or
"I'm for the stupid guy"

"Anti-intellectualism is often used by dictators or those seeking to establish dictatorships. Educated people as a social group have often been seen by totalitarian elements as a threat because of the tendency of intellectuals to question existing social norms and to dissent from established opinion. Thus, often violent anti-intellectual backlashes are common during the rise and rule of authoritarian political movements, such as Fascism, Stalinism and Theocratic rule. Moreover, because many intellectuals refuse to embrace nationalism, they are also commonly portrayed as unpatriotic and subversive." (Full)

When I read an opinion piece, like this one, the first thing I want to know is "where is the author coming from? What are his/her biases?"

So let's get that right out of the way. I'm about as average a guy as the Baby Boom generation could create. I was raised by hard-working middle class parents. We were neither rich or poor. I got my first job -- bagging groceries -- when I was 16. If I'd been a better student in high school, I might have gone on to a university, but I was an awful student. (These days they'd probably have me on a Ritalin I.V. drip, I was so "distracted" -- as in bored to tears -- in class.) So I went to the JC, where I lasted one semester before flunking out, losing my S2 student deferment and ending up in the Marine Corps. I never went back to school but instead commenced an enormously interesting series of professions -- none of which I was qualified for -- but which I somehow profitably pulled off in one fashion or another.

I only mention all that because the subject of this piece is America's sudden obsession with "elitists." Now that you know where I'm coming from you can assume that, while I may be many things, I am no elitist. My CV would not get me past the front gate of a country club, much less a full membership.

Now, onto the meat of this meal.

Ever since Barack Obama was overheard describing middle America as a place filled with people who are "bitter" over their economic circumstances and "clinging to guns and religion," the debate has been fully engaged. Is he an "elitist?" Does he "look down on average Americans?"

While it took Obama's comments to flush these kind of sentiments into the light of day, they've been around for decades. By my reckoning America's own cultural revolution began in earnest with Ronald Reagan's first run for president. Reagan was an actor, whose entire public persona was defined by fictional, gritty and heroic characters in the movies. While Reagan's political opponents were men of letters, he himself was little more than an amalgam of scripted characters.

Yet Reagan vanquished his better-educated foes, not once, but continually. He pulled this off by leveraging those fictional personas, the brave WWII fighter pilot, the heroic railroad worker who loses his legs in a rail accident, but rises again. Doing so tapped a reservior of resentment and estrangement with Washington and politicians middle Americans felt neither understood or represented them. Reagan's characters spoke to tens of millions of hard-working, white Americans. Those characters -- and therefore Reagan -- was one of them, one with them against an increasingly complex world that seemed to be leaving them puzzled, scared and behind.

That meant having to cast Reagan's opponents as something else. And that something else became, "elitists." They becamce "over-educated" snobs who did not understand average Americans, who hung out with other "elitists," particularly members of the press and all those suspiciously "anti-American" university professors.

When other countries complained about Reagan's foreign policies, "average Americans" turned their ire on them as well. The UN and and "Ur-o-peans," were added to what has become a growing list of "elitists" who "just didn't get it... didn't understand the great American average guys and gals were the heart and soul of real America."

That sentiment grew over the years, reinforced by the fumbling presidency of Jimmy Carter and later by the self-indulgent, "I'm the smartest guy in the room, a Rhode Scholar, and I can do whatever I want," tenure of Bill Clinton -- and his equally needy and self-impressed sidekick, Hillary.

Eventually these anti-intellectual/anti-elitist sentiments gave us eight years of George W. Bush, a man so intellectually stunted he makes me look like a Rhode Scholar.

I am not going to diminish them, because they can be pretty amazing and inspiring folks.

I knew them well back in the mid-1970s, when I bought and ran a dairy farm in Wisconsin, just south of Madison. They taught me everything I came to know about farming, a tough juggling act of a profession if ever there was one. Disaster continually lurked around every corner for a farmer. and it took guts and daily skill to avoid them. Husbands, wives and children worked incredibly hard in concert to make a modest living.

Having said that, I would not want any farmer I met during those years running the country. All I had to do was to let a conversation stray from farming and the weather to politics, religion, race or the economy to understand why.

My wife, a nurse, worked at a local Catholic hospital. Another nurse, a local gal, protested to Sue one day that those folks in Washington think everyone in middle America was racist.

"I'm not a racist," she protested, " I just don't like n----rs." True story. That's when we figured we must be "elitists." since  most of those "salt of the earth, Bible thumping, middle Americans" we met were indeed racists, and blissfully unaware of that fact.

I had a similar "awakening."

My wife and I were married in 1971 and, we were part of the great hippie disapera that escaped the big city -- Berkeley in our case -- to returned to the land. We believed that country living would be a refuge from the insanity of a war that seemed like it would never end and a presidency -- Richard Nixon -- that had worn us down with its relentless anti-intellectualism and political crimes.

