Saturday, February 23, 2013

Dumb and Dummer

There was a report by some scientist that the human species is getting dumber. I have know that for years. It doesn't take a scientist to figure out that because the procreation of the species is no longer based on survival of the fittest that the stupid gene will not be selected out but expand exponentially. The government is protecting us from ourselves and medical science is preserving life indiscriminately. The invalid,  the ignorant, and the even the stupid are allowed to pass their genes on with no concern about what the future holds.  Education is being dumbed down, government's nanny roles is expanding, and society is accommodating the lowest common denominator.

There was a PBS program called the ascent of man a long time ago. It hypothesized that man evolved and became smarter. When did it transition into the descent of Man. Was it right after the great thinkers and scientist on whose shoulder our so called and self-proclaimed smart people stand.  Was it just recently that the scale tipped in the stupid direction and is demonstrable today.  Surely all of the magnificent inventions and scientific developments point to a brighter future where our lives are enriched as never before.  Where we no longer need to calculate anything, remember anything, or solve anything not because we don't need to but because we can't. Obviously the descent of man is coincidental with the ascent of the machine.

The printing press made it unnecessary for us to remember, the wheel made in unnecessary for us to labor, the internal combustion engine made it unnecessary for use to run, walk, or even move, and the computer makes it unnecessary for us to do anything but amuse ourselves.  I hear tell of nanobots that will circulate within our blood stream making even that unnecessary.  I guess it is good thing that the stupid gene is being pass on at an exponential rate, that way our kid's kids won't mind or even care.

What's really depressing is that I hear the supposedly smart people pretending that the knowledge our children are learning today is somehow commensurate with or presumably even greater than that of our ancestors. I worry when I hear them emphasis something  as if it was profound when in fact it is much about nothing or the thick of thin things.  Then I hear the supposedly smarter people extolling the evils of disparity and the crimes of inequality and the need to lower our expectations and retard our systems and social orders so that even the dumbest of the dumb don't feel left out.

The scientist is right and I couldn't agree more.

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