I call it "Idiots' Delight," to use a term coined by my late father, a physics professor who made it his business to combat ignorance and stupidity wherever it may arise. In the USA, of course, intelligence for its own sake has historically been met with suspicion, if not downright hostility. It's ingrained in the culture and language: "All he's got is book smarts;" "I'm a doer, not a thinker;" "If he's so smart, why ain't he rich?” etc. Charlie Daniels sums it up with this refrain:
Now you intellectuals may not like it
But there ain't nothin' that you can do
'Cause there's a whole lot more of us common-folks
Then there ever will be of you
Who says "common folks" can't be intelligent? My maternal grandfather, his three children and thirteen grandchildren mostly were farmers who "made their livin'/by the sweat of their brow/and the calluses on their hands," yet every last one graduated from college! (One became a professor. So there, Charlie!)
President Bill Clinton was reviled in certain circles for being a Rhodes scholar, while his successor G. W. Bush bragged how "Even 'C' students can become President." And of course, under Number 45, this anti-intellectualism reached its nadir and has continued to this day. It's hardly surprising that violence and hatred have taken over.
And now this cancer of idiocy has spread to other seemingly rational countries--witness the violence in Ireland, where I now live, over the past couple of days. For those who haven't been following the news, an incident occurred in downtown Dublin on Thursday Nov. 23rd, in which some preschool children were stabbed and seriously injured by a man in his 50s who was evidently suffering from mental illness. Since the man was apparently a naturalized immigrant (and also homeless,) the incident sparked a violent riot fomented by right-wing anti-immigrant groups. (The fact that the hero of the day who managed to stop the attack was also an immigrant, didn't seem to register.) The number of troublemakers involved was fairly small — 500 or so — but they inflicted significant amounts of damage. 34 arrests were made that night, with more to come. The Irish, of course, have historically seen much more than their share of street violence but have enjoyed relative peace since the implementation of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which effectively ended the sectarian violence of the Troubles.
The earlier violent periods have been explained, if not necessarily justified, by tribalism and class warfare. But how was Thursday's riot explained? What possible excuse could there be to burn buildings, buses and police cars because of an isolated incident? Will it help those unfortunate children? Will it prevent a future attack on children? Will it solve any problem at all? Of course not! It was an excuse by the willfully ignorant to act like idiots, egged on by other idiots, who've been fed disinformation for years in place of proper education. Ignorance breeds fear, which breeds hate, which leads to violence and destruction. Ultimately, the only way to combat wanton aggression is to build a society in which people are encouraged — and expected — to behave rationally. That is the Herculean challenge of today.
