In Praise of Stupidity

When I return home at night from a hard day being Australia's most incompetent ad exec and shoddiest centre-left blogger, I like to relax. Some days I'll watch the 7:30 Report and give serious thought to the issues of the day. Other times, I might play Vivaldi's Four Seasons, or perhaps Pachbel's Canon, whilst dabbling in a little Chinese brush painting.

But then there are the evenings when all I want to do is order a pizza and watch sheer escapist nonsense...like Today Tonight and 20 to 1.

It's a confusing, scary world out there at the moment. The world's financial markets are collapsing, our state is a disaster, the U.S. may elect yet another incompetent, dangerous pair of lunatics to the White House.

There is a place for stupidity in this world. Not willfull ignorance - that should never be accepted. But when you've spent 10 hours battling recalcitrant clients, difficult issues and looming deadlines, who would'nt want to sit down in a state of semi-catatonia as d-list celebrities discuss "scandals" involving other d-list celebrities you'd completely forgotten about? Oh, I wouldn't want to make a habit of it. But once in a while, it's nice. If ever the world starts to overwhelm me, I know there's always Today Tonight to make me feel much better about myself and my own abilities.

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The world also throws out ever-more-stringent "rules" for good health. Once it was enough to eat a reasonably balanced diet (bacon every other day, hard liquor two nights a week only) and go for the odd walk. Now we're told to worry about omega threes, anti-oxidants, carb-loading and I don't know what else. Now, finally, there is some good health news for people like me. And you know, I think I need a drink.