I don’t remember much of what I supposedly learned in four years of college. It all seems like such a blur to me now, more than fifty years later. I went to a fairly decent college—the University of Missouri at Kansas City—but other than having a good time, I can’t honestly think of anything I learned there that has helped me in real life.
Except for one thing.
On the first day of my philosophy class the professor was attempting to clarify just exactly what philosophy is. With our long hair and bellbottom jeans, we were all clueless and I for one had no idea why I was in his class except that it probably best fit my social schedule. So he tried to prime the pump by asking us some questions. “Is philosophy a religion?” for example. Or is it a “way of life?” Or is it a “way of thinking?”
Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
“Or is philosophy just a slogan?”—a sort of motto to live by, he asked. And then he spouted out several slogans like, “Might makes right.” And “To the victor goes the spoils.” Or, “The Devil finds things for idle hands to do.” Or, “The masses are the asses.”
Wait!
The masses are the asses? How brilliant, I thought!
And that is still the ONLY thing I remember today from my college philosophy class. It’s almost the only thing I remember learning at all in college.
The masses are the asses!
I’m sure glad my education didn’t cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars to learn that--as is typical today. $200,000 to learn that the masses are the asses? No wonder parents are upset and student debt is out of control.
But wait, we’ve got Betsy De Vos running the Department of Education! What could possibly go wrong?
Stupid.
But ever since that first day in my philosophy class that “masses are the asses” slogan comes to my mind whenever I see people doing stupid things.
It happened during the hopeless Vietnam War. As we used to say when I was in the U.S. Army in those days, the Army was the “unwilling led by the incompetent to do the unnecessary.” Okay, not all of my military leaders were incompetent. Many of them were indeed quite competent and compassionate. But of course, they all reported to politicians. (I am especially proud to be related to the WW2 general, Omar Bradley—The Soldiers’ General.)
And in more recent times there was Hurricane Katrina—“You’re doing a heck of a job here, Brownie.” Anyone remember that?
Stupid.
And even before that, what about 9/11? We had ample warning that we were going to be attacked, but apparently President Bush either ignored it or didn’t grasp its significance. And he made sure all of his Saudi friends got out of the United States before he shut down all air traffic.
Stupid.
And now we have the Coronavirus Pandemic. This is going to be perhaps the biggest challenge the world has faced in a century—for sure, in my lifetime. Personally, my wife and I (and our two little dogs) have been locked down in our apartment now for about two weeks. Yes, we can still go to the grocery store or walk around the block to get some exercise. But that’s about it. Everything else is closed.
But our so-called president (and his sycophants) was asleep at the wheel. And like Bush, he didn’t act when he was first warned.
Stupid
I don’t want to go off on Trump. Personally, I think he is despicable. But I’m a New Yorker and I have followed his “career” for decades—that’s a topic for another blog or rant.
But what really disturbs me is the way many of the “masses” are behaving during this crises. Hording toilet paper?
Even today I went to a drugstore to buy Tylenol for my constant back pain. Sold out—because there was an article in the news yesterday about how it is better to use acetaminophen (e.g., Tylenol) than it is to use ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) when facing the possibility of getting the Coronavirus.
Come on, people. You don’t need ten boxes of Tylenol!
Stupid.
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