Why Do We Hate Smart People?

I think we need to reflect on why America hates intellectuals; more so now than ever before.  The first time I was aware of this uniquely American phenomenon was way back in the late 60's and early 70's when Spiro Agnew referred to the media as "elitists controlled by effete snobs (i.e. intellectuals)," referring to them also as "nattering nabobs of negativism." The trend continued to expand from there through Reagan, Clinton, Bush II to the present through whom Donald J. Trump has manifested its worst incarnation.

But, of course, it goes back farther than that; it's just that in the late 20th century till now it has become the dominating force behind all politics.  Today we could never elect a JFK or Jimmy Carter or FDR or Theodore, Roosevelt, or Abraham Lincoln.  No, they just wouldn't be flashy or "charismatic" (i.e. celebrity) enough to command the majority of America's electorate.  You see, in our present society we don't want to learn:  not just about politics, but ANYTHING that requires deliberation — thoughtful, introspective, cognitive thought.  The vast majority of Americans are an intellectually slothful lot.  I constantly hear the pundits on shows on MSNBC, CNN, PBS talk about how Americans don't follow this stuff (issues of the day) and are too wrapped up in their everyday lives to concern themselves with the matters in Washington.  That's bunk.  If you can read, if you can watch television, if you can hear the radio, if you are in anyway exposed to social media (the worst source of information), i.e., if you can, in any fashion, be exposed to the news, you can take a few minutes out of your day and learn about the people in Washington — whose decisions affect your life — are doing with your tax dollars, then you have no excuse.  Being informed is a civic duty.  Educating one's self as to political matters is vital to choosing good people to represent you.

Yet, the American electorate are pathetically ignorant of what their congresspersons and senators are doing on any issue, whether it's taxes, voting rights, reproductive rights, racism, foreign affairs, immigration, global warming, you name it; most Americans are profoundly ignorant.  One of the late night talk show hosts — Kimmel or Fallon — for awhile, would have these "man/woman on the street"  segments asking questions such as:  "Are you in favour of Obamacare?" to which (at the time a few years ago) most said they were against it.  Then, when asked if in favour of the Affordable Care Act they would be almost unanimous their approval! 10% of COLLEGE GRADS think Judge Judy is a member of the Supreme Court! Of course there were even worse examples such as not knowing who their senator (much less congressperson) was, or who was FDR.  I no longer watch late night TV since I have to get up at 5:10 a.m. during the week; but, it's just as well; because, I simply can't stand the embarrassment of how what is supposed to be the world's greatest democracy can be purportedly governed by such a mass of stupidity.  All I used to say to myself when I witnessed these farces was: "and these people vote?"  Fortunately, not many of them probably do, since... well, they can't be bothered or some other lame excuse.

Hence, Donald J. Trump.  HEY, BUT WAIT!  Didn't we elect Barack Obama?  Yeah, so? My point exactly.  Let's face it, as good as a lot of Democrats think he was — now — he was, for the most part (granted with the one substantial passage of the ACA) a pretty ineffectual president when it came to legislation and foreign affairs (remember the Red Line?).  Nevertheless, that doesn't really matter simply because he was a good president elected for all the wrong reasons:  Celebrity.  Celebrity is the primary means of getting elected.  Americans only vote for those they know through the celebrity sausage machine.  Barack Obama was elected because he was young, black and insouciant.  It was those qualities, plus the critical prerequisite endorsement of EFK and the rest of the clan, which first got him nominated and then elected.  His election had little to do with any policies which he never fully articulated during the campaign; it was all personality.  No different than Trump. And that's the problem. Democrats are looking for some one more dynamic, and at the same time familiar, to go up against Trump, who has managed to exploit the gullibility of the simpleminded of our society, who are currently at least 30-40% of the electorate, and hold an inordinate influence on our elections by means of the antiquated, corrupt, and now vulnerable electoral college system.

All this is a result of our dismal public education system which is funded, and therefore highly politicised, through the individual state/commonwealth governments, primarily by means of property taxes.  State and local governments are notoriously corrupt.  What I mean by corrupt is that the influence of money is is greater than it is in the federal government by the simple fact that the influencers don't need to spend as much as they need to at the federal level (This DOES NOT preclude the big money influence in D. C.  It's just easier at the state and local level!).  As a result, we have this system in which those who have money, and therefore, own (and can mostly afford) more highly taxed property get the better schools; whereas, those who own low end property, or can't afford to own property (rent) pay little or no taxes and therefore get the crumby schools.  Since most people don't have a lot of money or own high end property, it's most children who end up with the lower quality education.  The end result is an electorate who not only don't know anything outside their own sphere of experience, but simply don't care or realise their fiduciary responsibilities as citizens of a democratic society.  

