Stupid is as stupid sells

Last night I updated my Facebook status with the marvel that Sarah Palin is at the top of the bestsellers on Amazon.com. Astonishing. Because the book isn’t even released yet.

I don’t know how I feel about that. Okay. I do. I really don’t like Sarah Palin. EVERYTHING about her is an anathema to me. From her hunting to her beauty queen history to her twang and winks to her exorcism to her hypocritical family values. She really… the fact she is where she is rattles me.

But, okay, I know things I believe and stand for exasperate other people. I know I upset people I love with some of my opinions. I don’t doubt that. It doesn’t make me change my mind. These days it doesn’t even shut me up. But that self acknowledgment doesn’t make me any more forgiving about the former governor of Alaska.

Aside from the fact I am irritated she didn’t just go away after November 2008 and aside from the fact that I am against every fiber of her being, the fact she wrote a bestselling book makes me ill. Okay, yeah, a lot of that is because I want badly to publish my book and have a fraction of that audience. I envy that success. I resent that success because… okay, I’m going against my rule of no one is better than anyone else… because I’m smarter than Sarah Palin.

I remember having a debate with a family friend over the movie, Forest Gump. He disliked the fact it became so popular because it celebrated stupidity. My argument was that Forest still managed to achieve things in spite of his intellectual inability. I thought my friend was being intolerant. I think about that argument a lot these days. Because now I find my perspective on his argument shifting. I think we do celebrate a lack of intellectual achievement. A lack of effort to not be stupid. Education is… elitism. WTF?

Now, let me just be clear. I don’t think this is true of everyone. I live in that pocket of the country that has a swell in population density due to college students every September. I have very meaningful, intelligent conversations with my friends, family, and others I meet each and every day. I also have these conversations with friends and family who don’t live in this blue region of the USA. I don’t think everyone is stupid. I don’t even think that people who make decisions and choices that disagree with me are stupid. Because that, well, is stupid. I do think, though, that this nation does celebrate a lot of… idiots. From George Bush to Paris Hilton to Will Ferrell (his characters – I don’t think the man is stupid). It’s funny. It makes us feel good because we know they aren’t that smart. But… at the same time… it glorifies stupid. It gives an audience. It makes it fun. I get a laugh out of those characters… sometimes. I appreciate the need for mindless entertainment. But I think there needs to be a balance.

Sarah Palin isn’t the first celebrity to ‘write’ a book to swiftly escalate the sales list. I know this jabs my nerves a little more because I can’t stand her and because I am actually, for the first time in a while, keenly interested in what is selling in the book market. Specifically the online book market. I just wish… sigh… I just wish the bar for success was set a little higher.