Is this the age of hyper stupidity?

Question

Do you think levels of stupidity have alarmingly risen and this is why we are no longer able to resolve our problems or for that matter contribute anything positive to the civilization... but wars and bloodshed. This is a comment on all sides of the tangle in this power game...

Also how do we increase Global Wisdom? It matters for survival of human civilization and our dream to be what we can potentially be!

I am glad so many people care to answer which means they care... but to say that war has always been around... is a bit simplistic... the quality of war has changed... we were never seeking calculated extermination before nor had the means to do so. All the people were never involved because of abscence of Media... you could have war going on for centuries without you ever getting to know about it. Now every citizen of the world has to make a choice... and it matters.

i appreciate it justgoodfolk but what if you are too optimistic and though specialization is improving technology in terms of human quality and in our basic motivations we are becoming far worse... May be we are losing the bigger picture because of specialization and complexity thus bringing our own ruin?

Answer 1

I really think there is a dumbing down of society going on. Television is the prime example of this. Everything from programming (which has devolved into reptitive examples of people behaving badly in contrived situations as a substitute for entertainment and dubbed 'reality TV') to the news (which looks more and more like the entertainment news everyday, with repeated lead-ins for eventual news items dominating the air time and with reports on the events in the lives of famous people masquerading as information that is of importance to the public).

There seems to be a pan-cultural hatred of intelligence in our western societies. Look at, for one example, the popular show 'Friends'. Ross, the smart one who was a scientist, was deemed the boring one. Whenever he tried to explain anything in more that ten words or in words of more than two syllables, every other character's eyse would glaze over and they would ridicule him for this behaviour.

This is typical. Intelligence is not "cool".

A sad commentary. The primitive, proto-human who invented the first stone tool was of higher creative intelligence than the mass of people who decided to check their brains at the door a long time ago and then lost the ticket for the brain check girl.

Answer 2

I don't think it's so much a question of stupidity but a question of ignorance. We have access to so much more information now than even 10 years ago with the advances of information technology that you would think we would be a far more educated society that is more globally aware than we are. Unfortunately the same can happen the other way in that we have so much information that nobody can sift out rumor from what is truly going on in the world to make an assessment of what is real and we tend to believe all sorts of BS that isn't true but spreads like wildfire all over the world. Also, this lends to more skeptics and cynics and loss of trust in what we are hearing from the news media whereas before it was as easy as reading the newspaper or watching TV and everything made sense even if it wasn't entirely accurate or true. So to answer your question, I don't think anybody really knows what is going on in the world and that Global Wisdom takes work to achieve that the average person isn't willing to spend the time to do even if it is a matter of survival for human civilization. Most people would much rather keep track of what Paris Hilton is doing than what students in Paris, France are doing, and that's pretty much what the world has turned into for better or worse.

Answer 3

No,we as humanity have always been stupid.The thing is most of us seriously try to learn from our mistakes and if you look in the past it's undeniable that we are on the right track.We hesitate sometimes,stumble or hold for a while but if you look at the big picture mankind is always going in the right direction.
We still have many problems tough but we've achieved quiet a lot too on the moral front.
Slavery is no longer the norm and accepted for instance.Countries will never fall for a Fascist ideology again.Democracy is still spreading but has already more supporters than ever in history.
I know what you mean but look at the big picture.Where were we a hundred years ago or more?I think we made progress and sometimes we take a back step cos of stupidity but only to take two steps forward afterward.
People are just not perfect and they'll never be so have patience.Rome wasn't build in one day.

Answer 4

IT is estimated that more then thirty percent of america is illiterate .OVER 20% of all high school grad's can not read above a 5th grade level and lack critical thinking skills and logic problem solving skills .WITH so many of the people in this land following others for jobs and security with no education how can any opionion be judge on its merit .EVERYONE picks the side of the bulletin on the church sign out front ."GOD supports our troops " of course he does but the other side believes the same thing .BUSH says the economy is great and people just believe him .HE has created nothing no new jobs unless you mean taking a man making 25 dollars an hour and giving him a mop and bucket and 9 dollars an hour a job .HE has created service jobs BUT not a single new manufacturing job .JAPAN has its built toyota plants in america .and japan has healthcare paid by the government we do not so it costs more for ford GM and our manufacturer's to provide our workers a decent life for making the cars which we all rely on every day .go just one week without a car and tell me all the things you did . AMERICA is in deep caca and things are only getting worse.

Answer 5

I really don't think stupidity has increased that much. As a matter of fact, I think it is because the common person is apathetic. They don't care about anything except the fact that they have the basic necessities. Believe it or not, war actually stimulates economies.

Think about the Roman Empire which ruled the world for hundreds of years. They thought they had everything and I guess they did. Just think about the fact that something happened and they lost the big pearl - It is a repeating drama. Remember everything happens in cycles - Whaddya think?

Answer 6

I like to believe that the people aren't any stupider than in the past, but the sad reflection of current social conditions. please see this web site... http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm
I only hope that people open their eyes to what is really going on in the world today. I wonder how people can really take the terrorist threat so seriously? I mean I guess it's because the meida crams it down are throats everyday. People are afraid, but of what? More people were murdered in the last half of 2005 as were killed by terrorist attacks in the last 10 years, in the usa.
maybe people really are stupid?

Answer 7

No, I don't think people's native intelligence has changed for many millennia.

however, it becomes more evident as our communication techniques advance. We have access to so much more information (factual or fictitious)

The big change, I believe, is that in the USA, integrity and a belief in human rights, democracy, fairness, diplomacy, and justice have gone the way of dial telephones. Obsolete.

Answer 8

In the years since terrorists attacked us , President Bush
has liberated two countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled
al-Qaida, put nuclear inspectors in Libya, Iran, and North
Korea without firing a shot, and captured a terrorist who
slaughtered 300,000 of his own people.

Answer 9

Bad news. This war and bloodshed has been around for quite awhile and i don't see it going away anytime soon. You geton with your life and we all get on with ours. People should sotp worrying about the greater good until they get their own selves straightened out.

Answer 10

Americans need to understand that in order to decrease violence we need to be less violent.

Also, violence begets violence.


We should be better citizens of the world and not always be consumers

-Somalia has fallen to Islamists again
-Iraq is the source of terrorists now
-The Taliban is rising again
-so on and so on