Celebrating Mediocrity

Not a fan of that heading by the way. A bit heavy handed but I'm also a bit drunk so I'll just edit this later. Maybe.

I was reading an article recently about the LHC - Large Hadron Collider - on the NYTimes website. What struck me was the negative tone that was so obvious, and out of place, for a non editorial report. First, for those unclear, a very brief outline of the LHC and its purpose (straight off their website):

The LHC is an international research project based at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, where scientists, engineers and support staff from 111 nations are combining state-of-the-art science and engineering in one of the largest scientific experiments ever conducted. The LHC is the latest and most powerful in a series of particle accelerators that, over the last 70 years, have allowed us to penetrate deeper and deeper into the heart of matter and further and further back in time. The next steps in the journey will bring new knowledge about the beginning of our Universe and how it works, as the LHC recreates, on a microscale, conditions that existed billionths of a second after the birth of our Universe.

In a nut shell, atomic particles will be fired directly at each other at near light speed. Immediately after their collision it is anticipated that the Higgs Boson (or "God") particle will be discovered. Basically, the key to understanding the birth of the Universe and creation of all matter from the Sun to a single celled amoeba. Not since the Moon landing has humanity endeavored anything as ambitious as this.

Anyways, back to the article:

The crux was that CERN was experiencing delays due to some electrical issues and that an already expensive program ($8 Billion) was destined for cost over runs and was it really worth it?

Are you fucking serious? Your government has spent over 1 TRILLION DOLLARS on an illegal occupation of Iraq and spearheaded the biggest financial collapse in close to a century and you're pissed about about the few extra Million it might take to discover God? And this is a multinational endeavor so what's your contribution? $20? Fuck Off.

Which brings me to my point: In today's society, smart people are marginalized as nerds, heathens and elitists. Why does an obvious agnostic like Obama all of a sudden wear his "faith" on his sleeve? Political expediency. Johnny Six-Pack and Joe the Plumber are held up as ideals when in reality they are the yoke that halts progress and keeps us in the Middle Ages with Blackberry's.

In university I had - what I thought - was a pretty cool poster of Einstein on my wall (sandwiched between a poster of Bob Marley smoking pot and a still from Swingers, but I digress). On several occasions I had dorm mates come in to my room and ask who the old guy on my wall was. I kid you not. The smartest human being to walk this earth and he went un-recognized not more that 50 years after his death. Now, if I had a poster of Copernicus on my wall I'd allow for some confusion but Albert Fucking Einstein? My only thought was that these idiots are allowed to breed.

Why is mediocrity encouraged? Why do our political leaders always strive to be the "common man"? Personally, I don't want any of my drinking buddies to be Prime Minister. I want a highly educated and world traveled handsome man to lead my nation. In other words, I want someone better than I am. Governing a nation of millions is not like managing a McDonald's because the customers (electorate) don't have a fucking clue how to read the menu and when you attempt to explain it to them the only response you'll get is a blank stare and, if you're lucky, a fart. And you know what? Its not their fault.

Popular culture and the media have systematically killed the intellectual. Instead of Bob Dillon and John Lennon we have Britney Spears and Nicklelback. Instead of JD Salinger and Pierre Burton we have Tom Clancy and Dan Brown. Instead of Walter Cronkite and Ed Murrow we have Pat O'Brien and Sean Hannity. Leaders have been replaced with Sycophants and hyperbole spewing Demagogues.

Quick, name a Nobel Prize winner in Physics: I thought so. None other than Stephen Hawking said that the results of the LHD experiment are immaterial compared to the fact that we were even able to attempt it because either way our understanding of the Universe will have been greatly expanded. I don't have a fucking clue what that crippled genius is talking about, but since he's considerably smarter than 99.9% of us I'll just take it "on faith" that he knows what he's talking about. And for the doubters - chew on this: Americans elected a C- student to be their president..... twice. How well did that work out? My money's on the cripple.