A democratic society is dependent on an educated, critical thinking electorate:  something which America severely lacks, and has lacked for most of its existence.  The difference is with the current availability of knowledge accessibility, there simply is no excuse for the United States to regress from whence it has evolved because we, as a nation, refuse to treat learning and intellectual pursuit as a societal priority.

As the French philosopher Joseph de Maistre said:  "Every country gets the government it deserves."

Hard Cogitation Stuff

It's been along time (again); It's not that I haven't had a lot on my mind; just the opposite.  I can't seem to seem to decide where to begin.  I've tried to stay away from politics since the current state of affairs is so aggravating it's almost paralysing.  Nevertheless, I feel the need to express my thoughts about what's happening to our country and things more immediate to me; e.g. the impending demise of my alma mater Westminster Choir College.  Today it's Trump et al and our critically flawed electoral system — Russia notwithstanding.

Unfortunately, I was one of that small number of Democratic voters (although I'm registered independent) in 2016 who believed Michael Moore was right in predicting Trump's technical win.  As anybody with a modicum of intelligence can determine, the 2000 and the 2016 elections resoundingly  illustrate how completely dysfunctional the Electoral College concept has become.  In today's world it has become not only antiquated but is patently anti-democratic, as it disproportionately advantages the smaller, usually more rurally populated states.  As we all know those states which are primarily located in the midwest and the south and are traditionally very conservative; states in which women, people of colour, and non-traditional sexual orientation are still not not only disenfranchised, but often oppressed.  Id Est, states whose primary electorate is made up of white, marginally educated (i.e., yes, they can read, and may be able think, but simply refuse to do either), consciously or unconsciously racist and sexist, and unremittingly xenophobic.

These people, by virtue of their dismal education, are easily subject to pontifications, simplistic ideas and provocations of demagogues.  These are the same people who are more than happy to accept and believe in the casus belli of such a provocateur, not unlike the those who followed, Chairman Mao, Hitler, Stalin, Napoleon, Joseph McCarthy, etc.  This are the vulgus whose motto is: "My mind is made up.  Don't confuse me with the facts."  Quite simply this is the part of the electorate who simply can't fathom making an error in judgement.  As a result, the more they ARE shown the truth they dig deeper into the quagmire of their deliberate ignorance and will grope for anything, ANYTHING, that befits their preconceived and ill-informed ideas.  The end result, by means of the incommensurate Electoral College is a corrupt, sociopathic, charlatan such as Donald J. Trump becomes the buffoon leader of the free world; and everything the United States has endeavoured to achieve over the past seventy plus years goes to hell in a hand basket.

The truly depressing aspect of all of this is that this moronic, simpleminded segment of our society comprises over 30% of our electorate!  Ladies and gentlemen, we're talking millions, MILLIONS of people here who think this moral reprobate, this incessant prevaricator, emotionally arrested man-child; some one who has demonstrated over, and over that 1) he has absolutely no comprehension of constitutional governance and 2) doesn't care to learn about that or any other aspect of what his job entails is the greatest thing since the wheel.   They love him because he talks and acts like a sixth grade bully.  They'll excuse his lying about the wall, they'll excuse the loss of jobs he promised to keep, they'll excuse the higher cost to everything he's caused because of his trade wars with virtually everybody, they'll excuse his disgusting attitude toward women, the handicapped, and his overt racism because he talks their language.  They've deluded themselves into thinking he's "one of them."   The blinders are on so tight they simply can't see that Donald J. Trump doesn't give one iota, not a damn about any of them.  He knows how easily the stupid can be manipulated, and they've proven him right.                              

Quincy problem(s)

So, why the "s" in parenthesis?  Because Quincy has one main problem responsible for its economic malaise, which of course, results in the labyrinthine number of exasperations that currently exist in the "village" of Quincy, MA:  our current (and hope to be former) mayor.  I've lived in Quincy for a little over three years now and I already have become aware of the bumbling and possibly flagitious management of his city.  My general observation is that Quincy, despite its size (its is the largest city in Norfolk County and the eighth largest in the commonwealth) and relative historical significance, doesn't know what it wants to be i.e., it has no cogent, definitive, or enlightened strategy for economic development and cultural growth.   I suppose it's no surprise when you have an obtuse, meretricious mayor and a vexatiously complaisant council who will simply rubber stamp whatever hizzonor asks; who in turn is more than willing to bend over (and I don't mean backward) for whatever his chief donors expect.

