For a rocking Wednesday night, I'm watching Justice Scalia answer questions asked by some pimply-faced Virginia High School students - someone just asked about intra-state and Scalia is running with the ball, to say the least. Agree with him or not, Scalia's command of the English language, his bravado, ability to speak in clear, ordered sentences off the top of his head is quite impressive. And what a vocabulary! He just challenged the high schoolers to read the Federalist Papers of them in their entirety.
But let me cut to the chase, what seems to be greatly missing from current political discourse is "genius." That is to say, those thinkers who fill up the room with their intellect and oppress those who go against them simply by their force of mind -- not, mind you, force of will, amount of money, etc., etc. Does Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton or John McCain seem to be particularly spectacular in terms of intellect? I suggest the answer is a resounding "no." Moreover, those great thinkers who are part of the political discourse have been marginalized by the 1-hour news cycle so prevalent because of cable news. Genius generally isn't sexy, nor is it particularly marketable. Picture poor Alexander Hamilton needing to kowtow to Larry King because of a slight misspeak regarding his banking scheme. Or Bill O'Reilly castigating a rather down-troden Thomas Jefferson for his failure to fully punish the Barbary Pirates.
Very often we're told that those present within a current period of history will overestimate its own importance. Just as common, however, is the seemingly depressing depravity of intelligence within this particular era. What's my point? We need more idea folks, more geniuses during this point in our history. But no! We have a society dispossessed of any respectable attention span. So, let's start those ideas coming. It's too late for a campaign of ideas for this election cycle, but I can only hope that find an idea person too. And keep this person away from Brett Hume, Chris Matthews and the other fair and balanced bloviators.
Foolish, but I'm in the mood to dream.
Posted by Jersey Matt
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