Mindset of mediocrity
Isn't it disturbing that it doesn't seem important how intelligent our Presidential candidates are. McCain is not ashamed to state that he graduated fifth from the bottom in his class. The Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin changed schools several times and is mostly noted for her ability to shoot something from a helicopter--she is not noted for her IQ--but instead for how well she knows how to read a speech from a tele-prompter?
The attributes McCain stresses in his campaign are not those of mental prowess but of having learned much from defeat.
Let's see, our current President was not noted for his good grades. He was also not noted for his business sense when he was running for President. I remember that he lost money and was then rescued by parental connections. His money came from daddy who got rich through his daddy who got rich, I wonder how.
Barack Obama does have the mettle to be President, and yet he does not stress that he knows more than your average Joe Blow. He doesn't want to be called elitist, I hear. Now, what's wrong with being an elitist. Doesn't that mean that he is thought to be from the elite? Has anyone asked that question? Those people making Obama into an elitist apparently are themselves not from the elite. Where does it come from that it is better for a Presidential candidate to be slightly daft, and not from the elite. Do you really have to appear lacking in your faculties and otherwise not as principled in your thought processes to qualify?
I recently read in E-Week that the German Chancellor Angela Merkel is listed among the top 100 IT personalities. Among all world leaders she is thought to be the most internet savvy in the world. She is a physicist by training.
Why can't we elect someone like that and know that we are doing it because that person has a superior intellect. Where did we get this wish for mediocrity? Or are we all mercury impaired? In 1926 Alfred Stock said "Quem Mercurius perdere vult, dementat prius". That means "Whom (the God) Mercury wants to destroy, he afflicts with dementia." Are we all toxically impaired? Are we that far gone? Have we already gone down the road of old Rome? Or are we just pretending.
The attributes McCain stresses in his campaign are not those of mental prowess but of having learned much from defeat.
Let's see, our current President was not noted for his good grades. He was also not noted for his business sense when he was running for President. I remember that he lost money and was then rescued by parental connections. His money came from daddy who got rich through his daddy who got rich, I wonder how.
Barack Obama does have the mettle to be President, and yet he does not stress that he knows more than your average Joe Blow. He doesn't want to be called elitist, I hear. Now, what's wrong with being an elitist. Doesn't that mean that he is thought to be from the elite? Has anyone asked that question? Those people making Obama into an elitist apparently are themselves not from the elite. Where does it come from that it is better for a Presidential candidate to be slightly daft, and not from the elite. Do you really have to appear lacking in your faculties and otherwise not as principled in your thought processes to qualify?
I recently read in E-Week that the German Chancellor Angela Merkel is listed among the top 100 IT personalities. Among all world leaders she is thought to be the most internet savvy in the world. She is a physicist by training.
Why can't we elect someone like that and know that we are doing it because that person has a superior intellect. Where did we get this wish for mediocrity? Or are we all mercury impaired? In 1926 Alfred Stock said "Quem Mercurius perdere vult, dementat prius". That means "Whom (the God) Mercury wants to destroy, he afflicts with dementia." Are we all toxically impaired? Are we that far gone? Have we already gone down the road of old Rome? Or are we just pretending.
posted by Birgit Calhoun at 7:32 PM
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