They Are Nincompoops

First the standard (for me) disclaimer:

I am not a Scientologist. L. Ron Hubbard was a fruitcake. Scientologists are modern day fruitcakes. I am not a Mormon. I do not much care for Mitt Romney. In the buffet of presidential candidates, he is about as exciting as the piece of plain white toast that fell off the plate and landed in between the cheeses and the fruitcakes.

Now for the post:

Michael Medved and Ann Althouse are both denigrating Mitt Romney for saying that his favorite novel is Battlefield Earth.

Michael asks how Mitt Romney could say something like that. He then goes on to say what a terrible movie it was; that it was one of the worst ever*. "Couldn't he have said Huck Finn (sic) or something like that?"

Ann wonders if it really was his favorite and if a serious candidate would do something like that. She then reads the summary and wonders if Mitt had some sort of ulterior motive for saying it - although she cannot imagine what it might be.

Ann does seem to realize the difference between a novel - a subset of books - and book - i.e. everything ever written and bound. Michael kept referring to it as "book" as if that was Mitt Romney's favorite writings ever for everything.

I am not even going to ask if they read the book. I know that they did not. LRH took his science fiction seriously. You can look at any Scientologist and see that. That in no way lessens the work. I have the impression that neither Mr. Medved or Miss (Mrs.?) Althouse will ever get further than the summary.

Battlefield Earth was a very entertaining book. It was not "deep". The plot is very straight forward in both books. It is divided into Book I - the basis for the movie - and Book II - fortunately never made into a movie because the first was so bad. It has all of the necessary elements of a saga: action, intrigue, romance, politics, etc. It has all the makings of a favorite book.

I am going to do a bit of stereotyping here (my stereo goes to "eleven" at times). Michael and Ann are the type of people who watched the 2004 presidential debates and thought, "Did you see their eye contact? John Kerry looked away first." They probably studied the body language and came to the conclusion that John Kerry "won that handshake."

For them, the intimate details of politicians lives are just as interesting as People magazine is to whomever reads it. (I guess that someone is reading since it is always by the checkout at the grocery.) It is a form of entertainment for some. They take it to "the next level."

They are going to wonder and debate if Mitt really meant it and what the implications are if he did. They are going to make a point of it and introduce it in polite conversation as if it were dreadfully important.

Is it not possible that Mitt Romney actually liked the book and gave an honest answer?

Maybe it was a slow news day but these people can be real nincompoops sometimes.


* It really was a terrible movie. When I think of it, if I had seen the movie first, I do not know if I would have ever read the book.