STUPIDITY RISING
7 Rants On Behalf Of The Lost Art of Common Sense
J. Allen Thomas
Copyright (C) 2009 - J. Allen Thomas
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
Rant I - THE MEDIA
Rant II - ASININE PHRASES
Rant III - POLITCAL CORRECTNESS
Rant IV - THE OPEN ROAD
Rant V - SERVICE REPS
Rant VI - PEOPLE
Rant VII - COMMON SENSE
Preface
As the world descends deeper and deeper into an abyss of absolute stupidity, those
of us who can remember a better time in which we lived have a multitude of things
to be righteously angry about now.
Not everyone will agree with the things that I'm about to rant about. And that's
probably because they weren't around when things were more or less based on
common sense. They most likely were born and raised in the current assinine society
that we live in now. The stupidity is a normal way of life for them. The use of
common sense in this current society is virtually non-existent. It has become a lost
art, much like the use of Latin as a language. Most people, thanks to outside stimuli
such as the household television set, have been conditioned to completely abandon
the use of their brains. They allow the TV to do their thinking for them, to shape
their opinions, and to dictate how they should talk and act in everyday life, all the
while convincing them that they will have "one up" on everyone else if they do so.
And the truly sad part of all of this is the frenzied rush by the masses to adopt and
put into effect the mindless, empty nonsense that is wheeled out to them as the next
big thing. Just the fact that there are people out there who need a media created "big
thing" to quantify themselves is pitiful in itself.
Those of us who remember a time of common sense need to do more, a lot more, to
raise our children in the realm of common sense. Lord knows, the world around us
won't provide any sense at all. And, unfortunately, most people today are content to
ride the idiot train right on into the wall.
Rant I - THE MEDIA
Back in the days of intelligence, the TV only had 13 channels. And out of that
13, only about 8 of them actually did any broadcasting. Those 8 stations provided
top-notch entertainment. Remember the days when you had to switch back and
forth between two, and sometimes three, channels, because there was something
good playing on several stations at the same time? You could spend the whole
evening with your family, watching great, classic programs, back-to-back. Even the
commercials were entertaining. Not so today! Today, you can skip through over
100 channels and not find one thing on that's worth watching. How many times
have you sat there clicking through all of the channels, over and over again, hoping
that you may come across something, anything, that's worth watching?
And the commercials? Forget it! The commercials are so extremely assinine that
you have to strain to keep yourself from kicking in your TV screen. Most
commercials are such an outright insult to common intelligence that you have to
come to the conclusion that it is not by accident that they are that way. There seems
to be a designed mission afoot to feed and foster out-and-out stupidity among the
masses. And it's working.
There seems to be a need amongst many, many people to define and quantify
themselves in the stream of history. In order to do this, they attach themselves to
whatever "fad", or "thing", that happens to be in effect at the moment. If they had a
sound family and cultural structure as a foundation, plus, a lick of common sense,
then they wouldn't need something as abysmal as the television, or more precisely,
the media, to define and shape their lives. You see it every day. People out there,
acting just as stupid and brainless as the characters on their favorite TV shows.
These are so-called adults that I'm talking about, not impressionable kids. How
many times have you been at a restaurant, or in a store, and you over-hear some
idiot talking complete nonsense. And you recognize the nonsense as being similar
to the retarded foolishness that certain commercials are flouting over the airwaves.
You can't help but over-hear it, because the jerk in question is talking louder than
he/she has to, because they feel that they must impress the people around them,
thereby quantifying their existence. Natural common sense would've told the
jerk-in-question that not only is he not impressing anyone, but he is in fact
annoying everyone. But, alas, there is an extreme lack of common sense pervading
society, and the jerk-in-question will indeed impress some of the people around
him/her, because, unfortunately, they need to quantify themselves also.
The media puts it into the brains of the feeble-minded that in order to quantify
your existence, to show that you really matter in the grand scheme of things, then
you must latch onto whatever foolish fad, catch-phrase, or style that they happen to
be wheeling out to you at the moment. And you'd better be quick about it, because,
heaven knows, you don't want anyone else to hop onto that trend before you do.
