Why dont people know the basic knowlege that most effects us all?

Question

I ask in reponse to a question i asked about self sufficiency in Britain; This country has enough knowlege wealth, technology available to become totaly self sufficient on our own energy within the next 10 years, we have vast areas land to grown our own food and manage in a productive way.
Yet people seem to deny this or are not even aware that it would be a big problem if we were ever affected by a big disaster or war. Why do people not look and question things around them? Facts are reality and are what should be used to form oppinions, common sence is a skill we seem to be lossing, are we doomed. Im proud to be from the uk, with all the great inventors and visionarys that we have produced, but people in this country dont use their brains any more..... it's just a wee worrying to say the least, is this society dumbed down, has it been easy to dumb down. How many people take what the media and politicians say as gospell truth and dont think for them selfs with informed conclusions..

Way of thinking is the issue here and lack of questioning the facts informativaly, not prodominatley education.

09:55 am just figured the answer to part of this question ! We are lossing the ability to think independantly, partley throught poor educations, partley through being in a rat race and partley through circumstance or ignorance.... ahhh ha,, the mean of life next *;)

Answer 1

That's true in many different situations, all over the world.

Most people aren't trained in (or don't use) the skills of critical thinking, most can't make their own clothes, let alone weave clothe or tan leather. Most could not find or hunt their own food, too many don't even know how to cook. And not just survival skills. Most people don't understand how to look up laws, and few have read the foundational documents or constitutions of their countries.

People are not only not self-sufficient, most don't even know how to take advantage of the resources around them.

Answer 2

What makes you think this is a new trend? Do you not think that more people are educated in UK than ever before? Do you not think the working classes of 15th Century were less informed and forward thinking than modern day Britons (maybe a bad question)?

Apathy and passive views are rife on our little island, but the reality is that it always has been and it always will. But that's the masses for you. There are still the minority highly educated avant-garde thinkers who I'm sure have pondered your points.

My answer after my own pondering would be that we don't grow our own food because commerce and trade keeps the pound in the global game and produce is cheaper to import. I am presuming that if we were on the brink of war or our importers were, then your notion of self sufficiency would be put to practice.

Back to your original point, yes the general public are mentally dumbed down, full of apathy and empty of knowledge. But nationally and globally the masses always have been.

Do not think that everyone in the country is because then we really would be doomed. As ever, there are the educated thinkers who do question and who do not simply absorb.

So please don't buy your sandwich board just yet aye_lukey.

Answer 3

First, I'm not sure where you get your facts from, but the UK could never be self sufficient in regards to energy, or food. All north sea oil fields have peaked and are on the decline. The one new major find they have had recently, in the scheme of things is not that much. Natural gas in the Uk as far as I know is nearly non-existent, that's why we import so much. If your talking about coal, sure we have lots, but it's expensive to mine, because we can't pay miners the dirt wages they are paid in other developing countries, and it's very high in pollution even with the new technologies, and with everyone panicing about global warming and going green and Kyoto, it won't fly. Wind farms...NOT. There goes all that farmland, there would have to be windmills everywhere. Nuclear energy...I say yes, but everyone still thinks cherynoble, even though the tech. has come leaps and bounds since then. We can grow food but not nearly enough to satisfy the population, growing season is too short for alot of fruit and veg too. This lack of supply would cause prices to skyrocket, genetically modified you say, I don't think so, it's new, therefore everyone is afraid of it, don't know the long term effects. Please do not say you have vast areas of land, the ENTIRE UK,SCOTLAND,and WALES could fit into the PROVINCE of Alberta in Canada 4.5 times, we have no land here.

As far as the dumbing down, the problem there is the propaganda machine (media). It doesn't matter whose media you listen too, it is all propaganda. The only way to find out for yourself is to go there and see it for yourself. When you read the paper or watch the news, you have to read between the lines.; Most people can't do that, they take everything at face value. Bad idea. People in the UK still do use their brains, it's just that there are more people than before and more people are not using their brains than before. Politicians are lawyers, and lawyers in general are liars. They do survey to find out what different people want and then use that as a platform when taking to specific groups. A politician won't give the same speech in London that he gives in Manchester, it's a different demographic. Another problem is there are to many bleeding heart lobby groups, you know the ones, criminal deserve the same rights as their victims, the yob youth need love not jail, illegal immigrants and asylumseekers are our friends, that three pack a day smoker needs extra benifit for her asmatic child blah, blah. Thes lobbys represent a minority of the population, but they are the ones bending the politicians ear. The majority are busy at their jobs. You ever notice how many lobbyists are out in the middle of the day when the rest of us are at work. One day, maybe...people will wake up, take a look around, and press for real change, I just hope it's not to late by then.

