30-Brain Dead Mall

#30 - Day of the Brain Dead Mall

Back in my home town folks who were smart got out pretty fast which left a work force who were somewhat less than smart to man positions in the banks and stores, here and there and everywhere. So, there existed a sort of endemic stupidity. These were nice people. They were simple folks without a lot of intellectual depth . They were what they were.

I have found a sort of recreation of that phenomenon in the Mall. I call a local Mall close to me, the 'Brain-Dead Mall' because when you go in there and you're ask for service they don't have a clue. They've worked in the store for some time and they do what they do. There will be one Supervisor who's a smart person and everybody else will be really borderline. If you asked them a question that didn't have a standard, canned answer you were in a lot of trouble. Trying to find out something technical is virtually impossible. They may not know what a 'grommet', etc.. They're pleasant enough but extremely self-centred. Like everyone else their world view revolves around themselves and the way that they see things and you become an instant outsider. You see things differently and they have a strong suspicion that you see things that they don't and you might be trying to be a smart ass on them. Well <smile> that wouldn't be too hard to do.

Now this is sort of a malicious Podcast because it's talking about people who are about two cents short of a full load but somebody's got to staff these positions in stores and not very popular Malls. The pay is wretched and there's not too much good can be said of the work place. I wish I could think of a song about that but melody escapes me.

In your wildest dreams you could never imagine talking to these people about politics, religion, or books. You could probably talk to them about television. I have a biased view about the kind of things they watch. They probably watch Gerry Springer a lot because, well, it doesn't challenge them and it goes to show that there are people dumber than they are – by quite a bit.

Now, there's a famous story by C.M. Kornbluth called “The Marching Morons”, originally published in Galaxy magazine in 1951. Those were the days. This story is a Science Fiction classic. In it the whole earth, except for a minority of intelligent people who are holding the whole structure up, the whole earth, is full of the unintelligent. Some guy who works in a menial position as a bus driver or whatever is actually keeping these people from destroying themselves. They have cars which have artificial elements that indicate that they are going at a great speed but actually they don't travel very fast because if they did the stupids would kill themselves. Someone rescued from the past develops a scheme to send them into space to an alleged paradise of a planet and 'bye bye'.

All this was due to a low birth rate among the intelligent and a much higher one amongst the unintelligent. Perhaps there is a lesson in this.

In any case this is the end of my Boxing Day rant against the intellectually challenged.
Next 'cast will be a little more positive. I promise.