The underlying message is: Be the first in your circle of friends to talk like this; or
own this; or drink this; or wear this. The conclusion being: If you do this before
everyone else, then that makes you better than everyone else. And that's exactly how
the commercials play up their wares. The main character making it obvious to
everyone in a public place that he/she uses a certain product, while everyone else
gazes in awe at this person. There's one out there now that features a bunch of
people standing in the aspirin aisle of a supermarket, all reading the labels of
various pain relievers to themselves out loud. The first three focus on the side effects
of the labels that they're reading.....out loud. The last one, obviously reading from
the label of the sponsor's brand, decides to skip over the side effects and just read
about the good things about the product....out loud. She then marches off with a
triumphant look on her face as the other three idiots, duly impressed, watch her
with dumb-struck awe written all over their faces. Thank goodness she decided to
read the label out loud, or else nowone would've benefited from such timely
information. Now, when was the last time you saw a group of people, strangers to
each other, standing around in a supermarket reading brand labels to themselves
out loud? Hence, the insult to the intelligence. The sponsor's woman, after duly
impressing the others with her ability to read a label, immediately adopts an
attitude of superiority over the others. And they in turn adopt an attitude of
inferiority, as they watch her with awe. Hence, the underlying message of: Buy this
product so that you can be better than everyone else. The sad part of this is that you
will actually start to see people behaving like the characters in this commercial.
Don't be surprised if you're in a store, and some dopey woman eases up near you
and starts talking out loud, to nowone in particular, about a product that she's in
the habit of buying. The fool is no doubt trying to impress you, and everyone in
earshot, with how much "ahead of the curve" she thinks she is. She's trying to
quantify her existence. These are the stupid idiots that I'm talking about. They allow
the media to define their behavior and their lives.
And then there's the news.....
Once upon a time, the TV News was serious business. The anchormen were
serious about their jobs, and the news that was delivered was just that.....NEWS. No
nonsense, hard-hitting, timely NEWS. Walter Cronkite, Huntley & Brinkley, Ed
Murrow, Bill Beutel & Roger Grimsby, Tom Dunn, these were the guys that fronted
the network news shows back when news was to be taken seriously. Not so today.
Todays network news shows are a total farce! You'll barely get any news on these
shows, but you'll definitely get a ton of complete, unnecessary nonsense that serves
to waste your time and dull your mind. The news shows of today have been reduced
to glorified Hollywood gossip shows that may give you a smattering of topical news,
but are more concerned with droning on about irrelevant human nature stories and
who's-sleeping-with-who-style tattling. The serious Cronkites, Huntleys, and
Brinkleys have been replaced by a gaggle of bubble-headed bimbos who can barely
read the teleprompters. Judging by the useless information that they've been hired
to deliver, these twitty airheads are appropriate for the job. They spend a half an
hour promising to tell us about some vital news item, and then deluge us with total,
useless b.s. about entertainers adopting foreign kids, or some poor mutt who
survived a fire and needs a loving home, or what kind of dress some politician's wife
is wearing. If I wanted a steady stream of unadulterated, useless crap to flow from
my TV, I'd turn to the 'E! Network' (and that'll never happen). There's no reason in
the known universe why a news program should be reduced to the level of a gossip
show. Unless.....the execs at the top know that they are catering to an audience of
idiots (that they played a big part in creating), and want to keep it that way. The
only one on the news program who's still allowed to do his job in a somewhat
reasonable way is the weatherman. But even then, instead of just shifting over to the
weather, the anchor-people are required to engage the weatherman in some sort of
inane banter, that's supposed to be funny (I guess), before turning the reigns over to
him. Ha haa, what light-hearted folks we are, and everything's just a-okay!
Meanwhile, the storm is headed straight for your house, and you can't get a simple
update because the news crew all want to be comedians at the same time. Trying to
be a comedian when your a newscaster can get you fired. There was once a
weatherman named Tex Antoine. If you're from the New York - New Jersey area,
you probably remember him from the old WABC news show. Well, once upon a
time, after a news report about a rape incident, Mr. Antoine, before starting his
weather forecast, decided to make a little funny based on the rape report. Needless
to say, he was gone by the end of the week. And this man had been the weatherman
of all weathermen for years. Suffice it to say: News and jokes don't mix. Just give us
the news straight, no chaser. There's enough serious news going on, especially
nowadays, to fill up a half-hour time slot without having to resort to useless E!-style
garbage to pass the time. And please, no more bubbleheads.
Here's a good question: Why do we need an over-abundance of "Reality" shows
polluting our TV sets? I have more than enough on my plate dealing with my own
reality, and I have absolutely no interest in minding someone else's business. Are
people that stupid and oblivious to their own lives that they need to spend their time
all up in other people's foolishness? And that's exactly what all of these "Reality"
shows are about: Foolishness. Most of the "Reality" shows are centered around some
rich low-life's degenerate lifestyle. Are these people's lives the example that we want
our children to follow? Some idiots out there think so. And that's all they talk about.
