To my friends blaming the Democrats for the shutdown - you're right. To my friends blaming the Republicans for the shutdown - you're right. We should not still be operating on a 5-year series of continuing resolutions; all this does is prove that we earned our credit downgrade.

Both sides were elected, and virulent dissent is not incompatible with our system of government; both sides have their talking points down pretty well. It truly is a shame that arguing these back and forth is what passes for debate. It certainly doesn't inspire much confidence for the future.

In a way, though, this just reflects our society. Schools don't teach reasoning and logic, they are simple regurgitation centers. Instead of encouraging debate and outside-the-box thinking, the only questions allowed are those that question the institutions and traditions on which our country is founded. We allowed people to say “Freedom from religion is the same as freedom of religion” without saying back “Uh, no, it's not; prepositions have definite meanings and were selected based on those definitions.”

IMO, this was the beginning of the intellectual weakness that is now writ large on our society. The pseudo-intellectuals use derision and contempt as their go-to weapons when they do not want to deal with opposing viewpoints. In that way, the last week in Washington has been merely a mirror to show us how ugly we've become.

The only thing Idiocracy missed was how long it will take us to get there.