Been liking the new Showtime series Californication. It's like Sex in the City for men: he's a lone wolf (none of this girly "circle of friends" crap), he spoils his daughter (making him a hero to her), he wants what he can't have (his ex-girlfriend/mother of his daughter), sleeps around *a lot*, and somehow manages to live a life of luxury without actually working.

In one episode Henry Rollins asks him what's bugging him lately. His reply: people are getting stupider.

On the one hand: amen brotha

On the other hand: haven't you read any history??? People are *always* stupid.

So why do we think that? Why are we so quick to assume that our little fantasies about how the world should be are the only correct ones and that how the world really is must somehow be worse than we remember it? Sports teams and religions form around the mistaken belief that "we" are better than "them" and that "they" are just stupid not to see it.

Oddly enough, even sane people who know this facet of the human mind still succumb! The urge to cheer with the crowd, to participate in the public displays of piety, to follow the confident leader (because if *he* thinks he's right, he must know something we don't) straight to hell, persists!

Maybe the drug-induced-happy Mormons have it right. Maybe since there is no point, we should just smile vapidly and pretend. Or maybe its not about getting smarter or dumber, but how we deal with reality.