The Stupid Shall Inherit the Earth

 In the beginning, there was man and man could think and he had an opposable thumb so that he could plan how to kill using a club or spear he could hold.

And then, there was fire and he could cook his food and his tummy wouldn’t hurt after eating.

And there were chiefs who the rest could obey . . . or not because who was the chief anyway? You had your freedom but most of you didn’t live past the age of 25.

 

And then there was agriculture and kings and writing to keep track of what was the king’s.

And writing was also used to create stories and the men who told these stories were called priests and monks

And only they could communicate with God and so, when they told the people that God had chosen their king, they believed them and the people would fight to the death anyone who would attempt to injure or kill their king or take away what was his which was originally theirs.

And you didn’t have a lot of freedom what with tending animals and growing shit and giving everything to the king but you would probably live to the age of about 55.

Charlemagne crowned emperor by Pope Leo III

 

And then, a man by the name of Johanne Gutenberg thought, when I print books, what if instead of carving whole pages of text, I carve individual letters and move those letters around so that the same letters could be used for many pages. How much faster would that be?

And instead of just printing the ideas of God, I could print the ideas of men and I’ll call that content.

And that content could fill many pages that could be printed on my press for which these content creators must pay me.

And one of the earliest content creators was Martin Luther and Martin wrote, don’t listen to the priests or the Pope. They don’t need to tell you about God. You can find out for yourself.

And he translated the bible into high and low German and the bible became a best seller.

And congregations of protestant churches were formed

And these Protestant churches spread all over Europe and the New World

And people wondered, if the priests and the Pope aren’t the only ones to interpret the bible

Then is it right for them to tell us who should be king?

 

Gutenberg Press 

And people like Thomas Hobbes and John Locke and John Stuart Mill and Jean Jacques Rousseau and Charles Montesquieu wrote about the future of government.

And learned people read these books and thought about these ideas

And the people of America revolted and created their own country with a constitution that made rules for the people to choose who leads them.

And France also revolted and got rid of their king and wrote their own constitution whereby the people would decide who led them  

And the French fought other countries

And they fought not for the king or fear of punishment

They fought for themselves. Their country. Their nation.

As did other men and women after them.

And all these nations chose their leaders

And from newspapers and books, people learned about these leaders and their decisions

And they learned about the ideas of those who thought they could lead better

And people wrote about history and about themselves and about others and some just made up stories to entertain the people

And the printing presses were humming, and the descendants of Johannes were happy.

Very happy

Descendants like Rudolf Hearst and Conrad Black and Hugh Hefner. 

And others became rich in knowledge and not money.

And their ideas would change how we looked at the world

People like Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr

And women became players in a world once reserved for men

Women like Marie Curie, Jane Goodall, and Margaret Mead

And their work was all printed on paper

And not everyone could understand what they’d written

Because these were persons of knowledge 

And not everyone had that knowledge 

But we accepted that 

Because there were benefits 

The creation of stuff

Like steel and cement and radios and televisions and cars, electricity, and vaccines

And, compared to our ancestors, we were infinitely wealthier and healthier and more numerous.

And people lived an average of 73 years in the nation of Canada.

Then, in the early 1970s, nerds invented personal computers

And a young nerd by the name of Bill Gates wrote an operating code for what was called IBM compatible PCs  

And he called this code DOS and his company Microsoft.

And to his surprise,

He made more money on his code than the companies that made computers. 

But computing power was doubling every two years,  

And Apple and Microsoft created computer codes that allowed the user to point and click to open programs and use them

So simple 

A child could use it

And they did

More than adults

And then, in 1983, the internet began with the creation of a standard protocol suite called TCP/IP.

And if you don’t understand that, it’s because you don’t have to.

Because, in 1989, the World Wide Web was created 

And suddenly, people didn’t even have to read to use the internet.

They could just point and click 

And up would come some boobs or porn or cute kittens playing with balls of yarn 

And scientists and scholars could coordinate their research anywhere in the world

And never before could people be more informed about the world 

Or more ignorant 

Portable point and click came with the iPhone in 2007 

Then Steve Jobs introduced the  iPad and people went, what the fuck is this?

It’s not an iPhone or a computer but they bought it anyway

And they all supported these publishing platforms 

Like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram

To share their experiences and ideas using the internet 

No more paper 

No more proofreading 

No more ensuring that the ideas made sense 

Or the images were clear 

Just point and click. 

Instantaneous 

And the people who created content and shared it

No matter how smart or stupid 

Could enjoy the same claim to legitimacy.

So  when an anonymous character by the name of Q

Told the world that Hillary Clinton was part of a global elite 

Who sexually abused children and then ate them

And they met in the basement of a pizza joint in Washington 

Was just as legitimate as statements made by returning officers 

That Joe Biden won the 2020 election 

But the Donald never loses so it must have been fixed 

And his followers believed his claims 

And attacked the Washington Capitol 

And the Republican Party called it “Legitimate Political Discourse.” 

Or a claim that COVID is the same as the flu 

And more people have died from the vaccine than the actual virus 

Was just as legitimate as the fact that millions have died 

As documented by governments and hospitals 

Or that the vaccine contains a tracking microchip that will provide the government with the movement of anyone who’s received it. 

Or as Pat King, one of the Freedom Convoy’s organizers has stated, 

“The government is part of a plot to depopulate the Anglo-Saxon race 

Because they are the ones with the strongest bloodline.” 

And when people cry “Freedom” at these rallies

They mean something more than they just don’t want to have to present vaccine passports 

To enter restaurants or go to a concert or cross the American border 

Or return 

Even if they can’t tell us what it is. 

Because, with the point and click 

And a few ungrammatical sentences filled with creative spelling 

They’ve achieved the same legitimacy as experts in epidemiology 

Or political science 

Or human physiology 

Because why else would they drive their trucks to Ottawa 

Or blockade the borders in Windsor, Coutts or Emerson 

Their words have the same power as John Locke or Adam Smith

The same power 

Because they are sourced by the same medium 

Stupidity claims the same legitimacy as expertise 

And who knows 

Perhaps, they shall inherit the earth