Is America Becoming Dumber?
At this point, the society of Mike Judge's movie "Idiocracy" seems a likely future.
America has broken into two major factions, not necessarily defined by politics and ideology, but roughly aligned with them.
There is an independent, productive class that is rooted in basic reality, lives within the bounds of natural law, knows how and from where the necessities of human life come, understands how to do things that create value, and is comfortable with the responsibility duty they give to their family, their work and their community. Generally, they want to be left alone to live their lives and manage their own careers. Often referred to as “blue collar,” this class includes farmers, ranchers, truckers, builders, small business owners, police, firefighters, and people in direct contact with everyday life.
Then there is a dependent class, one that cannot exist without the independent class. These people often hold college degrees but are members of a massive cargo cult, comprehending little about how everyday needs are created (they assume food is magically manufactured at the grocery store), little to no understanding of economics and little concern for the independent class on which they depend. These people have been variously tagged as the “laptop class” or the “managerial class” for their insulation from basic reality and their jobs arranging and rearranging how the independent class lives.
Of course, there are crossovers between these two groups. Some make transitions between the groups, but it is a small number who successfully transition – these tend to be visionary leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs who deliver something of significant value that impacts both groups.
What I find ironic is it seems the more educated people are, the less actual knowledge they possess. There was a study done a decade ago that concluded the young people entering the workforce were far less educated than those leaving it. I am confident that has not changed.
We appear to be getting dumber by choice, not by physiology:
“Which brings us to an unpleasant possibility. “You may not want to hear this,” says cognitive scientist David Geary of the University of Missouri, “but I think the best explanation for the decline in our brain size is the idiocracy theory.” Geary is referring to the eponymous 2006 film by Mike Judge about an ordinary guy who becomes involved in a hibernation experiment at the dawn of the 21st century. When he wakes up five hundred years later, he is easily the smartest person on the dumbed-down planet. “I think something a little bit like that happened to us,” Geary says. In other words, idiocracy is where we are now.”
Kind of explains Kamalakazies and Gurl Boss Nation, doesn’t it?
Several years ago, I proposed that we face a series of real crises – not farcical, concocted political crises – but real, honest to God, potential extinction level events. Perhaps the most significant one was a crisis of education:
Public education has become regimented and systematized to the point that it has become dogmatic. We even refer to our educational services as school “systems.” Socratic learning has been largely replaced with regimented indoctrination, free thinking is not encouraged, and following the “system” is valued over critical thinking.
Value is placed on the simple command of facts and not the critical “why’s” behind them. We also appear to lack important overarching historical context, preventing us from viewing modern issues in proper context and facilitating understanding. We do appear to be more focused on teaching what to think and not how to think. Objective truths and established facts are dismissed as “your opinion.” Direct, vigorous debate and defending a position seem to be alien, just “sharing” opinions or presenting a list of facts is good enough. Knowledge is substituted for wisdom. It makes for an intense interest in politesse but leads to arrogant, undisciplined, unorganized thought, resulting in overt hostility to any challenge or correction.
Studies have shown that college (at least the first 2 years of it) is largely a waste of time and money and the total college package leaves something to be desired. Richard Arum (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1996; M.Ed. Harvard Graduate School of Education, 1988), authored the new book “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses” (University of Chicago Press). It followed 2,322 traditional-age students from the fall of 2005 to the spring of 2009 and examined testing data and student surveys at a broad range of 24 U.S. colleges and universities, from the highly selective to the less selective. To those of us who have hiring responsibilities for business, what he found is hardly a surprise:
“An unprecedented study that followed several thousand undergraduates through four years of college found that large numbers did not learn the critical thinking, complex reasoning and written communication skills that are widely assumed to be at the core of a college education.
Many of the students graduated without knowing how to sift fact from opinion, make a clear written argument or objectively review conflicting reports of a situation or event, according to New York University sociologist Richard Arum, lead author of the study. The students, for example, could not determine the cause of an increase in neighborhood crime or how best to respond without being swayed by emotional testimony and political spin.
Forty-five percent of students made no significant improvement in their critical thinking, reasoning, or writing skills during the first two years of college, according to the study. After four years, 36 percent showed no significant gains in these so-called “higher order” thinking skills.
Combining the hours spent studying and in class, students devoted less than a fifth of their time each week to academic pursuits. By contrast, students spent 51 percent of their time — or 85 hours a week — socializing or in extracurricular activities.”
A critically thinking citizenry is primary to the success of our Republic. Feeling the “vibes” is not good enough.
If we continue to grow a society that cannot recognize fact, how can we ever expect that society to face them?
We're living Idiocracy. This movie comes up in family chats.
It used to be a headed-to.
Now it's we're here.
You're spot-on again.
OMGoodness -- if this is accurate and not reversible, where will rational doers go?