Mensatocracy
The blog Right Wing News has listed me as #1 in its Most Obnoxious Quotes of 2007, or whatever it’s called, and the right-wing blogosphere are spreading it around.
The “quote” in question, however, isn’t a quote in the sense that it’s something I wrote or said in an interview. It’s a line from one of my cartoons, which was called “Mensatocracy” (dated October 22, 2007).
Anyway, I received the following email, which is fairly representative of the response I’ve been getting:
I just want to tell you that I found your comic suggesting that troops were stupid, (http://www.gocomics.com/rallcom/2007/10/22/) and that natural selection will somehow make the US closer to utopia to be bordering on incoherence, tasteless, and utterly offensive. I have no military background; I don’t support the war, lest you think this has anything to do with ideology. I urge you to do your research on what sort of people actually go to Iraq. Guess what? They’re people who either need to go for monetary reasons, or feel obligated to go [and some are legally obligated to go, which means they have no choice in the matter. See: The National Guard]. You may not feel the compulsion to go fight in the war [and neither do I] but get off your high-horse and realize that just because you think the war is ridiculous or being fought for a bad cause does not in any way invalidate the utterly noble act of fighting for this great nation.
First, this cartoon was a response to and riff upon the cult Mike Judge movie “Idiocracy.” The reference to Mike Judge is an indication of that. If you haven’t seen “Idiocracy,” you’re probably not going to understand my cartoon. (And you’re missing out on one of the most effective cinematic satires in years.)
That said, I’d like to take this email point by point, because it contains so many common fallacies:
I urge you to do your research on what sort of people actually go to Iraq. Guess what? They’re people who either need to go for monetary reasons, or feel obligated to go
Nobody “needs to go [into the military] for monetary reasons.” We all have free will. Right now here in New York, it’s 13 degrees outside. There’s a homeless guy out in front of my building, shivering like a bastard. He didn’t go to Iraq; as far as we know, he didn’t kill anyone. If he dies today, he dies innocent of war crimes. He is better off, morally, than anyone willing to shoot someone who has done them no harm for a (small) salary. And seriously: there are other jobs. Work at McDonald’s, for God’s sake.
And who feels “obligated to go”? What does that mean?
People make choices. No one ever said that one choice would be easy. But one is always better.
[and some are legally obligated to go, which means they have no choice in the matter. See: The National Guard].
Wrong. There is no draft. National Guardsmen volunteered. They signed a blank check to the government that allows it to send them to fight any war, including an illegal and immoral one (which they all have been since 1945). They knew the deal when they signed up.
You may not feel the compulsion to go fight in the war [and neither do I] but get off your high-horse and realize that just because you think the war is ridiculous or being fought for a bad cause does not in any way invalidate the utterly noble act of fighting for this great nation.
Fighting for this nation would, indeed, be a noble (or at least morally acceptable) act. Those who fight in Iraq and Afghanistan are actually hurting the United States, making it more vulnerable to terrorism in the future by destroying our international reputation. And only an idiot thinks we have to fight them there so we don’t have to fight them here.
13 Comments.
Where in the cartoon is a reference to Mike Judge, other than the title, which is easily mistaken for being /not/ a reference to Mike Judge?
I have watched Idiocracy long before your cartoon appeared, and the reference didn't jump out for me, either.
Just saying.
Your cartoon was a take off a film, thanks for making that so obvious, since Mike Judge invented the suffix of ocracy.
Ted, I really wonder if you're educated, you seem educated, I read your column, I think you're a smart guy, but you know the homeless guy can't simply sign up. And he's not better off morally. God, that logic is so inept of any humanity and intelligence. People fighting for American principles are doing a good thing. You can think whatever you want about the war, but you cannot refute that! They're not stupid, they share a different viewpoint than you. Many people think we have to stay in Iraq to main stability there. You can disagree that's fine, but let's be clear, there are intelligent, informed people who disagree. How can we stay there without troops? And how isn't it noble to try and maintain peace in that region?
McDonald's doesn't pay for an entire college education, unfortunately.
With regard to the national guard, I'm starting to question your critical thinking skills. Let me get this straight, the national guardsmen in Iraq are stupid and morally inept because they should not have signed a 'blank check' which they should have known would lead them to having to fight in an immoral/illegal war since they all have been since 1945, that's seriously what you think?
"And only an idiot thinks we have to fight them there so we don't have to fight them here."
I never said that. Few people say that. So don't paint that picture of the pro-war crowd because it's ignorant and utterly inaccurate.
I agree with you that these wars could prove to be bad for the US in the future, but again Ted, that's just an opinion. There are intelligent people who disagree with you.
Ted…
Right on!
