A song by National Lampoon titled "Deteriorata" has a narration over background music, and some readers may remember it. This song came out about 1970, but it's still incredibly prophetic for our time. It starts with these two lines:

"Go placidly amid the noise and waste,

and take comfort in owning a piece thereof"

And the song ends with:

"No matter what misfortune may be your lost,

there is always a big future in computer maintenance."

(This song came out about 8 years before the first personal computers were sold.)

America has reached a new low, and most people physically or mentally shrug their shoulders when you talk to them about any hot topic that concerns their life. As Americans we have an integral proud history of independence. We shouldn't be empathetic but quite angry. Back in 1990 George Bush Sr. stated that if the American people knew what he and his ilk had done to America, they would be chased through the streets and lynched. But apparently his nightmare thought still didn't stop him and his kind from continuing their work. Perhaps their "new order" has taken on a life of it's own.

So how and why has the most advanced country on the planet, which at one time enjoyed the greatest freedoms, reached this new low? Have you ever sat in traffic at a red light, looked around you at the people sitting there around you who have a false sense of security locked in their cars? What struck you the most ­ was it that their minds were probably as blank as a computer monitor with the power off?

If America is truly lost to the new order of things, then Americans only have themselves to blame to a large extent. Why not completely? Part of the problem is that every form of mind control technology and method available has been used, taking every possible opportunity to alter the very idea that freedom is both good and essential. But as we shall see later, this is only part of the problem.

We are assaulted with movies and television which portray law enforcement clearly breaking someone's civil rights, as a good thing and a necessary evil. The effects of fluoride in drinking water and toothpaste are well known. But just as the effects of alcohol on the liver, brain and body are known by everyone people continue drinking tap water. And the fluoride keeps coming. Mercury is a very heavy metal, but the media has proclaimed that "small amounts of it are good for you." It is all like the good book says, that in the last days "Wrong shall be right, and right shall be wrong."

Why is it possible that the average person cannot see any of this? After pondering this for several years and reading hundreds of opinions from readers, I think that I've finally found the answer. It's not about subscribing to conspiracy theories, but really a matter of IQ level. You see, the average person iswellaverage...if not just plain stupid. If you are reading this, then almost certainly you are above average intelligence. Why do I know that? The average person simply doesn't care about the subjects and problems that affect us.

I'll just say it right here point blank, politically incorrect and with no white-washing.

Here are a few of the common things that the average person is concerned with:

* Getting laid in bed, and when the next opportunity to do so will come along

* The next football, basketball or baseball game on the tube

* Will I have enough beer on hand?

* Little Johnny's next martial arts lesson or football game

* If they live on the west coast and in many other areas, it's also about making sure their car is "acceptable" rather than see a vehicle for what it really is ­ a collection of parts to do the job of simply getting you from point A to point B. A car is only a more complicated version of a lawnmower with a better paint job and windows, and nothing more.

* Wearing the latest styles. Last winter even highly educated people were wearing sandals with open toes ­ even in snow 6" deep. If that didn't look stupid as hell, but they were "in style" and that's all that mattered to them.

* Did I set the alarm system?

* Living in a home they can't afford, but that's so important to them because they want to impress everyone that "they have arrived." More vanity and arrogance.

* Buying far more toys at Christmas than they could ever afford. Often this is done out of guilt to compensate for ignoring their children all year long. Or a pathetic attempt to buy the love of their children which their ex-spouse has custody of. They buy toys as though the credit card companies no longer know where they live, and as though no eye-popping bill will arrive in the mail next month. But Americans spend, spend, spend because as some proclaim, "everybody does it." In fact, in a snow storm drivers so closely follow the person in front of them that when the lead driver becomes lost and drives off the road into a field, many will follow that car off the road into the field as well. I've seen people do it.

* Having the flashiest credit cards possible in their wallet and displaying them whenever possible, especially at cash registers. Then they don't understand why they were robbed in the parking lot.

* When a bank or credit card company increases their line of credit they immediately go out and spend it. It's as though they *think* the money will never have to be repaid in their simple little minds. This gives them the self-assured mental permission to do it. (Note ­ the term *think* will be defined later.)

