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Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Why stupid people shouldn't use the internet



Moral of the story: the internet makes dumb people dumber and smart people smarter. If you don't know how to use it, or don't have the background to ask the right questions, you'll end up with a head full of nonsense. But if you do know how to use it, it's an endless wealth of information. Just as globalization and de-unionization have been major drivers of the growth of income inequality over the past few decades, the internet is now a major driver of the growth of cognitive inequality. Caveat emptor. 
In similar vein, John Stewart notes that "Newt Gingrich is a stupid person's idea of a smart person."

While most of the nation worries that a college education may not increase one's earning power,  I am increasingly that the essence of education - and it occurs mostly at university - to teaching people how to think.

Like all human endeavor, "Higher Education" is not without shortcoming.  

Even so, intellectual rigor is a developed skill, not a birthright, and without enough of it, American democracy will not survive.

Cannot survive.

May already have crossed the point of no return.

Consider...

During his recent campaign Rick Santorum observed that "62 percent of kids who enter college with some sort of faith commitment leave without it."

Wow!

College is a dangerous, detrimental place.

What Rooster didn't point out -- either because he was not smart enough to "do his homework" or because he was sufficiently devious to manipulate his followers while deliberately obscuring the whole contextualized truth -- is that an even greater percentage of people who do not go to college lose their faith.

"Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the authors wrote, showed that “64 percent of those currently enrolled in a traditional four-year institution have curbed their attendance habits.” But the figure was higher for those not in college. “Yet, 76 percent of those who never enrolled in college report a decline in religious service attendance.”" http://www.factcheck.org/2012/02/college-kills-faith/ 

Political discourse must transcend ideological diversionism.








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