This is a bit of a follow-up on my Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff post, I pondered the topic a bit more and I have some additional conclusions I want to share. It also borrows a bit from the excellent post RangerSquirrel did here on Fact or Fiction.
It is also a bit of a commentary based on an interesting movie called Idiocracy
I really believe that we as a country and possibly as a species are getting “dumber”. Not everyone mind you, there are plenty of very intelligent folks out there with boat loads of common sense. However, I do think and argument can be made that as a collective we are growing dimmer by the minute.
One could contest that everyone when they reach a certain age develops a different view of life; that new take on things makes what has “always been” suddenly appear to be stupid and ridiculous. I will be the first to admit when I was younger I had a MUCH different outlook on life. As I grow older and live life, that has definitely toned down and changed and I question EVERYTHING. I wonder if when I have kids they will look at me like I did my father and say, “Man you just don’t get it.”
Conversely, I look at some people out there today and say to myself are they that DUMB or do they just not give a hoot? I guess there is a little of both (stupidity and complacency) out there but common sense seems to be going the way of the dodo bird.
There are people out there who will absolutely ridicule you for not sharing their beliefs and everyone is so quick to be brainwashed by whatever "movement" they became a “true believer" in, they refuse to listen to a rational argument. I am not saying that everyone needs to agree with everyone else but at least hear each other out.
Let’s get back to the brain washing thing though because that is important and if you have kids in college you need to pay attention to this.
Kids and younger folks are easier to impress your will on and no one does that better than the colleges across America and the boob tube. I experienced it first hand when I attended Rutgers University for a few years. All I am going to say is take an interest in what your kids are learning because you may be surprised what is being drilled into their heads in the halls of academia. That’s all I have to say about that.
I don’t know, sometimes it seems folks are just impressionable or are looking to be part of something. I watch people latch onto "something" and drink the proverbial Kool-aid and ask what triggered that? Is it plain old stupidity? I am not so sure.
I think part of the problem is the very thing that should be our intellectual salvation; the Internet. Bullshit spreads in seconds where it once took considerably longer. Someone say X causes this and doesn’t provide a lick of proof; suddenly people across the country refuse to do Y. I could tell everyone buying a Ford will give you hemorrhoids and there is a large chunk of people out there that just might believe it and not only that, Ford’s stock will drop 10% on the rumor!
A good example of how messed up we are is the simple egg. Eggs “were” good for you, and then they suddenly became bad for you, now they are good for you again (for how long is unknown, hell it could have changed since I wrote this). No one knows at this point if they will spontaneously combust if they eat an omelet. Me, I said screw it a LONG time ago and enjoy eggs as a staple of my breakfast diet. I could give a shit at this point if a study comes out and says eggs will cause me to grow horns and tail, I am gonna continue eating them.
So what’s yer opinion? Are we getting dumber? Or am I just getting grumpier as I get older?
...that is all.
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