I have been thinking about the seemingly growing amount of stupidity in our world and thought it would be fun to entertain a blog on it, so here goes. There is so much that I could fill a library, and a big one, so this is just a small scratch at the surface.
“You can’t unteach stupidity” is a concept that seems to be more and more relevant to what is going on in U.S. public life today, particularly in the political arena, but also more in everyday life as well. That phrase. ‘You can’t unteach stupidity” may not be the best of English grammar but it an intriguing, and fun, concept to investigate. It doesn’t matter whether you look at the issue of climate change, the rise of political fanaticism at many levels, road rage, evangelical fanaticism, or the seemingly constant bombardment we all suffer through from social media, and irresponsible mainline media, let alone the amazing growth of stupid, and brain-numbing, advertisements.
I am reminded of the old saying, “By definition, half of the world has an IQ of less than 100…and, somedays, those are the only ones you meet”. The problem is that we now seem to be meeting them almost all-day, every-day in all walks of life.
I have often thought that it would be very helpful to the development of the human race, if you could legislate against stupidity, but the legislation would have to be so comprehensive that it would be impossible to create in an understandable form. The problem is just too pervasive. It would also be almost impossible to implement, let alone enforce. To begin with, half the buildings in the world would have to be prisons. Second, and perhaps even more difficult, many people who are completely sensible, under normal circumstances, can exhibit inexplicable stupidity at times, and that includes me.
One example of public stupidity (such a lot to choose from) from the Republican Primary in New Hampshire recently: In a celebration of his victory, Trump said to Senator Tim Scott, live on stage, “You must really hate Nikki Haley”. Scott replied, “No, I just love you”. If that’s not stupidity mixed up with political expediency, I don’t know what is.
Another example of this “stupidity” trend is “Car Bloat”: the gradual, and totally useless, growth of the physical size of vehicles, particularly in the U.S., but in other countries as well. This trend is increasingly dangerous in accidents, increases the demand for fossil fuels and raw materials (Steel, aluminum and plastics among many others), and is totally unnecessary in the vast majority of peoples’ everyday lives. Stupidity is a good description of all of us who buy these monstrosities, as well as the companies that make them, and the governments that encourage/permit them to be made.
Stupidity is a difficult topic because, I’m sure, everyone will have a different interpretation of what stupidity is – it’s in the eye of the beholder. It is rare, for example, for anyone to admit that they are being stupid whereas, in the eyes of others, it’s obvious.
Some stupidities could be addressed by a vastly improved education system but, unfortunately, most stupidities seem to be impervious to any sort of control or influence. There is a slight glimmer of hope in believing that education can affect political stupidity. I have written before that re-introducing “Civics” and “Government” into U.S. public schools might have some effect on political stupidity/ignorance, in the longer term. We can hope, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on it.
I am sure that humanity has a certain level of innate stupidity built into our DNA, and there’s very little we can do about that. However, the fact that the trend seems to be accelerating cannot be attributed to DNA – we don’t change that quickly, in a biological sense.
So, what is causing this apparent rush towards more stupid decisions, stupid actions, and stupid outcomes? I also include, in this list of stupidities, “in-actions”.
I am going to cop out at this stage and ask my audience for their ideas on how we can, at the very least, get this rapid growth-of-stupidity-trend under some sort of control. I look forward to hearing from you.
