Are people getting stupider or is intelligence just getting spread out?

Question

Are people getting stupider or is intelligence just getting spread out among the world rather than being concentrated in one or a few nations?

Answer 1

Stupid is the wrong word. We are gaining in ignorance because we are no longer taught the necessary skills for ridding ourselves of ignorance. There was a time when the ORIGINAL "Seven Liberal Arts"--not the ones we teach today--led to many great advances in human knowledge and comprehension, virtually--though not completely--ending with the Declaration of Independence. The men who put together the Constitution were admittedly not as educated--on the whole--in those Liberal Arts as those who wrote the Declaration. Those who wrote the Declaration were busy with other things. The decline of the teaching of those Arts has been the decline of rationality in civilization.

Answer 2

i think it's more spread out, but as people tend to worship sports players rather than intelligent people, the intelligent ones stay hidden. that's why the world seems a stupider place.

Answer 3

Nora Explora makes a good point. But I think that everybody has become so caught up in the 'politically correct' viewpoints, and in particular that there are no 'stupid' people, just people who haven't 'experienced' as much, or who come from an 'intleelctually disadvantaged' environment, that we're going out of our way to see to it that achieve far more success than they normally would. And yes, it's bad for us as a society and it's bad for us as a race. But we won't see that for another 40 or 50 years.

Doug

Answer 4

Rather, people are getting more lazy intellectually because information (NOT intelligence) is readily available through it being spread out.

Answer 5

i think so, but I wouldn't use the word 'stupid' though. technology made some people rely too much on computers, machines, etc..

for example, mental computation is being replaced by a scientific calculator or copy/paste net researches is more appealing than reading one fat book..

that is perfectly understandable, technology made a massive change for the betterment of life but everything has it's flip side.

Answer 6

Think logically
Smart people are in the minority
thus
the more people on earth
the more idiots we intellectuals have to stomache

Answer 7

I think that people get too caught up in what they are taught and trust certain things as true without exploring them for themselves.

Answer 8

I think there is plenty of intelligence, but very little wisdom.