Of course, the result is a large city with a very small town character.  I mean just look at Hancock Street.  I drive or walk down Hancock almost every day and see those two housing eyesores being built amid the increasing number of empty storefronts, bottom end retailers and addiction recovery facilities and wonder: Where is this exciting downtown development.  The condos are bad enough (at least the inhabitants will pay some form of property taxes); but that huge apartment complex Nova is hideous. Not only is it bloody ugly (why is that these projects invariably choose the least imaginative architects?), but it contributes nothing to the tax base.  And who among those future renters is going to have the disposable income when these places start at $1499 for studio?  There's already a paucity of sufficiently well-heeled denizens to make Hancock Street into a legitimately vibrant commercial centre.  Notwithstanding the Patriot Ledger's recent article on Quincy's turn toward commercial development, the project looks like a sprawling mish-mash supposedly focused around a medical facility with the developer's insistence (and ultimate Council's "roll-over Rover" approval) of the Whitwell apartment complex monstrosity.  Both are totally wrong:  first, the sprawling size and nature of "medical centre"  is better suited for the outer areas of the city, not downtown,  Second, the Whitwell project, like the other rental complexes, will be a drain on the city because (as we all know) renters don't pay property taxes.  Oh, and why does it constantly have to be FoxRock Properties Tommy?  Well, I can think of 100,000 reasons why.

Yes, It's Personal, and Don't Think It Could Be Otherwise

Rejection is not easy.  I don't give two hat full's of you-know-what about what anybody says to the contrary.  Employment rejection is hard enough.  When some inane, insipid, incompetent, no-nothing Human Resources moron, who knows nothing about the position for which you are applying, trashes your résumé and cover letter; or (worse yet), when HR, in their infinite laziness, trash your résumé or CV, and letter because it doesn't have the proper buzz words to correspond to the algorithm they've set up against which they scan it.  To these conscienceless, over paid, do nothing, hacks it's not personal.  Of course it isn't personal — to them.  How can a cold-blooded, mindless automaton think otherwise?  Notwithstanding, when you are the person on the other end, it can't be anything other than personal.  How can it not be? By simple virtue of the idea that it "it's nothing personal" makes it so.

Brains and Muscle Memory

As some of you might know, I’m back practising the organ with the intention of playing as part of a semi-dedicatory, or a full, recital (something I haven’t done in about 25 years).  Two pieces, the Cantabile by César Franck and Carillon de Westminster Op.54 #6 by Louis Vierne I’ve played before, albeit not since the previous mentioned time: then two other pieces I’ve never played in public, the J. S. Bach Fugue in g BWV 578 (the “Little”) and the Choral #3 in a by Franck.  I saved the Choral until late in life simply because of the life experience it requires to truly be able to play that piece with any integrity and sense of its profundity.  I had planned originally to include the J. S. Bach Prelude & Fugue in a BWV 543, but then I thought for the sake of the audience, and because the piece lends itself to innumerable stop/colour changes, I’ve decided to dust off the Toccata & Fugue in d BWV 565.  This last piece is something I haven’t played since I played it for “big” organ class at WCC in my freshman year.  One of the great pleasures I’ve had is remembering how I made the purists squirm in the pews of the chapel when I used a celeste near the end.

I guess the point I’m circumlocutingly trying to make is that after more than 50 years not even touching the piece since I last played it, after only two weeks of practise it’s all there!  After gradually reacquainting myself occasionally with the score, after a week or so I have it completely restored to my memory.  It’s an interesting phenomenon when practising; it has been a matter of my hands/feet catching up to my mind.  Since then I’ve been concentrating on fixing fingerings and adding new stop changes.  Nevertheless, I find it fascinating how the brain is able reclaim things that have laid dormant for so long.  As a result, I’ve just reclaimed from memory after more than a quarter century the first movement to Louis Vierne’s Deuxième Symphonie in e Op.20.  Again, it’s still a matter of the hands/feet catching up with the mind.

