (probably liberals, because it is a well-known fact that they do not love freedom) might say that, while the Iraqis indeed have no tradition of democracy, perhaps some of these bad men want to be free of Americans in their own country.
But to say that is to introduce thoughts, which, as described above, are just so many pesky mosquitoes in life's swamp.
The way to swat these objections away is to take the president's simple view: Those people hate freedom, and we love freedom, and, blessedly, that's the end of the discussion.
I, for one, am glad that we have a president who is not interested in thinking. As befits a man who graduated from Yale and managed to avoid the temptation of mental effort, he is able to express perfectly what Americans are thinking, or not thinking, as it were.
It beats sitting on a rock naked and saying "Hmm."
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Tuesday, April 13, 2004
By Reg Henry
One of the tiresome things about the human condition is the onerous burden of thinking. As much as possible, the happy and well-balanced person will avoid thinking, beyond engaging a few basic issues, such as, "What's for dinner?"
Thinking is very hard work. Worse yet, even if you bother to think deeply, nobody knows you have done it because all the heavy lifting goes on inside your brain, and you get no credit for the effort.
In fact, the only way to draw attention to your thinking is to assume the pose of "The Thinker." In this famous sculpture by Auguste Rodin, a man sits naked on a rock, with his hand on his chin and his arm propped up by his knee, while the words "hmm" seem to hover above him. But this is hardly a decent posture that most of us can adopt at home or work, so it's better to give the whole exercise a miss.
Thinking only causes confusion and despondency anyway. If you examine all sides of an issue, not surprisingly, you are left with all sides of the issue to consider.
Facts only get in the way of an uncomplicated viewpoint, and it would be much better if you just listened to Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly, selfless fellows who will do all your thinking for you.
Moreover, thinking is a known cause of baldness. The brain scrunches up with the mental effort, and the follicles are forced up and out of the scalp. That is why intellectuals grow beards -- they are forced to compensate.
Fortunately, American culture has invented many diversions to keep us away from the dangerous temptation to think for ourselves.
As you know, television was specifically invented for this purpose.
Even the best schools, which are ostensibly in the business of thinking, put great emphasis on sports, so that grinding the brain gears is kept in its proper perspective.
Any successful president of the United States knows that people don't like to think too much.
A true leader knows that the people who go to NASCAR races aren't sitting in the stands, quaffing a few beers and discussing Nietzsche.
Bill Clinton gave the appearance of being a commendably basic fellow, all feelings and no thoughts, but he was a phony in this and everything else. In fact, he was very smart -- not smart enough to keep his pants zipped up, to be sure, but he did have sophisticated thoughts that he was smart enough not to overemphasize.
In George W. Bush, we have a fine example of the uncluttered mind.
Consider this wonderful quote he gave the other day on the deteriorating situation in Iraq: "We've got tough work there because, you see, there are terrorists there who would rather kill innocent people than allow for the advance of freedom," he said. "That's what you're seeing going on: These people hate freedom, and we love freedom, and that's where the clash occurs."
Here is a statement luminous in its simplicity and clarity. It is foreign policy as fairy tale, understandable by kiddies and adults alike.
It is, in short, a no-brainer.
Of course, bald fellows with beards (probably liberals, because it is a well-known fact that they do not love freedom) might say that, while the Iraqis indeed have no tradition of democracy, perhaps some of these bad men want to be free of Americans in their own country.
But to say that is to introduce thoughts, which, as described above, are just so many pesky mosquitoes in life's swamp.
The way to swat these objections away is to take the president's simple view: Those people hate freedom, and we love freedom, and, blessedly, that's the end of the discussion.
I, for one, am glad that we have a president who is not interested in thinking. As befits a man who graduated from Yale and managed to avoid the temptation of mental effort, he is able to express perfectly what Americans are thinking, or not thinking, as it were.
It beats sitting on a rock naked and saying "Hmm."