We are living in dangerously weird times now. Smart people just shrug and admit they’re dazed and confused. The only ones left with any confidence at all are the New Dumb. It is the beginning of the end of our world as we knew it. Doom is the operative ethic.
Hunter S. Thompson
Writer and iconoclast Hunter S. Thompsen coined the term “The New Dumb” in an article he wrote on November 20, 2000. At the time, the Bush v. Gore Presidential election had been held, but no winner had yet been declared.
There is an eerie sense of Panic in the air, a silent Fear and uncertainty that comes with once-reliable faiths and truths and solid Institutions that are no longer safe to believe in.…
Hunter S. Thompson
His complaint that “once-reliable faiths and truths and solid institutions” were “no longer safe to believe in” seems even more true today. His observation that the “New Dumb” are “the only ones left with confidence at all” is even more relevant in our modern age of electronic social media.
The ignorant are passionate
The idea that the ignorant and uninformed are more socially confident and outspoken than the intelligent and well-educated is not new. Irish poet William Butler Yeats wrote these words in 1920:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
W. B. Yeats, “The Second Coming”
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity….
This poem draws a connection between the “passionate intensity” of the “worst” of society and a world of “anarchy” with “things fall[ing] apart.” He even describes the unleashing of a “blood-dimmed tide.”
The January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol was certainly a scene of anarchy and passionate intensity. We tend to forget that that day also resulted in bloodshed.
The ongoing reluctance of the Republicans in Congress to quickly and thoroughly investigate and prosecute those responsible for January 6th is a clear example of a once “solid institution” that is “no longer safe to believe in.”
Joseph Smith saw the same problem
The prophet Joseph Smith saw this same kind of behavior in 1833. In place of Hunter Thompson’s phrase, “the new dumb,” he identified a widespread “veil of stupidity.” It is the same diagnosis. People are stubborn and ignorant – and stubborn about their ignorance.
For some length of time I have been carefully reviewing the state of things, as it now appears, throughout our Christian land; and have looked at it with feelings of the most painful anxiety.
Joseph Smith, TPJS, p. 13-14.
While upon one hand I behold the manifest withdrawal of God’s Holy Spirit, and the veil of stupidity which seems to be drawn over the hearts of the people; upon the other hand, I behold the judgments of God that have swept, and are still sweeping hundreds and thousands of our race, and I fear unprepared, down to the shades of death.
With this solemn and alarming fact before me, I am led to exclaim, “O that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night.”
Joseph Smith, like Thompson and Yeats, saw a connection between stubborn stupidity and violent destruction. Not long after the Saints were driven West by violent and ignorant people, the United States suffered the horrible death and destruction of the War Between the States.
Joseph Smith taught that the destruction of societies is caused by wickedness, excuses, and stubbornness among the people. He did not exclude members of the Church in his warnings.
Strange as it may appear, yet it is true, mankind will persist in self-justification until all their iniquity is exposed, and their character past being redeemed, and that which is treasured up in their hearts be exposed to the gaze of mankind.
Joseph Smith, TPJS, p. 18-19
I say to you (and what I say to you I say to all), hear the warning voice of God, lest Zion fall, and the Lord swear in His wrath the inhabitants of Zion shall not enter into His rest.
The writing is on the wall
It is not hard to see what is coming. The Republican Party has given itself wholly over to stubborn, irrational, racist, authoritarianism. They are rapidly taking down the Constitutional barriers to oligarchic rule.
The Republican anti-worker, anti-minority, anti-women agenda is not hidden at all; and loyalty to the party is more important to them than loyalty to our country.
The Rise of the new Dumb is explicit. Like early 20th century Fascism, it wears its heart on its sleeve. We can all see it coming. It has a platform. It is destructive, and above all, selfish. Incredibly selfish.
Tobias C. Van Veen
It is important for modern Latter-day Saints to realize that we are not exempt from the warnings of God. In fact, we are the ones in the most danger. If we do not repent and choose God, He will choose someone else.
If Zion will not purify herself, so as to be approved of in all things in His sight, He will seek another people; for His work will go on until Israel is gathered, and they who will not hear His voice, must expect to feel His wrath. Let me say unto you, seek to purify yourselves, and also the inhabitants of Zion, lest the Lord’s anger be kindled to fierceness.
Joseph Smith, TPJS, p. 18
Sources
Hunter S. Thompson, “The New Dumb,” Hey Rube, Simon & Shuster, 2004.
Tobias C. Van Veen, “The Rise of the New Dumb,” Fugitive Philosophy (blog), October 29, 2010.
Joseph Fielding Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Deseret Book, First published in 1938.
Amen, alas. That line by Joseph Smith about how “mankind will persist in self-justification” has been lurking in my mind for several years now. I had forgotten where it was, and appreciate having the source again. One of the benefits of my many years working in the LDS ARP program is the emphasis on how much the process of self-justification is done through focusing on personal grievances. It is significant in “It’s a Wonderful Life” that the thing that make George Bailey’s life a living hell is is his focus on personal grievance, rather than gratitude. His sources of frustration do not disappear when he counts his blessings, but his resentments, despair, and self-justification goes away to be replaced by joy and gratitude, a focus on the significance of his relationships rather than his personal frustration. When Amalekiah sets about stirring up anger, that is clearly a matter of focusing on grievances as a means of self-justification. It is, alas, all to easy to see his modern analogues.
There is Monty Python moment in Life of Brian, where John Cleese plays a character trying stir up grievance for a rebellion by saying, “What have the Romans ever done for us?” and someone answers,
“Roads,” and another adds in “Aqueducts,” and more and more comments come in.
Jesus talks about how the first necessary step in judgement is becoming self-critical, removing the beam from our own eye. “Then shall ye see clearly.”
We are seeing the rise of fascism in the American system. This must be understood. Most LDS don’t comprehend this, and a sizable chunk of LDS support Trump’s fascist movement and actually believe in the QAnon nonsense. Go figure.