Recently I have been digging through my old stacks of photocopied notes *i'm only interested in someone else's notes* -which i forgot to send home, i found the original photocopied piece of the article Jessica Zafra wrote. It's a personal favorite.
I have this article way back my freshmen year and was given by my Literature prof I shun to remember much to my chagrin. ho-ho! Anyway, i failed to probe where it is published, sorry.
Evolution or Moronization by Jessica Zafra
Are people getting stupider? There are several ways of addressing this question.
On the other hand, test scores are dropping across the country, a lower percentage of examinees get passing marks on professional board exams, and total of cretins are achieving position of power, which would suggest that their competitors (or the electorate) are even stupider than they are.
On the other hand, there are more people on the planet today, and even if the ratio of smart people to dumb people hasn’t changed, there would still be more stupid people walking the earth. Also, conditions on the planet are far more hospitable then they were in, say, Sumeria 787 B.C., and fewer stupid people are getting themselves killed by sticking their noses up a Hippopotamus’ arse.
On yet another hand (which makes three hands, therefore you are a mutant), it might be argued that the answer to the question would depend on our definition of “stupid”. If by “stupid” we mean “the opposite of intelligent”, we would have to define “intelligent”. This is a tough call. Now that the usefulness of IQ tests is being disputed – partly because the people who flunk them feel bad and we don’t want these idiots to be discouraged for life – we can’t just call someone who scores 200 a genius and someone who scores 20 a moron.
The task of defining intelligence is further muddles by recent, fashionable classifications. Last year there was “emotional intelligence”, and now there’s “moral intelligence”. Several books have been written on these other types of intelligence, and their authors are racking in big bucks so they can’t be totally stupid.
On yet another freaky hand, don’t you sometimes have this creeping suspicion that you are surrounded by morons? Maybe you are a nice person so you don’t say it out loud, ( And I just want to tell you that I’m here for you, I’ll say it out loud, We’re surrounded by morons!) but you know what I’m saying don’t you. This suspicion may not be supported by cold, hard data, but it’s certainly backed up by observation.
It would be easier if stupid people looked like stupid people – for instance they drooled all the time. Think of how convenient it would be if everyone who wore their underwear on the outside could be called stupid, and we didn’t have to stop and wonder whether he or she was just being trendy. Unfortunately, the stupid tend to look like everybody else, not to mention that many smart people dress stupidly.
There is also the fact that many stupid people harbor the delusions of intelligence. They truly believe that they are intelligent creatures, and their self-confidence hypnotizes other people into believing the same. Corollary to this, many smart people hid heir intelligence, knowing that intelligence can be a liability on a planet that is predominantly stupid.
An interesting side to our discussion is the debate o whether there is intelligent life on other planets. Those who do not think so reason that if there are extraterrestrial beings, why have these beings contacted us? They do not consider us “intelligent life”. We do not meet their criteria for intelligence, and are therefore not worthy of their formal attention. This could be why our contact with aliens has been limited to abductions and castle mutilations, neither of which can definitely be connected to extraterrestrial activities.
Now some readers may have refuse to read past the first sentence of this column on the ground that “stupider” is an improper usage. Are they intelligent, or stupid? First, I would like to commend them for hoisting the flag of good grammar; second, I recommend that they do other readers a favor and hoist themselves on the flagpole!
And who am I to ARGUE?
:)
It looks really old.
Labels: jessica zafra
