Words to the wise

by

by David Safier

From today's Bob Herbert column, Stop Being Stupid:

We have behaved in ways that were incredibly, astonishingly and embarrassingly stupid for much too long. We’ve wrecked the economy and mortgaged the future of generations yet unborn. We don’t even know if we’ll have an automobile industry in the coming years. It’s time to stop the self-destruction.

The slogan? “Invest in the U.S.” By that I mean we should stop squandering the nation’s wealth on unnecessary warfare overseas and mindless consumption here at home and start making sensible investments in the well-being of the American people and the long-term health of the economy.

And let's be clear. The "stupid" here are from the most educated classes, so it's not about bad education. They fell prey to a combination of self-delusion and greed. Better schools won't correct that. And among the "stupid" were religious, church/synagogue/mosque going folks, so let's not talk moral decay either. This is about some of the worst traits in human nature being allowed to run rampant and overwhelm our economy.

The New Testament has Jesus saying, "The poor will always be with us."

I'll say, the stupidly, self-delusionally greedy will always be with us. That's one of the reasons we have governments with regulatory agencies, police and jails. So our own greed and the greed of others doesn't trample us to death.

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1 thought on “Words to the wise”

  1. Why pick just one human failing, Mr. Herbert, when all of them are at work? Mr. Obama doesn’t like finger-pointers, as we all know. O might intone Pogo’s theorum, “We have met the enemy and he is US.”

    Stupidity didn’t even make the cut on the seven deadly sins.
    2.1 Lust (Latin, luxuria)
    2.2 Gluttony (Latin, gula)
    2.3 Greed (Latin, avaritia)
    2.4 Sloth (Latin, acedia)
    2.5 Wrath (Latin, ira)
    2.6 Envy (Latin, invidia)
    2.7 Pride (Latin, superbia)

    In our fair land, when you do something immoral or illegal these days and have the misfortune of being caught at it, your criminality is referred to as “stupid.”

    Imho, stupid ain’t the problem at all.

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