Did you see what happened to so-and-so last night? I can't wait 'til next week to see if
she gets kicked off! Meanwhile, their own reality is standing on the brink of oblivion.
Could it be that we're force-fed this trite nonsense as a way to keep us from
concentrating on how to upgrade our own realities? Ask yourself this question: Do
you really care about some has-been entertainer's private life, a life that's still
light-years better than yours, to the point where you start to neglect your own life
because of this obsession? Or do you really care about some squabbling couple and
their 8 crumb-snatchers to the point where you start to neglect your own family
affairs? Remember, all of those idiots on TV are being paid to roll their personal
business out onto Front Street, while you and I are still being short-changed in the
game of life. People need to wake up from all of this stupid, distracting, useless
nonsense, and begin to get their own lives on track.
Believe it or not, there was once a time when you had to have talent to make it
in the music industry. I grew up in the 60's and 70's, and back then, singers really
knew how to sing. They had to. That was the only way that you were going to get a
contract with a record company. You had to have talent. You had to be very good at
what you did. Not today! Nowadays, you can warble off-key all you want, as long as
you look good, and the song has some sort of idiotic hook, you're good-to-go. Just
look at the bevy of weak-voiced, off-key, female singers that are out there today
making millions! And the guys. You can't tell them apart anymore, 'cause they're all
trying to sound like each other: Nasally and whiney. The public has been so
thoroughly dumbed down over the years that they actually think that these off-key
warblers are good! Listen to some of these "popular" singers of today, and then
compare them to singers of the 60's and 70's. Can Rihianna, or Beyonce, or Britney
Spears compare to Aretha Franklin, or Chaka Khan, or Dusty Springfield? Of
course not! But don't try to tell that to today's music buying public. They'll swear up
and down that today's singers are the greatest singers of all time. That's because
they've been fed a steady stream of mediocrity over the years, and they've come to
accept it. If you've grown up listening to crap all of your life, then that crap sounds
great to you. It's all you know. I once got into a fierce argument with a cousin of
mine because I criticized one of today's popular singers. The singer in question can
carry a tune nowadays, but when she first came on the scene she sang waaay off
key, and it was noticeable. Well, my cousin absolutely lost it! She ranted and raged
about how the singer puts her soul into every song, and how she had a hard life, and
this and that. You see, my cousin grew up listening to that steady stream of
mediocrity. She wasn't around when singers could actually sing. And that's the
problem that we have today. The mass acceptance of mediocrity in entertainment.
The music companies roll out a ton of garbage every year, and the obedient,
dumbed down idiots eat it up as if it were gold. It's no wonder that the music
industry is falling on hard times. How many times have you seen entertainers with
actual talent fall by the wayside because the record companies would rather pour all
of their resources into promoting some untalented bozo who's songs feature some
of the dumbest lyrics ever written. And the bozo ends up making millions, because
the buying public have been reduced to mental bozos themselves, due to years of
being fed mediocrity as a form of entertainment. A good example of this is the
devolution of Rap/Hip Hop. I grew up in the South Bronx. I was there when Rap
started in the mid 1970's. I saw it evolve into a positive movement for intellectual
enlightenment. Performers such as KRS-One, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious
Five, BlackWatch, Public Enemy (despite the presence of Flavor Flav), and the
various Native Tongues, all had positive, uplifting messages in their music. And
they had talent. And then......the big record companies took over the Rap industry.
And look at what happened. The positive messages were slowly weaned out. The
talented innovators were left by the wayside. An atmosphere of violence and
misogyny was imposed on the music. Mediocrity settled in. And what we have
today, for the most part, is a herd of talentless knuckleheads, mouths filled with
elaborate, unnecessary "grills" which, by the way, make them look like a bunch of
1959 Buicks, bodies covered with graffiti in the form of unnecessary "tats", and rap
lyrics that have absolutely no value what-so-ever. And this is the garbage that's
influencing the young people of today. Todays popular music, in general, is an
accurate reflection of the mental retardation that is successfully going on in society.
If "stupid" is the norm for you today, then "even more stupid" will be the norm for
you tomorrow. And it'll only get worse. If you don't think so, just check out this
Lady GaGa person. You'll see exactly what I'm talking about.