"Fighting for this nation would, indeed, be a noble (or at least morally acceptable) act."
Thinking you are fighting for a noble cause while fighting in Iraq probably never really happens. War supporters are in survival mode at this point.
Dear Mr. Ted Rall. I liked the mensatocracy cartoon. It made me, um….think!
There is no such thing as a noble cause in war…any war, not just Iraq. Noble causes are for the people back home – politicians use them to whip up support for their cause and civilians take them up to soothe their conscience or affirm their convictions, regardless of whether they are for or against the war in question.
And no, the National Guard members didn't sign a blank check. Their primary purpose is for domestic emergencies as needed by their state with a secondary role as strategic reserve. That's why they are heavy on civil engineering, communications and helicopter units. Clinton started calling them up with the reserves to support a dwindling military in ever-increasing deployments and Bush has not only taken this ball and run but has done his best to usurp the governors' authority over their guardsmen.
Saw the great dystopian IDIOCRACY film. Still giggle about it with my lover ("You like sex TOO?" "I can't BELIEVE you like money too!" "But Gatorade's got, um, electrolytes!"). Thanks for the complement.
Each gathering has at least one DGI (Doesn't Get It). Sometimes I myself am a DGI.
And thanks for diligently focusing the lens when murders are involved and the the blood may be on our hands.
NB: I love America. C'mon – we're better than this: you see this every day in the eyes of most people you deal with.
people sign up for the guard for personal gain… personal gain at the expense of some poor brown bastard that they know they will eventually kill either directly or indirectly via logistical support. they know they are gonna kill a peasant, support a tyrant, ect. but they accept the blood money anyway.
"send me to college, give me health insurance, let me shop at the PX… and i'll kill anyone you tell me to, including my next door neighbor."
(google "Kent State"…everybody! go ahead!!)
it's much easier than becoming politically active and restructuring our public systems! just tell me who to kill. cake!
and besides, if they did choose to get politically active (outdoors), there's some other asshole in the guard that will kill just them. Kent State… 4 dead dozens wounded. (hint: wounded means shot at least once with a military rifle)
i'm glad these people are in the shit. at least now they have to really be the soldiers they've been posing as for the last 20 years. and they are fighting other soldiers instead of shooting their fellow citizens, whom they are supposed to be protecting.
positrickle (9:23 this morning):
"i'm glad these people are in the shit."
Really?
We all buy lines of crap. Especially now, during this surreal distended race to be big kahuna in the White House. But all the time, really.
You've perhaps been lucky (OK and smart) enough from early on and had a good enough education to make your own distinctions between good crap and destructive crap.
"Be all you can be" (and we take anybody, even you) can look like a way to run when you've been set up to "fail" and there are pressures bearing on you from all quarters of your life. Elsewhere, the Guard, you may remember, engaged in the hard hands-on sales pitch. – – –
But a standing army (jobs!) seemed like such a good idea and looked so shiny in the showroom. We (or our parents) bought it. And got the poverty draft.
Do you blame the server (or anybody) when your restaurant meal is disappointing? This is worse.
Do you blame the server (or anybody) when your restaurant meal is disappointing?
Should the sever expect a tip if my gazpacho is served hot?
It doesn't matter if Ted's column was supposed to be a riff on Idiocracy – the comic's terrible and offensive premise was that American troops getting killed are stupid for enlisting. As for the reference itself, weird choice – unless Idiocracy is more popular than I know, it is okay/good but no Office Space (which is to say, quotable and rewatchable)
Should the sever expect a tip if my gazpacho is served hot?
1. What's the difference? The cook gets paid ('way better than the server) and will be a real prick to the server when she brings the unacceptable food back to the kitchen, which she'll almost certainly do do when you make a stink about it. Even though her first impulse will be to jam it in your face. What's she supposed to do? Stick her finger in it when it comes up in the kitchen to make sure the temperature is just right?
2. I never tip severs.
3. You EAT that??
1)She should watch out who she works for, because this restaurant's gazpacho is MADE OUT OF PEOPLE. She just might end up in the cold soup herself. Either way, there is a job helping people at a hospital across the street which pays more than this shitty restaurant.
2)You do tip servers, you just don't know it yet.
3)Gazpacho is actually really, really good…when it is not made out of people. Unfortunately, this is the only restaurant I can afford to eat at right now, so the waitress and I enable the cook everyday. In fact, I am worse than the waitress because I PAY the cook to butcher children and waitresses. I also pay the waitress to serve up the cook's nasty creations to poor souls like myself. But my worst crime is that I do all of this despite the fact that I cannot stand the taste of the stuff. It is just that my family and friends all go here, and if I stopped coming to see them here, I would never see them at all.