“The idiots take over in the final days of crumbling civilizations. Idiot generals wage endless, unwinnable wars that bankrupt the nation. Idiot economists call for reducing taxes for the rich and cutting social service programs for the poor, and project economic growth on the basis of myth. Idiot industrialists poison the water, the soil and the air, slash jobs and depress wages.
Idiot bankers gamble on self-created financial bubbles and impose crippling debt peonage on the citizens. Idiot journalists and public intellectuals pretend despotism is democracy. Idiot intelligence operatives orchestrate the overthrow of foreign governments to create lawless enclaves that give rise to enraged fanatics. Idiot professors, ‘experts’ and ‘specialists’ busy themselves with unintelligible jargon and arcane theory that buttresses the policies of the rulers.”
Chris Hedges, Reign of Idiots
The rest ofthe article is here : https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/05/01/reign-idiots
He left out : idiot academics complain endlessly while producing nothing of value and making a fat living from the others they disparage.
I thought the etymology of the word “idiot” (especially in the context of this quote) may be instructive (from wikipedia):
Idiot is a word derived from the Greek ἰδιώτης, idiōtēs (“person lacking professional skill”, “a private citizen”, “individual”), from ἴδιος, idios (“private”, “one’s own”).[1] In Latin the word idiota (“ordinary person, layman”) preceded the Late Latin meaning “uneducated or ignorant person”.[2] Its modern meaning and form dates back to Middle English around the year 1300, from the Old French idiote (“uneducated or ignorant person”). The related word idiocy dates to 1487 and may have been analogously modeled on the words prophet[3] and prophecy.[4][5] The word has cognates in many other languages.
An idiot in Athenian democracy was someone who was characterized by self-centeredness and concerned almost exclusively with private—as opposed to public—affairs.[6] Idiocy was the natural state of ignorance into which all persons were born and its opposite, citizenship, was effected through formalized education.[6] In Athenian democracy, idiots were born and citizens were made through education (although citizenship was also largely hereditary). “Idiot” originally referred to “layman, person lacking professional skill”, “person so mentally deficient as to be incapable of ordinary reasoning”. Declining to take part in public life, such as democratic government of the polis (city state), was considered dishonorable. “Idiots” were seen as having bad judgment in public and political matters. Over time, the term “idiot” shifted away from its original connotation of selfishness and came to refer to individuals with overall bad judgment–individuals who are “stupid”. According to the Bauer-Danker Lexicon, the noun ίδιωτής in ancient Greek meant “civilian” (ref Josephus Bell 2 178), “private citizen” (ref sb 3924 9 25), “private soldier as opposed to officer,” (Polybius 1.69), “relatively unskilled, not clever,” (Herodotus 2,81 and 7 199).[7] The military connotation in Bauer’s definition stems from the fact that ancient Greek armies in the time of total war mobilized all male citizens (to the age of 50) to fight, and many of these citizens tended to fight poorly and ignorantly.
Yup, and we have a real “Mack-Daddy” idiot in the WH that proves his point. I am not referring to acting president Kushner.
We The People are uniquely-suited to defy the Tyranny of the present system and the idiocy inherent to that system.
Our nation is under attack and We The People are being manipulated by a foreign criminal banking presence that is the same, exact menace the Revolutionary Fathers fought to a standstill until the Treaty of Paris, in 1783.
Most Americans were never supposed to learn the Treaty of Paris was used to re-install the English King as the “Arch-Treasurer” of the United States.
The consequences have conspired to rob the US ever since and the English parasite has grown fat concealing its position athwart US Finance.
The video and link, below, proves the US has been sold to criminal, English-based, Central Bankers; our Law Enforcement has been compromised and the corruption is profound.
https://riggedgame.blog/2017/04/30/all-the-plenarys-men/
I used to like to listen to Chris but have come to feel that he is too full of rage to think clearly. It is funny to write about all of the idiots who infest our leadership, but ask yourself this; who gets all the money? Who runs everything? Who goes to all the great parties? Who gets to eat wonderful food every night? Who has sex with small children when ever they want? Who gets chauffeured around everywhere they go? Who gets protection from G-men?
It sounds to me like that idiot thing is working out just great for them…so who are the idiots? Well the old definition sounds pretty good to me. It is we who are the idiots – including old Chris there. He is no longer helping in any measurable way.
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-pentagon-may-send-up-to-5000-more-troops-to-afghanistan-2017-5
“Idiocy” is the wrong word. “Dishonest” is the right word. Deception, first of self, then of others, is the central human trait. But here’s how idiocy can be the right word: dishonesty is dysintelligent. Except animals & manimals are pragmatic, have short time preferences, & don’t give a damn, not to mention a thought, about “fine distinctions” ie the truth. It’s not an education problem. It’s not an ignorance problem. It’s a feature. Not a bug. Pesticides not only don’t – cannot – remedy, they are counterproductive. Which is raison detre of EPA (in all its forms & guises): keep the ka-chinging counterproductivities going. Fractal scammery. Madoff’ery’s the rule, not the exception…so “weekend at bernie’s” is the rule, not the exception.