Posted
2/18/2008 01:39:00 PM
by Douglas
Hey, who are you calling
dumb? I don't think it's a stretch to think that we, as a culture are getting dumber, but the alarming thing, even through my own observations, is that we're proud of that fact.
The problem is not just the things we do not know (consider the one in five American adults who, according to the National Science Foundation, thinks the sun revolves around the Earth); it's the alarming number of Americans who have smugly concluded that they do not need to know such things in the first place. Call this anti-rationalism -- a syndrome that is particularly dangerous to our public institutions and discourse.
It is past time for a serious national discussion about whether, as a nation, we truly value intellect and rationality.
You could blame this on a lot of things, but until the shift is made to actually
valuing intellect, the high score of
RockBand will reign supreme.