I took a job at Montgomery Wards in Grants Pass, Oregon. On my first week there an crusty old prospector type fellow struck up a conversation with me. He was something right out of novel, torn overalls, dirty, sweat-stained floppy hat, worn boots. In short, he embodied the earthy-truthiness I had come to the country to discover. We spoke for about ten minutes as he reeled off the ills he said were plauging America -- each of which I thoroughly and entirely agreed with. Sensing he had discovered a kindred soul, he leaned toward me as though about to reveal a great truth.

"You know what's at the heart of all these problems," he asked.

I held my breathe. Here it was, my first week in rural America and this high-priest of earth-saltiness was about to reveal to me the truth.

"What?" I asked.

"The damn Jews and n---gers," he said with squint and a nod.

I felt the blood drain out of my young, silly, naive head.

Sure, you can say, but that was way back in 1971. Things have changed. Oh yeah? Think again.

The war against elitists and intellectuals has never been stronger. Hell, they even have their own radio and TV programs today. America's own cultural revolution took to the airwaves in 1990s with the radio and TV ranting of the likes of Rush Limbaugh. The incredible success of such programs is all the evidence needed to prove that that the pool of anti-intellectuals had achieved marketing critical mass.  Rush's anti-intellectual audience was electrified by "one of their own, in effect, "coming out of the closet" and giving voice to their beliefs, fears and frustrations. They were so enthusiastic that they even gave themselves their own gang sign --- "Ditto-heads."

Further evidence of the size and force of America's anti-intellectual movement was the ascent of FOX "News" and it's stable of knuckle-dragging,  anti-intellectual commentators, like Bill O'Reilly.

And so here we are today, faced with another national election. And here they are again, America's own Red Guard in America's own cultural revolution.

Barack Obama is an "elitist" -- well-educated, articulate a complicated person. Therefore must be defeated. John McCain, while definitely no Rhode Scholar,  was a war hero, an uncomplicated person, a "straight-talker," who never makes complex, hard-to-grasp arguments. Therefore must be elected.

Barack Obama's former pastor had the audacity to criticize American policy -- a bridge too far for anti-intellectuals who apparently believe that,  "America right or wrong," is part of the US Constitution ... somewhere in the Second Amendment. So both Pastor Wright and his parishioner, Obama, are "elitists" and therefore "un-American."

Simple is, as simple thinks.

I don't know about you, but I've had a belly-full of advice and political theory from America's anti-intellectuals. Don't get me wrong, we couldn't get by without them. They build houses, raise our food, fix plumbing, fix our cars when they break. I appreciate all they do, and pay them for it when I need some.
 
But when it comes to navigating the mind-numbing complexities that come with the job of President of the United States of America, the role of such folks needs to be returned to where it belongs. I don't want a mechanic deciding whether it's a good or bad idea to bomb Iran, or a big rig driver deciding whether or not the FDA should approve or disapproved reproductive services or products for women.

Why don't I want that? Because, that's what we've had for the last seven plus years. Catering to the simple desires and beliefs of simple people have made America and the world anything but simple.

So, the next time one of these well-meaning anti-intellectual, anti-elitist, middle America, salt-of-the-earthers starts ragging on a candidate for being "out of touch" because he/she is "an elitist," give them the full dictionary definition of the term, since they are clearly unfamiliar with the definition -- and likely dictionaries in general:

Elitist: Noun: someone who believes in rule by an elite group.

And what does "elite" mean"?

Elite:  an exclusive, carefully selected group or class, usually small, which possesses certain advantages, either of wealth, privilege, education, training, status, political power, etc. One might refer, for example,  to the U.S. Marines as an elite force.

Then ask them why is it they would want any thing but an "elite force" to run their country. And while you're at it, you might want to pose another question to them as well.

How did someone like Barack Obama become a member of America's "elite," -- a position they, not he , elevated himself to. And how is it that the people they respect so much, like George W. Bush, are not members of the same elite group? It can't be money, since the Bush's are wealthy, belong to country clubs, fly in private jets.  So it must be something else that makes Obama a member of the "elite," and the Bush's not. Could it be IQ? Could be education? Could it be a wide and deep appreciation of the complexities of life, politics, war, peace, poverty and the environment?

And, on their side, a near total lack thereof?

Is that what separates an "elitist"from "real Americans?"

On second thought, you might not want to pose such a direct challenge to them, at least not while within swinging distance. Those folks are the main reasons we're in Iraq. Because when they can't -- or refuse to even try to, understand something they attack it.

We Paid What?
And it doesn't work!?

Well, they've done it again. They (those who govern us) have figured out how to design a mouse the size of an elephant. Here, read this first:

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The government is scrapping a $20 million prototype of its highly touted "virtual fence" on the Arizona-Mexico border because the system is failing to adequately alert border patrol agents to illegal crossings, officials said.

The move comes just two months after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced his approval of the fence built by The Boeing Co. The fence consists of nine electronic surveillance towers along a 28-mile section of border southwest of Tucson.

Boeing is to replace the so-called Project 28 prototype with a series of towers equipped with communications systems, new cameras and new radar capability, officials said. (Full)

What's wrong with these people? Are they crazy, inept, corrupt or a bit of each? There really is no other explanation.

Now I am not an engineer or a systems administrator nor do I play on TV. I'm just a guy who purchased the first PC sold to the public back in the 70s. (Tandy TRS80, 9 mghz, 16K, two 5" external drives and a dot matrix printer that sounded like a machine gun.)

