Or should I just pull up my pants to my armpits and call it a day?
I posted this in response to a different article in "Humor" (Link):
What really yanks my wanker about Western society now ....
.... We're becoming more technically dependent and proficient BUT more illiterate ....
.... We no longer study History or Geography ....
.... Science is now regarded with the same suspicion as politics or religion (and is dismissed as either) ....
.... Either everyone is a hero or no one is ....
.... finally, to personalize everything, a charismatic simpleton is always more highly regarded than a introvert of any intellectual caliber *
* or, how my brain really thinks of this -- marketing trumps engineering
But after a long, tortuous conversation with me (as usual, probably), I would guess that this could probably be further distilled to be: People implicitly believe what they are told from those they are inclined to trust, and implicitly disbelieve all others. Unfortunately, the modern person stops at this point with respect to learning the validity of what they've been told.
This lack of simple skepticism: the inability to examine the value of a message independent of who told it to you, is an alarming symptom of an intellectual laziness that seems too widespread, if not actually embraced:
- the pointless bleating of arguments formed strictly by the sloppy and context-free application of labels and codewords, e.g., Left/Right, Liberal/Conservative, Union, Free-Market, etc.
- opinions on scientific/technical issues that are solely based on first-level authoritative (to the individual) sources without understanding or analysis of the details, e.g., evolution (hell, basic biology and genetics), physics at any level, mathematics of any type, economics, etc.
But am I just tilting at windmills in face of most peoples' reality?
- there's not enough personal time/energy to do basic research into these important topics with everything else that needs to be done
- there are people with careers and reputations staked on these topics so why not listen to what they say?
- while these issues are important to those who must know them and those who must form and implement the respective policies (often three separate groups), the rest of us need to only pay attention at election time and to the ground level effects
Obviously I've ordered these excuses in ascending order of IMNHO speciousness. To my mind only the first point is barely defensible -- but maybe that's just the geek in me exposing my inclination towards introspection and analysis which other types of people don't prefer?
I can't help but feel like an old codger shaking my first in impotent rage at the "kids" ...