To go along with the state of mediocrity in today's music, there is a complete
lack of ingenuity that co-exists with it. When the art (if you want to call it that) of
sampling music first came along, it was vaguely interesting, seeing how they could
take a snippet of a song and rearrange it into a completely different song. But we
should have known that this idea of sampling wouldn't lead to anything beneficial
for the state of music. What it did lead to was a complete lack of ingenuity in music.
Nowadays, instead of sampling a snippet of a classic song, the lazy, untalented,
producers lift the whole song. Music, arrangements, the whole thing. They steal the
entire song, put some new, uninspired lyrics over the music track, and peddle it out
to the public as if it's a new song. And, given the state of utter ignorance that
pervades the youth of today, they view these songs as being original. If you play
"Stormy" by the Classics IV, people will swear up and down that they stole the
music from John Legend's "Save Room", not knowing that "Save Room" actually
lifted the music from "Stormy". The hit songs of the 60's and 70's are timeless
classics. They're established hits. An established hit will top the charts no matter
what era you play it in. Given enough airplay, they would be hits again and again,
year after year. The lazy producers of today know this. So, why not take the entire
rhythm arrangement of a classic, make up some new lyrics, and roll it on out there
to the ignorant public. They'll eat it right up! And they certainly do. But I think that
I speak for many when I say that I don't want the classics to be rehashed and
regurgitated. I like the idea of talented producers and songwriters coming up with
new, original songs. But, alas, there's a lack of talented producers and songwriters
out there, and if the untalented ones can make a quick buck by reworking an
established hit, and peddling it out to the masses as something new, then that's what
they're going to do. And that's because they have no talent of their own.
Unoriginality over ingenuity.
Remember back when radio was fun. Every radio station had it's own group of
on-air personalities, giving each station it's own flavor. When I was growing up in
New York, we had WWRL, with Hal Jackson, Gary Byrd, Gerry Bledsoe, and
others; WMCA, with Harry Harrison, Jack Spector, and the 'Good Guys'; WABC,
with Cousin Brucie, and the 'All-Americans'; and WBLS, with Frankie Crocker, Ken
Webb, and Vy Higginson. Every city had it's own radio station, with it's own
line-up of personalities. Each station had it's own style in which it presented the
music. And it was great. And there was an abundance of good, original music being
played.
Well, unfortunately, those days are long gone. Nowadays, the radio stations are
all owned by a small handful of media conglomerates, like Clear Channel and
Infinity Broadcasting, and these conglomerates have completely drained the life and
fun out of our favorite radio stations. The stations are now mostly automated,
wherein one studio feeds the broadcast to a multitude of stations around the
country, and instead of hearing a unique radio personality, you get some bland jerk,
trying to be witty and relevant, as they play the same five songs over and over and
over again. You used to be able to drive from city to city, and each city had it's own
station that gave that city it's own feel. Nowadays, you drive from city to city, and
you get that same bland jerk, and those same five songs, in every city you drive
through. Needless to say, today's radio sucks.
What you have now is the result of a group of untalented, uninspired,
corner-cutting, greedy, media execs and program directors, who know absolutely
nothing about radio, and absolutely don't care, as long as they turn a profit with the
sponsors, who, by the way, also don't care. And, coupled with the crap that's
currently being peddled as popular music, your left with three or four crummy
radio stations in your town, all playing the same five crappy songs over and over
again. Ain't life grand? It's no wonder that people everywhere spend almost 24
hours a day with earphones on, listening to their I-Pods, locked into their own
worlds.
Even the so-called 'oldies' stations reek with mediocrity as their formats reflect
the trite, empty production values of the 'pop' and 'urban' stations, picking about
five generic songs to play over and over again. On any so-called 'Cool' oldies station
in any given town, you're bound to hear at least two songs by The Eagles, a couple
of Beatles songs, and "Do You Love Me?" by The Contours, at least twice every two
hours, all day long. If you don't believe me, turn to your local 'Cool Oldies' station,
and, within a span of two hours, count how many times you hear an Eagles song, a
Beatles song, and "Do You Love Me?". Not that I have anything against these
particular groups. I think they're all great. But there's more to being a classic oldies
station than simply wading through an obligatory repetition of The Eagles, The
Beatles, and "Do You Love Me?", mixed in with 'New Wave' junk from the 80's that
don't even qualify as classic 'oldies'. And guess who owns all of these 'Cool Oldies'
stations? The same bunch of soul-less sycophants that are already ruining radio as a
whole. Today's radio not only sucks, it sucks and blows.
The media as a whole covers all of society in an electronic net of beamed-in
idiocy and utter triteness, as each successive generation becomes conditioned to