But as I read that story I said to myself, "Don't these people ever choose cheap generic solutions to these kinds of problems? Why is their first choice always to, not only reinvent the wheel, but do so in the most expensive and risky ways possible.? Which almost always results in cost over-runs and failure."

If someone asked me to design a virtual border fence I'd begin by finding a top of the line web cam, one that can be operated (moved and focused) remotely over the web able to see in both daylight and total darkness. Then I'd find the best ruggedized laptop on the market, design a weather-proof, secure box for it.

So, let's see how much under the $20 million (failed system) they choose, I can come:

Length of virtual fence: the same 28 miles.

How am I doing? I've now got a fence the same length as they tired, and twice the number of cameras.

Let's see how the costs rack up:

Cameras: I have chosen a top of the line RISYS IRI-1011 camera/thermal imager, or equivalent.  Cost: web-capable cameras like this, with good lenses and nightvision, retail for around $2900. But I figure if we buy 60 at one crack, they'll give us a break. So I will log $2500 each x 60 = $150,000.

Laptops: I'm going expensive here. I could try individual Wi-Fi networked web cams, but I am afraid half a mile is just to far between cameras for that to be reliable. So I have chosen to hook each camera to its own dedicated laptop. The computer I chose for this is  Getac A790 Rugged Laptop, retail price, $4985. Let's call it $5000 each x 60 = $300,000.

Lockboxes: 60 weather proof, secure lock boxes plus installation: $250 each x 60 = $15,000

Poles: 60, 40 foot metal poles: fabrication, shipping and installation: $4000 each x 60 = $240,000

Desktop PC's: Even though I assume Homeland Security has warehouses full of PCs just sitting around collecting dust, nevertheless I will throw in some desktop computers to monitor the cameras. One desktop for each 2 Web cams: 30 x $700 = $21,000.

Connectivity: High-speed T1 line connecting the laptops/cams to the Net: $1000 a month. (Maybe the government can get those friendly phone companies that were so anxious to help them spy on us to run this line for them too.)

Total Cost of My Virtual Fence: $735,000

Hell, even going with high-end components I can't break a mil. Go ahead and double it to account for labor and we're still ahead -- way ahead. Their fence, which didn't work, cost $18 million more than my fence -- and my fence would work from day one.

Now, admittedly their fence was supposed to be able to tell the difference between a cow and person. Maybe it's because I'm a former dairy farmer, but I've never confused a human for a cow, or visa versa. I suspect even government workers can learn to this as well. (Hint: the cow is the one that has four legs and moves horizontal to the ground. Humans have two legs and move perpendicularly to the ground.)

I can hear defense contractors ridiculing my fence as I wirte. "Web cams... hah hah hah. What's this guy think this is, Facebook or something? This is serious business. We can't use the kind of computer crap teenies us to chat each other up."

Really? Why not? You can't say it doesn't work, because it does. And, BTW, those "teenies" are a tough crowd to please when it comes to communication technologies. If they use it, and they like it, trust me, it works.

What we need in government are people able to think outside the standard-issue box. One way to do that is to leverage public sentiment to their advantage. The folks at SEITI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) did this over a decade ago. When government funding was cut they turned to the public, tapping into the power of distributive processing, to get the number-crunching they could no longer pay for with taxpayer money.

So stick with me on this for another minute or two. Say only a third of the people in the US want a virtual fence. That's nearly a 100 million people. Say only 25% have computers and with a high-speed connection. That's 25 million. Say only 1% care enough about illegal immigration to volunteer to watch a border-cam, that's 250,000 folks potentially willing to watch their screens for a couple of hours everyday/night. If they see someone trying to sneak across they instant message the camera number and time to the border control agency in charge. This would be on top of those on the government payroll to monitor the cams. That would not only fill any gaps, but will keep those on the payroll on their toes, knowing that if they slack on the job someone is going to blow the whistle on them.

I know the whole border thing is controversial. Some want it, some don't. Some think it's needed, some think it's folly. I'm not going to get into that argument. All I am offering here is a way to stop wasting taxpayer money on the damn thing.

Some folks aren't waiting for the government to get a clue on this issue, but installing their own web cams on the border.

"Self-appointed border-watchers are increasingly using remotely operated cameras to help catch people sneaking into the country. The cameras represent a high-tech twist on the usual practice of sitting in lawn chairs or pickup trucks close to the border.... The cameras include a daytime color videocam and a thermal imaging device for nighttime viewing, both mounted on a motor home. The others are mounted on telephone poles on private property....The TechnoPatriots claim that from the program's launch in November through late March, they made 160 sightings that led to 118 people getting caught. The Border Patrol could not confirm those numbers, saying it does not log the names or affiliations of tipsters." (Full)

But for those who still doubt web cams work check out these web cams:

 http://www.opentopia.com/hiddencam.php
(And do try to stay out of web-cam gutter at the bottom of that page)

So there, I just saved us around $18 million. You're welcome.

Must Read:
MAINSTREAM MEDIA
Duped Again