A 4-pt. New Year's Resolution

Over X-mas an American friend from my Berlin days phoned, and in the course of our conversation informed me he had seen some stats that showed Americans’ IQs are 4 points lower than Germans, and he believes electing Donald Trump is proof positive.

            What can I say? Especially in the wake of the new tax bill passed just before Xmas. We know business has only one guiding principle—the bottom line. So who’s surprised he gave himself and real estate son-in-law big tax breaks? 

             Most things conspire against the difficult chore of cultivating critical intelligence.

             Three or 4 years ago I got a flat screen TV and Netflix, which I love.  When I left Denver in 1985-6, I got rid of my TV because I had begun to believe that sitcoms were making me stupid and advertising keeping me from thinking straight. Haven’t had TV since, but now that I have Netflix, I am beginning to wonder if it isn’t subtler.

            Nearly every evening, especially these long days when you can’t get outside and plant or paint or mow, I watch. Netflix is full of high quality documentaries—Get Me Roger Stone, The Civil War (Ken Burns), Walking with Destiny, and lots of history. The fiction is almost as good. Godless, a Western is tightly scripted, stars Michelle Dockery, and seems admirably realistic, at least in terms of the clothing, set and landscape. Loads of international films.

While it doesn’t feel as mindless as sitcoms, it does keep me from reading books. I keep up with the magazines I order, but I must wonder if I am not undermining myself.  Good place for a New Year’s Resolution, huh?