Year End State of Intelligence Report

Last year was not good for intelligence.  It continued a trend for business and government that has been going on for a while now.  There is a great force driving 'cocooning in stupidity', or wallowing in ignorance, which is a great comfort for most people.  In today's legal climate, only the stupid survive.  Look at Martha S.  Nobody could be convinced she was stupid and that landed her in jail.

VW -- The ultimate mass stupidity.  Thousands knew, and yet the management attitude was "I don't want to hear about it.".  Now they are conducting a witch hunt for smart people, and only the stupid will be left.

Oklahoma -- I consider OK to be the trial state for Trumpism.  They destroyed education with mindless old biblical shit, and drove out all the smart teachers.  They went on to drive out every single scientist (with brains).  Then the politicians (realizing where this was going) competed to be the most stupid.  However, you can't say the people were stupid to achieve this perfect state of bliss, they knew what they were doing.

Ontario, Canada -- Perhaps not the worst in the world, but I am familiar with it.  The government went on a huge round of stupidity, and was rewarded for it.  Everybody used the 'Stupidity Defence'  (I didn't know they wiped out all the records).  Their 'quasi-government' corporations went on a stupidity binge, putting nuclear waste into the worst rock in the world, building a Niagara Tunnel to nowhere, and refurbishing a nuclear plant without a valid seismic basis.

The examples are endless - the USGS, climate change, etc.  We old men shouldn't dwell on this too much, it makes us angry.  There is one common theme - it all ends in tears.  As leaders become more and more stupid, in order to defend themselves, there are more disasters.  Either financial, or physical.  The smart people are scapegoats, the stupid are happy.

When I am in a hopeful mood, I realize this is self-correcting.  NASA went on a stupidity binge with the shuttle, and then they smartened up.  They've been starving to death the last few years, and now Congress has given them a hunk of money and an impossible target.  They will now have to reach deep into stupidity, because there just isn't the talent any more.  It's been all starved out.  It's sad that all the brains of the world are now in Palo Alto, inventing uber versions of everything.  A single earthquake will wipe them out.