Answer 4

Its not a question of our not having the basic knowledge. We used to have it but the skills have died out as so much production has shifted to overseas and so many goods are imported.

The real reason is globalisation and commerce. For example, the cloth making and weaving industries (and sheep rearing and wool spinning) were very big industries in the UK but once workers in these industries were able, through the unions, to negotiate a decent wage, commerce demanded that production moved to countries where the wages were really really low, allowing the industry owners to compete with industry owners from overseas. It is still the case that imported goods are very much cheaper than UK-produced goods. Why do you think you can buy t-shirts for under £4 in Tesco and Asda?

With the collapse of these industries comes the collapse of the skills and the machinery is either sold (to developing countries) or becomes outdated and is not replaced.

Now it would be impossible to start these industries again. No skills left (not passed on) and horrendous start-up costs. No-one could compete.

Its the same with food production. Where you have farms the size of Wales producing masses and masses of grain, for example, as there are in the US, we can't employ the same economies of scale. And farmer subsidies (put in place to help them sell their stuff globally at a profit) means they compete favourably with other producers in other countries. EU farmers also receive subsidies which means that farmers in third world countries find it hard to sell their produce profitably - and they get exploited by the supermarkets (not just the supermarkets here - across all of the developed world. And don't forget that Asda is US owned).

We could do it, of course we could, but the cost would be too high and the big companies that own so much of the UKs infrastructure (many of them US or European owned) as well as, for example, the big chemical companies (also US or European owned) which produce the fertilisers, the pesticides, the food additives etc etc, would put too much pressure on us to prevent us getting anywhere with any kind of self-sufficiency programme. They could apply sanctions, for example, cutting off those things which we cannot produce in this country.
Look at the GM situation. No-one wants genetically modified food and trial fields have been destroyed in the past. But it is coming anyway because the agro-chemical companies want to develop these products as they see big profits in them.

This is our modern world. Now you know what the May Day riots were all about.

But you are right in one way about dumbing down. Most people don't want to know about this stuff. Happy to just carry on buying their stuff at low low prices from supermarkets and not questioning where it comes from, or how or why.

Answer 5

The problem with common sense is that it's not that common!

A lot of industrial decisions are made for political reasons without any regard for issues of logistics or what is right for us. Just look at the Common agricultural policy - Paying money to farmers not to produce anything!

It has been proven that there is more oil in shale than has ever been produced to date (albeit at a higher cost) but it has not been politically expedient to persue this.

Probably the biggest example of all is weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The (ex) number 2 to Saddam Hussein in the Iraq airforce personally over-saw the exit of chemical weapons to Syria and wrote a book about it ("Sadam's Secrets" by George Sada). Bush and Blair both know about this but for some reason won't use the info.

Who can understand politics?

Answer 6

I am not sure you are right about having enough resources for the 60 million in this country and it does make us vulnerable should their be prolonged bad weather or some sort of blight

But in essence I totally agree with you.

The problem is those with the most ability to do anything about it I.e politicians look only at the smaller picture of term to term policies and putting right the mess they create in the process.

The outcome being we move round in ever increasing circles

Answer 7

Basically because we have become a "throw away" society. Younger people want everything and want it "now" , don't even think of the consequences or affect of what they do, say, buy or use. Lots of people no longer watch the news or listen to the news and have no idea of what is going on in the world.
Sad fact of life - will people ever accept that their actions can have detrimental affects on this planet.

Answer 8

'Cos we're part of the EU and supposed to co-exist peacefully with other nations.
By the way, I've just done the "How to be an English Person" test for my British passport. One of the things that it taught you was that if you went into a pub and knocked over someone's drink, you must buy them a new drink. Absolutely genuine. How's that for dumbing down.

Answer 9

specific, you would be an experimental Roman Catholic. The quickest way into certainly one of those church, nonetheless is to take training, while you test with attending Mass. Catholics believe that all and sundry Grace is controlled for the duration of the Church, and charm (ability to be saved) is distributed for the duration of the Sacraments (inclusive of attending Mass).

Answer 10

Some of the people I meet lack even the minimum of education. Why, I know one person who can't even spell KNOWLEDGE.