Against Stupidity
Against stupidity, the gods themselves
strive in vain. It is ignorance that is the enemy. That, and a
microscopic attention span enabled by a complete lack of teaching
simple discrimination, engendered by decades of tv and movies that
rely more on special effects than content, and engorged by 10 second
sound bites that feed our worse impulses.
The
conspiracist in me believes we've been deliberately led to this
state of affairs, and away from the "informed republic" that I'm
sure Jefferson and company intended our decision-making to be based
on. An easily-swayed public is better than a stupid public; when
they’re not ranting, they can still do productive work, the masses
toiling away in dreams of false freedom.
I don't think the problem is widespread
stupidity, at least not necessarily. I know some pretty intelligent
people who fall into these traps (there are, of course, some VERY
intelligent people *setting* the traps, but that's more a question
of good and evil). It's the lack of critical thought that's key, and
I don't think that's innate; its taught. Or not, which is what I
point to as lack of teaching simple discrimination. The major
omission in our modern education system has not been, imho,
"science" or "math" or "the classics". It's the failure to teach
people to judge, to discern, to assess arguments rather than simply
be swept up by them.