Flying the Flag of Stupid
Asking a timeless question
Many, many people have wondered whether the Internet has made people more stupid than was so in generations prior to the Information Age and I’ve wondered about this also. I still think that the answer is ‘no’ and ‘yes.’
No: because of instant connection, we not only have access to uncountable amounts of information, but also access to people who, forty years ago, we wouldn’t know existed. The downside to this is that we also have access to a greater amount of stupid people.
They were always there; you just know more of them.
Yes: Many mistake large amounts of information for intelligence. It is in that way that the Internet has provided many stupid people with the illusion of intelligence. Be advised: stupidity is not defined as lack of information. Stupidity is the limited ability to interpret information, coupled with the refusal to acknowledge the need for this ability. Ever know an idiot who was full of hubris and arrogance about some information she has that you don’t have? When attempt to interpret the information, that’s when the name-calling starts - usually involving your alleged lack of brainpower.
Thus, a stupid person is the inverse example of Harry Callahan’s timeless axiom.
A man’s got to know his limitations.
In action, this state of affairs is demonstrated by a false dichotomy I’ve seen all over the place for a couple of decades: why do non-Muslim observers judge Islam for what some Muslims do, but do not judge Christianity for what some Christians do?
Someone asked me that question a while ago. Here was my answer:
Both Christians and Muslims have individual standard-bearers. The standard-bearer for Christians: Jesus of Nazareth. The standard-bearer for Muslims: Mohammed.
When observers attempt to determine whether self-described Christians or self-described Muslims are true believers in their respective faiths and are acting as such, the logical thing do is to measure their words and/or actions against the teachings of the appropriate standard-bearer and, then, come to a cogent conclusion [about the actor and his religion].
From the subsequent part of our conversation, the inquirer had no understanding of standards or standard-bearers and wasn’t inclined to consider the definitions and implications of either.
We all know he’s not alone. However, he did seem proud of the amount of information he was able to call forth about the Bible. There, he had me. But the Devil is able to quote scripture better than any of us, so that’s a contest I don’t care about. (And, yes, I can see it now: “she called that man the Devil because he disagreed with her.” To infer that would fall under the stupidity umbrella which I described earlier.)
And here’s something that puts me further into the ‘yes’ category: stupidity has fewer lethal consequences than it did in the days of yore. This story, however, suggests that those types of consequences are making a comeback.
A dangerous TikTok challenge has gone viral as summer heats up in the Northern Hemisphere. The trend involves people jumping off the rear of a moving boat. Tragically, this viral challenge has already claimed the lives of four individuals in Alabama.
"The four that we responded to when they jumped out of the boat, they literally broke their neck and, you know, basically an instant death," Capt. Jim Dennis of the Childersburg Rescue Squad told NBC News. The deaths have occurred in the last six months.
Standard-bearers, indeed.
We are nearing extinction level stupid, as was foretold in the movie Idiocracy. That's all I need to say about that.
As far as people and their various faiths, I am reminded of a couple of things:
1. I heard of an old Amish grandfather who was asked if he was a Christian. He replied, "Don't ask me because I might tell you anything. Ask my neighbor and see what he says about me."
2. A local pastor recently asked me if I was a believer. I told him I was. He then recited the Apostolic Creed and asked me point by point if I believed each article of faith. He then edged into deeper doctrinal waters, but I confessed that I am no theologian. There is much in the Scriptures I do not understand, which doesn't bother me nearly as much as the parts I do understand. He asked for an example. "Isaiah 58*," I answered. "I am bothered that I (and we) don't take that chapter nearly as seriously as the Lord takes it." Taking that chapter seriously is the kind of thing a neighbor might notice.
3. I know a logger who became a Christian midway through life. When his former drinking buddies heard about his conversion, they started making jokes about him that quickly escalated into a fight that he ended with a jack handle. "Nobody makes fun of my religion," he said to his battered tormentors.
I smiled when I heard the story of his fervor, but there are religions that take his approach to an extreme level. Any religion that uses violence to proselytize is evil. Full stop. And that's all I need to say about that.
* See also Matthew 25.
Ignorance and stupidity are different.
I suspect the internet is, in many ways, increasing ignorance. "I read it on the internet so it must be a real fact!"
Ignorance is correctable, the ignorant can learn, can be taught, to think critically, sift information presented, and arrive at a valid, valuable conclusion.
Stupid on the other hand, lacking the cognitive ability, the brain power, to learn isn't fixable. Doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results for example.
IQ measures something, I'm not sure what, but supposedly it's intelligence. If my memory serves me correct, the mean point on the IQ curve, 100 IQ, has moved farther left thrice in my lifetime, suggesting why, yes, people are getting stupider.
Many factors could lead toward, produce, this result. I feel a major one is our obsession with excessive safety. every thing, every approved action, must be risk free. We all must be protected from our own stupidity.
Hence more stupid reach maturity, thus more stupid in the breeding pool and subsequently, more stupid in the next generation.
Sadly I suspect many, of not the majority, of our beloved, elite, leaders who are quite sure that they know what is best for the masses, consider stupid a feature, not a bug in the machinery of today's "civilization".