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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2009
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 OPINION 
13

Stupidity Is Final Sign of Apocalypse

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(Newser) – "Recession" and "depression" seem far too understated to describe our world's woes. With conflicts raging from the Middle East to Mexico—and politicians pandering to Wall Street crooks who ruined our economy—let's try another word: "apocalypse," writes David Sirota in Salon. "It's not just the economic turbulence" that warrants the A-word, Sirota writes, but "the 'I feel fine' obliviousness of REM’s cataclysmic ballad."

The A-word came to Sirota as he sat atop the Pyramid of the Sun near Mexico City: "When the Aztecs discovered the site, it was abandoned, and nobody knows what happened." Wall Street's CEOs, who whine about living on $500,000 a year, and Hollywood producers, who feed us fatalistic and hedonistic fare, seem equally primed to disappear. Witness "the aggressively defiant, adamantly proud ignorance that marks history’s end times."

A man standing on top of the Pyramid of the Sun raises his arms to receive energy from the spring sun outside of Mexico City.
A man standing on top of the Pyramid of the Sun raises his arms to receive energy from the spring sun outside of Mexico City.   (Getty Images)
In this Dec. 22, 2008 file photo, people walk to work on Wall Street in New York.
In this Dec. 22, 2008 file photo, people walk to work on Wall Street in New York.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file)
In this Aug. 16, 2007 file photo the flags on the facade of the New York Stock Exchange are a backdrop for a Wall Street street sign.
In this Aug. 16, 2007 file photo the flags on the facade of the New York Stock Exchange are a backdrop for a Wall Street street sign.   (AP Photo/Richard Drew, file)
Floor Official Gregg J. Maloney looks at his monitor as he works the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange last week.
Floor Official Gregg J. Maloney looks at his monitor as he works the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange last week.   (AP Photo/David Karp)
Specialist Peter Mazza works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday, March 2, 2009.
Specialist Peter Mazza works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday, March 2, 2009.   (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Recession or depression? Try apocalypse, David Sirota writes in Salon.
Recession or depression? Try apocalypse, David Sirota writes in Salon.   (Shutterstock)
Our blind blithe stupidity and financial destructiveness ensure that that is no mere downturn; it's end-times, writes David Sirota in Salon.
Our blind blithe stupidity and financial destructiveness ensure that that is no mere downturn; it's end-times, writes David Sirota in Salon.   (Shutterstock)
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Apocalypse ... it seems so biblical, but suddenly feels so now. And if we don't quickly wake up and turn things around, we will be left to mutter Col. Kurtz's despondent whisper: 'The horror ... the horror.' -

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13 comments
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NutsInNY
Mar 8, 09 7:22 AM CDT
I regret that the trademark rugged individualism, esp. in my native heartland, somehow got replaced by populistic anti-intellectualism... There's no better example than the word "redneck" losing its negative connotations... Somehow America turned into a place where it was acceptable to actually flaunt being a redneck as if it were a good thing -- albeit it has nothing to do with rugged individualism, it's just the off-the-rack, cheaply-made knock-off version of it. Reply
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nick
Mar 8, 09 8:48 AM CDT
Perhaps the 'red' in redneck signifies the political leanings of the state the majority of these mental giants reside in. Reply
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IN RESPONSE:
NutsInNY
Mar 8, 09 9:13 AM CDT
I reckon you haven't traveled around the country much -- e.g., thru Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York -- so you "don't know no better".
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IN RESPONSE:
NutsInNY
Mar 8, 09 9:36 AM CDT
The point being, the red states have no corner on the anti-intellectual market... There's more than enough of them to go around, all across the nation -- those who flaunt ignorance and narrow-mindedness as a virtue. And that includes NYC: take some of the folks here out of their expensive suits or their hipster attire, give them a mullet and a southern/country dialect, and you'd never know the difference between them and the red state rednecks you decry.
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IN RESPONSE:
Vostok
Mar 8, 09 3:08 PM CDT
I agree with NutsInNY. To blame all of our societal problems on a single region is ridiculous and arrogant.
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