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Originally Posted by Ben Bova

The most prescient — and chilling — of all the science fiction stories ever written, though, is “The Marching Morons,” by Cyril M. Kornbluth, first published in 1951. It should be required reading in every school on Earth.

The point that Kornbluth makes is simple, and scary: dumbbells have more children than geniuses. In “The Marching Morons” he carries that idea to its extreme, but logical, conclusion.

Kornbluth tells of a future world that is overrun with dummies: men and women who don’t know anything beyond their own shallow personal interests. They don’t know how their society works, or who is running it. All they care about is their personal — and immediate — gratification.

The ancient Romans had a term for this: “bread and circuses.” Give the masses cheap food and entertainment and they’ll be content to let you run the country any way you choose.

In Kornbluth’s story, the people who are actually working — slaving, really — to keep society from falling apart altogether are a small group of very bright men and woman who labor in secret. They are horrified by the world of the morons, but they strive valiantly to keep the dumbbells from destroying themselves.

The dumbbells, meanwhile, are multiplying madly in blissful ignorance, intent on watching entertainment videos and buying automobiles that are all vroom and sleek looks.

Sound familiar?