Are Humans Becoming Dumber?

I don't know, there's a theory, in the US at least, that humans are becoming dumber. Supposedly it has something to do with how we are becoming more dependent on technology. I won't bore you with that, because I am not a scientist. You've heard it all before actually. What I will tell you are my own observations.

You know it has troubled me, most of life actually, how much the U.S. education system is dumbed down (is dumbed down a word? Oh well). I think our educational system is clearly in shambles. It's assembly line, they say. Teachers feel obligated to pass you, even if you would receive a failing grade in the past.

Actually, though, there are signs of this trend in our popular culture. It's not related to this, or at least I hope it isn't.

I guess I'll give you a couple of examples. Please tell me that I am overreacting. People call food items, like cream soda "creme soda". Because we will think they use actual cream in it. We know. (Creme is simply a French word, if you didn't already know.) I don't know what you'll think about this next one. I am probably overreacting. The Latin phrase Sic Semper Tyrannis is usually translated today as "Thus always to tyrants". It used to be translated as "ever", not always. Anyways "Thus ever to tyrants" just sounds better to me, is what I am trying to say.

This next one proves my point much better I think. In Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" Scrooge tells Bob Cratchit that if he doesn't watch his mouth, he may spend the holidays losing his situation. In the 1999 version with Patrick Stewart, "situation" is replaced with "occupation". We all know what it means, the way he uses makes it obvious. Duh.

I don't know though, because some people are just perceived as being much more talented, and yes smarter, that they are, because their famous. It could relate to what I said above, decide for yourself. I once heard on a talk show, when I was a kid, that Richard Burton was once performing Hamlet. When he got to "to be or not to be" he paused, and a look of confusion came over his face. Burton loved drinking, and he was, yes, drunk during the performance. That's the real reason why he forgot his line. But the next day, the critics said "Brilliant!", Hamlet was pondering the question. It had never been done before, of course. But Burton was brilliant for being the first to do it that way. So je ne sais pas.

 

A democracy can be effective and efficient only when the population and masses is well-educated with critical thinking skills, so as to ensure that its decision making mechanism is as flawless as possible. In this context, it should be remembered that Socrates was murdered by the flawed judgement of a democratic government influenced by propaganda.

Vested powers can try to control and manipulate a democractic government through propaganda, and ensuring the population are dumbed down through certain means so as to be easily influenced by propaganda narratives and advance the agenda, without furnishing adequate thought on the subject as well as study of facts necessary for setting the right course of action or course correction.

These are just my thoughts on the theme.

 

Well, I should point out that there is another way of looking at people being less intelligent. I still remember from my senior year in HS when we studied Shakespeare's "The Tempest":

"I’ th’ commonwealth I would by contraries
Execute all things, for no kind of traffic
Would I admit. No name of magistrate.
Letters should not be known. Riches, poverty,
And use of service—none. Contract, succession,
Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard—none.
No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil.
No occupation: all men idle, all. (II.i.)"

So some people think that people can only be happy if they are more stupid. I know the Khmer Rouge in Campodia used things like genocide and torture to approach this goal. But in Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" he talks about how a more benevolent government could use it too, along with things like human prejudice, ironically, but for the "right" reasons (or so they think). Huxley's novel is ironic, because as you know, brave new world is a quote from the Tempest.

People who are intelligent are less happy, they think things thru too much. They are complicated too, and that can sometimes lead to things like violence, believe it or not, again because they think things thru too much, they let things get to them that an idiot would not. Now as is "Brave New World" the intelligent people were on top, monitoring things, and taking care of things. And the less intelligent people where the common masses, perhaps even unaware that their intelligence was even being manipulate, who is to say that they wouldn't be much more happy? And in the end, wouldn't that be all that mattered?

 

Yes, i think people are getting dumber overall, At least they are in the USA, as the dumbing down continues.

 

I've always thought that....but we've all experienced the education system. College is 90% getting through it, passing the tests, putting up with the bullshit required courses that mean nothing to your career, and finally getting a degree that tells everyone you're trainable. It's rarely about learning or reasoning. OK, I HAD to take three full years of college calculus and two semesters of differential equations to get my BS in engineering. I have never, never ever, once used calculus in over 40 years. Now, instead of wasting that precious and expensive time, if we could have had more real life lab work - you know, things to help you in your job - things to learn, not to memorize to turn the crank to get the right integral..