God knows if I’ll ever be able to have these (and anything else I plan to resurrect or learn) good enough for public performance.  I was never as technically proficient as others who started playing earlier than me and who have since managed to continue on a regular basis.  But, who knows.  I would like to be play in public again because most people still need someone to show them that organ doesn’t have to be the  monochromatic, boring, old fogey church instrument with which most people associate it.  We’ll see.

It's Been a Long Time (written very early in the a.m.)

It’s been a long time since I last wrote something.  Getting my thoughts together has been difficult.  A lot has happened since we moved to New England.   We’ve moved twice since then; the second time ended up with buying a house and becoming a dog owner (all since July 2016) — two things I never imagined would ever happen.  But, then who could have imagined the United States electing a narcissistic, mythomaniac, sociopathic man-child to be its president?  I mean just listen to this man.  He resorts to the kind of extreme superlatives that a 13 year old, or younger does.  His petulance (another sign of emotional and intellectual arrest) has not only become loathsomely notorious, but profoundly disturbing — at least to those us with a modicum of civility and intelligence.  And to those who still to this day follow and believe in him, well, as Martin Luther King Jr. said: “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

This turn of political events has affected me in a way I have never experienced previously in my life.  Not even when “W” was “elected” by the Supreme Court in 2000.  I thought then (still do) that he was an awful  president:  not very bright and lazy.  However, he did manage to behave himself as an adult and at least tried to understand the fundamentals and gravity of the office.  This unscrupulous, jejune, sociopathic martinet doesn’t have, or will ever have, any respect for the office in which he sits (when not in Mar a Lago), or its nation and its people — only himself, in true narcissistic character.  It’s monumentally depressing:  almost paralysingly depressing.

Distressingly, it has been one of only numerous reasons for what I can only describe as a depressive malaise or ennui into which I have descended leaving me feeling isolated and otiose.  As for the other matters concerning my lugubrious state of mind, I do have conflicted feelings about moving up here to New England, not the least of which is having left behind a perfectly adequate (and gradually improving) organ upon which to practise.  I have not been able to access such an instrument — not even an inadequate one.  I’ve tried to compensate by concentrating on those aspects of the piano which I find the least unsatisfying: art song accompaniment, ragtime, Bach and composing (yes, I do use the piano occasionally for composition — so, sue me); but, the piano is not the organ (more about my failing as a musician later).

Then there’s the new environment.  I become terribly isolated.  Not that I haven’t met some very lovely people up here; my neighbourhood is full of very friendly, agreeable people as are so many others I’ve met.  The problem is almost none of them have any association with fine arts, music in particular and, therefore offer little with which I can truly identify.  This isolation can be depressing.  This past four years I have nobody (outside of Rosemary) who can call a friend.  Especially anybody who is a musician or in any way associated with fine arts.  What few friends I still might have are far away and have gradually become more and more distant.

It’s not easy starting your life over at 68; especially since it was an unaccomplished life up to that point anyway.  Don’t get me wrong I love our new home.  Quincy, is lovely well managed New England city and I couldn’t ask for a more idyllic neighbourhood that has woods and hiking paths, stretches of wetlands, scenic views of the Boston skyline across Quincy Bay, a conjoining cove that is so shallow that at full moon tides you almost walk across, birds and wildlife in abundance; all of this within a five minute walk from my perfectly sized house (what they refer to up as a cape cod) in which I dwell with my perfect love Rosemary and my simply adorable dog Blaze. Yet, for some reason I simply can’t seem to get my life in order.   It’s a gilded cage of my own making.  It’s the frustrating matter of knowing why, but not knowing how, and maybe, even worse yet, of not knowing how but feeling why bother?  It’s too late now.  I figure, okay, I have maybe a good twenty years left, if I’m lucky; so, what’s left of the dream?   Why bother?  Starting life all over as one approaches the sunset of one’s years is not an easy task.  I may have some ideas, none of which are musically related. That much I’ve come to appreciate.  It’s at the very least problematic to look back at the life decision one made over fifty-five years earlier and recognise the folly of it.

Now, I guess, it’s time to start something new; with a little hope and determination I can still find something in which I can feel I will have, in the end, contributed something, even as a curmudgeon, of value to this sad, sad world.

