Terry Gross On her NPR show Fresh Air asked Al Gore what surprised him the most about the current Bush Administration. He responded that he was “surprised by its incuriosity”. He wondered why Bush asked so few questions, why he never appeared to “look under the carpet”.
Incuriosity, it seems to me, is more than simply the lack of curiosity. It is something more intentional and, perhaps, insidious. Looking under the rug is not necessarily common practice in everyday life but, if you were walking across the rug and stepped on something that crunched or squished or yelped or moaned, you might just be curious enough to take a peek. Under these circumstances it would take an act of will power not to look, not to wonder what made the sound.
Like it or not, the President leads by example. I have often wondered why, in spite of his low approval ratings, there is no hew and cry. No one is asking why. My suspicion that ‘blind loyalty’ was the culprit has been overtaken by thoughts of a curiously incurious nation and I’m not sure which is worse.