 

decades of collective lead poisoning
endless propaganda
preservatives and things in food
complete dependence on developed infrastructure and modern amenities

 

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
Martin Luther King

 

Jesus, I was driving through backwoods Virginia with some business associates from California last week.....we drive by this beat up place practically falling down, six old cars buried in the weeds in the front yard, there was a huge sign in the front yard that said in red white and blue.."FUCK BIDEN". I think we can safely say people are definitely dumber. Yes, you can have your opinions, but come on, little kids see that.... It's like my jackass neighbor down the street, during Obama's re-election campaign - he had a sign out there - in the front yard - "Don't be stupid and vote for Obama"........I swear....and this is a typical suburban neighborhood. This is what we're dealing with.

 

When Richard Burton was booked for a 9am recording session for one of his films back in the 1970's, he arrived at lunchtime with his usual hangover. But after a few coffee's he completed the whole film that afternoon. Something that would have taken a lesser actor a week. He was in a class of his own.

His recording of Dylan Thomas, Under Milkwood, is still regarded as the finest interpretation to this day.

 

"We oppose the teaching of...critical thinking skills and similar programs that...have the purpose of challenging the student's fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority."
Texas Republican Party Platform, 2012

 

Do those "bullshit courses that mean nothing to your career" include American government and history? A person can be considered well-educated and highly successful in his career, and know little or nothing about the American political system and care less. I find that commonplace--and disturbing.

 

They were.

But that may be about to turn around, what with the era of the millennials beginning to pass.

The next generation are showing signs of recognizing just how fucking retarded the world has gotten since the millennials started influencing it.

 

I have been an electrical engineer for over 40 years, everything from power to radio. So, once, in a conference room, I FINALLY see a white board full of calculus. I thought great.....nice to see someone actually using it.....I thought somebody was doing some Fourier analysis or figuring out some kind of frequency or spectrum performance of the transceivers we were working on......."nah, that's just the co-op student doing his homework....." I'm not saying it doesn't have its place, but to 95% of the workplace - even engineering - all that is wasted effort put in place by the good ol' boys educator club to keep colleges as bad as when they were students..... I think of all the useful stuff I could have learned - designing circuits, writing code, learning to use equipment, building projects, working as a team....things that everyday graduates could use in their first job. I think back, I graduated with a 3.6 gpa, but what did I really learn?? How to cooperate and graduate. These professors walked around like they were gods holding your life in the balance.....and their purpose in life was to systematically wash about 50% of you out of the program. I remember distinctly, in our 8AM 5 day a week freshman circuit analysis class, the professor had a big laugh - "look to the left, look to the right, one of you won't be here at the end of the semester, ha ha ha"....and he kicked everyone's ass until that was true.....kind of like a drill Sargent. What did that accomplish?

Millennials. Please. They want everything that took us years to earn and don't want to work for it. I can't tell you how many resumes I've been through of kids under 30 that have already had 6 or 8 post grad industry jobs already...

High School education is only geared for the upper or lower 10%. The upper get everything they need to take their AP level courses so they can get into any college if because if they can show they have a 4.0 GPA and they can scribble out a meaningless essay. The lower 10% is doted on just to get them though. Why don't they have classes in budgeting, or how to get a job, or balance your bank account, or how loans work or how to fix a car or build a house or how to take care of yourself.....no, my fave was having to take "European Culture of the 15th, 16th century" taught by an old tenured battle ax woman with attitude.....

I should have been a plumber. Two rules to learn. Water always finds leaks and shit flows down hill.

 

Some days when I go to town, I notice stress and anxiety in the people. The symptom of that is - stupidity - as in
store cashiers making cross-eyed, absent-minded mistakes. I have to say at times " really, you are under-charging
me for this
purchase
and because I love you
let's take a moment to set it straight."

And who has told the kids the planet will die in 10 Years? And how do kids feel now? anxious
Why then does a hippie kid believe the Elite will murder us as a matter of population control?

 

You have to have no brain cells if you voted for that village idiot that’s the current president and for Obozo the clown. And you’re truly dumb if you think we are better off now than when President Trump was in office

 

Your choice of eptithets and admiration for the pussy-grabbin' crime boss who prescribed hydroxychloroquine, bleach and ivermectin show you have lots of experience with no brain cells. And it's Bozo the clown, друг!

 

In his case it’s Obozo the clown….. and please stop with the pussy grabbing comments… it makes you look more stupid than you already are…. Guess you forgot about what Clinton did… he gets a pass right? Oh and crime boss??? Look no further than the Bidens…. Selling us off to China… dumbass

 

No, Clinton doesn't get a pass; but he's not running for office. As for China, not proven; just the subject of Retrumplican speculation. Let me guess. Eigth grade education?

 

I can bet I have a higher education than you’ll ever have