Not Quite an Hobson's Choice, but Close

For the past few years, I’ve deliberately avoided discussing politics in my column, or social media generally, simply because it’s usually a waste of time and energy (as will be this rant).  But, sometimes the need for one to express one’s thoughts (and yes, feelings) about such matters becomes overwhelming.  I’d be curious as to how many folks here think about what’s going on, particularly as pertains to the presidential (and in many ways least important) race.

For me, I have to say this has to be the single most disappointing presidential race I have ever experienced in my, perhaps too many, years on this planet. Never, have I disliked, even been repulsed by, both candidates.  Usually one is relatively acceptable.  For me it’s usually been the Democratic candidate because I am generally of a more progressive persuasion.  Notwithstanding, that hasn’t precluded the positive aspects of the candidates from the other side.  Even Nixon was responsible for the establishment of the (now virtually moribund) National Endowment for the Arts.  At least Reagan, Ford, G.H.W. and G.W. Bush were not openly malicious, notwithstanding my disagreements with most of what they brought to the White House.  Anyway, you get my drift here.

However, this time around I have to say I am in a serious quandary.  Back in 2008 I was very much in favour of Hillary Clinton; Let’s face it Barack Obama was simply not ready for the office; and he has (very much to my regret) proved it (the reasons for this would be for another discussion).  At that time Hillary Clinton was still a very credible candidate for the office; she had not been corrupted by the secretive machinations as Secretary of State for the Obama administration.  Her credibility has been seriously undermined by her inscrutable determination to not be forthcoming on not just her incessant e-mail revelations, but her whole circumspect approach to dealings with the Foundation and in what other cryptic endeavours she and Bill have been engaged.  I’m not generally one to pay attention what the American public as a whole thinks (since I for the most part have a pretty low opinion of the American public’s irrational, emotional and largely ill-informed “thinking”), but this time around I have to concur, I find her to be vexingly disingenuous.

That being said, I then think, how can anybody in their right mind even remotely consider Donald Trump a serious contender for president?  To those of you who support his candidacy… What is wrong with you?  I know that people don’t like to be told that they are stupid, but… YOU’RE STUPID!  There is, and can be, no other explanation as to why anybody with anything other than the I.Q. of a radish, and the emotional development of a four year old, would even remotely consider this man for the office.  There simply is no excuse.

I guess what bothers me the most is that the Democratic Party had a bona fide alternative, a chance to win not only the presidency, but actually precipitate a major sea change in Washington beyond the presidential level, which I mentioned is actually less important that what is commonly referred to the “down ballot” part of this election.  Nothing could reflect more clearly the distinction between the two major parties than what happened prior to and during the conventions:

The Republicans went with the “outsider” candidate who reflected precisely all the worst qualities of the so-called base of the party:  xenophobia, racism, religious fanaticism and the worst form of jingoism, economic inequality, global warming denial, you-name-it, all packaged in the fear of anything remotely associated the government.  The result is a candidate who the majority of Americans find repulsive.  A person whose unfavourable ratings are close to 60 per cent of the public.

The Democrats on the other hand through their blatantly corrupt determination to assure their predetermined (thank you Debbie Wassermann Shultz) machine candidate of choice was the chosen one despite all data that evidenced over and over again that THEIR outside candidate Bernie Sanders would have beaten Donald Trump by as much as two-to-one margins.  Why?  Because people knew Bernie Sanders was authentic.  He didn’t have innumerable skeletons in the closet, and always stayed on message — a message, by the way, to which the folks at “Black Lives Matter” blinded themselves because of their tunnel visioned approach to the political situation.

Anyway, for me the political process in this country has not only hit an all time low, it doesn’t look to improve anytime soon.  In fact, with the mass media frenzy feeding on Clintons e-mail and foundation bungling and the latest Trump crazy man faux pas on virtually anything, I don’t expect the American public to become intelligent soon — if ever.

So, I’m confronted with the “lesser of two evils” syndrome — again.  Do I vote for a big mouthed blowhard, narcissist who cannot make a decision in which he feels does not benefit him personally, or do I vote for a completely compromised, surreptitious person whose credibility ever since becoming an high profile ill-prepared member of an high-profile ill-prepared president’s cabinet?  I afraid I’m going to have to hold my nose and divine into the quagmire with the latter, for two reasons:

1) At one time she was an idealist with progressive ideas, and maybe, just maybe, if she’s elected with at least a Democratic majority in the senate she can retrieve a little of her old self

2) She’s not Donald Trump.

I really can’t stand this