Oscar Wilde once said, "The only sin is stupidity." 
I imagine a continuing emphasis on being stupid, a stubborn stupidity if you will, could be labeled an habitual state of sin, a darkening of the soul as inexorable as the blackening of a sheet of pure white vellum paper when one drags the flat lead of a 9B graphite pencil across its surface.
Think of America as that sheet of paper and its culture - political, economic, media/entertainment - that blackening, light killing lead.
Our stupidity is our unwillingness to realize the error of our ways; our refusal to make hard choices, to pass judgement and take appropriate action. 
Recently, I thought of stubborn stupidity after watching the NY Giant football team implode and miss out on a golden chance to have one of the top two positions in the playoffs because the coaching staff refused to learn from prior mistakes. They then had the gall to congratulate themselves on having a winning season since they won 10 games after all. No mention of the colossal failure and disqualification from the playoffs.
This stubborn stupidity has been going on for the last three seasons with the Giants.
But, this is indeed a trivial portion of life. There are far more grievous areas of concern.
A true psychopath shoots several people, killing half a dozen. One of the victims is a Congresswoman.
In past times, when reason prevailed and questions were answered, the story would have been about a nut case who went berserk. We do not live in such times, sad to say. We live in the time of stubborn stupidity when blind hate drives the conversation and the mass of men have the attention span of goldfish.
So the story becomes how a Democrat politician is the victim of Republican hate, spurred on by anyone not in total agreement with the left wing, progressive agenda, which is to say all Republicans, conservatives, Tea Party members, all conservative talk show hosts , and any and all prominent politicians and leaders who can be described as religious and or traditional.
There is talk of new gun laws and extra protections for politicians (especially left leaning ones).
In fact, what we have is a nut case and those who would try to profit from his deadly actions: politicians and left wing pundits who would blame the innocent to gain advantage; blacken reputations and defame the righteous to rush through their agenda. They have no shame.
And yet, they get away with their perfidy. America listens to the deceit and yawns. There's another bimbo celebrity passed out in the street. There's another round of playoff games coming up. Did you see the multi millions lottery jackpot is up to $50 trillion?
The stubborn stupidity of numbed indifference, cynical disconnectedness, cowardly non involvement...whatever you want to call it, carries the day.
In a better time, when most people actually believed in God and final judgement, we would have labeled our condition sloth, one of the seven deadly sins. But, sin has been eliminated along with God and final judgement. They are politically incorrect...yea, they are hate crimes.
Most Americans have grown fat and lazy and afraid. Most of today's Americans would have lasted about three days - if that long - in 1730 Pennsylvania or 1830 Colorado or even 1930 Oklahoma. Most Americans have grown stupid and stupid in their stupidity, a veritable stubborn stupidity.
We have fallen into a state of intellectual and moral laziness while at the same time assaulted by a constant barrage of deadly propaganda that has deluged us for over forty years and which has come from every important realm of life: education, religion, economics, politics, entertainment, yea, even the once upon a time banal world of sports.
Is it too late to recognize our condition, let alone correct our mis-routed destiny?
...to be continued...