* Credit card junkies - in the recent housing crash, it has come to light that many credit card junkies have WALKED AWAY from mortgages rather than give up their credit cards. Imagine placing more value on plastic in your wallet than a roof over your heard. The junkies and yuppies will find that the moment they are foreclosed on by the bank for their mortgage default, it will create the mother of all red marks on their credit records that can last up to 20 years. Credit card companies will quickly find this out as a matter of routine and cancel ALL their credit cards as they quickly become a bad risk. A judgment against the credit junkie will be filed by the mortgager. And more judgments will soon follow by all their credit card companies. Then they will have nothing in the end to show for it all. All for the sake of keeping their credit cards!

* Many people file for bankruptcy and after their record is cleared, they go out and DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN. These people are no smarter than a dog, which though beaten senseless by its owner, cannot be housebroken and still pisses on the floor. Why? Because a spending habit is hard to break for those obsessed with "having things." Need to have what things? Brand new furniture? Electronic toys with endless monthly useage fees FOR LIFE? Heck, I use pay phones and refuse to own a cell phone! What "things" can't you live without? My response to that is simply this - when you go into a store to buy one item you MUST have as a necessity such as toilet paper, just remember you can live just fine without the other 90% of the merchandise in the store. It seems that people just don't get the reason WHY the dairy products are almost always located as far away from the cash registers as possible.

* When you ask someone why they would pay a fee every month forever for something they can easily live without like telecom fees, you get a sentence that starts with "Well, it only costs me." I've noticed that word "only" is always used. Just like those idiot commercials on TV, that when they reach the end of it and the blue screen comes up the announcer says "Only $19.95 + shipping and handling! Call now!" I think of monthly fees of any kind like the proverbial last straw that broke the Camel's back. It all adds up, and adds up quickly.

This is only a short list but more than enough to demonstrate the dominant level of vanity, stupidity and greed the average person proudly displays. And sadly enough, these people are often so incredibly stupid that they won't even listen to someone who tries to help them!

It isn't just about personal economics though ­ the presidential primaries have clearly demonstrated that stupidity extends into all facets of life, including politics. Ron Paul should have been the ONLY real choice for people to make. Anyone reading this essay already knows that. Yet many people will tell you, "The mainstream news never talks about him. Who is he?" To me that's ridiculous.

It is the RESPONSIBLILITY of every AMERICAN CITIZEN to KNOW who's running for office. If the person or party you wanted to vote for isn't meeting your expectations, then GO LOOK at the other candidates who re running. That's all any American had to do. Everyone has bitched and complained about the war ­ yet no one seems to care enough to find a candidate who openly promises to STOP it.

With the internet freely available, this is easier to do than ever before in the history of the world to learn about those running for president. If people don't own a computer they can visit numerous free places in America to access one. This place is called a LIBRARY. And I don't mean the bathroom in the home. Libraries are still FREE to use inAmerica. If someone doesn't know how to use a computer, a librarian will show them how. How much easier could it possibly be to do BASIC research about candidates running for president?

Ron Paul supporters in my opinion are above average intelligence. They slept on floors because of a sincere belief in what they were doing. However, based on the volume of emails I've received from people whenever I touch upon the Ron Paul factor, apparently nearly ALL of them have failed to take into account the STUPID FACTOR. How is the stupid factor defined? These well-meaning supporters falsely think that John Q. Public thinks the same as they do. Yet they fail to understand that John Q. Public suffers from the stupid factor. If Ron Paul running for office has proved anything, it is the fact that the average person isn't intelligent enough to have the initiative to find out about who Ron Paul is, or known that he even exists. I don't have a PhD, but know at least one group of people with PhDs who didn't even know who he was!

One has to be incredibly stupid to *think* that on-going war is going to solve anything. (The term *think* as used here describes the self-limited mental functioning of the average person, which is not unlike the IQ of a microwave oven.) Yikes! Look at history! Has war ever accomplished anything except increase defense industry profits? IsVietnam such a faded memory that the terrible end product of war has been completely forgotten?

When you sit in your vehicle or a bus at your next red light, now you will know the reason why you see what you see. People today have a serious, and I mean SERIOUS lack of intelligence. Some of it isn't their fault, but to a large extent much of it is. Greed and self-centeredness haven't helped matters, and both of these are human traits ALL people have control over. But they can destroy America if left unchecked.

As human beings if we don't USE our intelligence, then we can never develop it, improve it nor maintain what intelligence we have.

May God have mercy on America. No one else will - especially not the new order which takes every advantage possible.

Ted Twietmeyer

tedtw@frontiernet.net

www.data4science.net