Are You Dumber than an American?

[Maineman]

95. We are ... (both)

We are smart enough to engineer food products (wheat, corn, etc.) that increase profitability, but dumb enough to eat the stuff that results.

We are smart enough to drill for oil and gas in amazing, sophisticated ways, but dumb enough to drill-baby-drill rather than get serious about green and renewable energy.

We are smart enough to create sophisticated chemicals, but dumb enough to swallow them because the pharmaceutical industry uses smiling people and pleasant music in their advertisements. And we give medical doctors control over our health even though they have become little more than drug dealers for the pharmaceutical industry.

We are smart enough to design smart phones, but dumb enough to stare at them when driving a car or truck, or a train.

We are smart enough to invent sophisticated techniques for marketing and manipulating public opinion, but dumb enough to fall for it.

In approximately 1960, a witty high school friend of mine wrote a poem titled, Ignorance is Real Relaxation. I fear this is the way many many Americans deal with the stresses of today's complex and challenging world. That may not work out very well.