Ignorance is blissful only to the ignorant
I’m worried.
I’m worried about the future of humanity when I see some of the woeful ignorance that is expressed by our younger members. Come on, kids, it’s going to be up to you to keep this wretched planet going after the rest of us are either too old to do much, or to care much, or are dead and gone.
So, get a grip.
Currently there is a sad little video making the rounds. You may have seen it. My wife sent it to me yesterday, and Tai has it posted on her blog today, so I won’t bother posting it. The video concerns an interview question posed to a young lady who is running in the Miss Teen America competition. Her response is, at first instance, hilarious because it is so utterly ignorant to a degree that it segues into the surreal. But later, it becomes rather sad and, as a number of bloggers expressed on Tai’s responses (and I agree with them), you feel sorry for the girl. But, you feel even sorrier for the rest of us when you learn that the young female has been deemed an ‘honor student.’ That’s chilling.
But, I do feel sorry for her in that her ignorance is there for the world to see, and I feel sorry for her in that she seems so intellectually oblivious to the world around her. Good thing she’s cute because she doesn’t seem to have much else going for her.
But, she is just symptomatic of a broader malaise that seems to afflict the young more than their elders, and that is an appalling degree of unawareness about not only the world beyond their realm of I-Pods and mobile phones, but an intellectual oblivion about anything that came before the time they were “mewling and puking” I their mothers’ arms.
Wendy tells me of the young woman in her office who is, it is obvious to anybody, being fast-tracked to a managerial position, primarily because she has influential friends and family. The other day the name of a former premier of British Columbia (about 15 years ago) came up. Now this young woman, in government service at big time pay asked: Who’s that?” when the name was mentioned. “What do you mean, who’s that?” asked Wendy’s incredulous colleague. “He was premier of BC in the early 1990s.” She replied that was before her time, so it meant nothing to her.
How precious such people are to deem nothing that came before them worthy of consideration. That’s akin to a recent poll in the US that showed a large percentage of young people had no idea that Britain and the US were allies in World War Two. That was among those who had some idea what World War Two actually involved, and who were the good guys and bad guys in that conflict. Many didn’t.
Is this stuff important? You bet it is. History is a continuum and we learn from our errors of the past hopefully, despite those in the Bush administration who seem to have very faulty recall of how Vietnam played out.
Who is to blame? What is to blame? Many factors and elements, I suspect. It’s easy to blame schools and teachers, but those people have some mighty heady outside influences to counter in order to drum in some dreary facts and concepts, I guess.
But, the fact that the young lady earlier was an honor student suggests that something is remiss somewhere because she should be in a remedial class in the hopes of salvaging three or four brain cells.
“D’oh!”
I’m worried about the future of humanity when I see some of the woeful ignorance that is expressed by our younger members. Come on, kids, it’s going to be up to you to keep this wretched planet going after the rest of us are either too old to do much, or to care much, or are dead and gone.
So, get a grip.
Currently there is a sad little video making the rounds. You may have seen it. My wife sent it to me yesterday, and Tai has it posted on her blog today, so I won’t bother posting it. The video concerns an interview question posed to a young lady who is running in the Miss Teen America competition. Her response is, at first instance, hilarious because it is so utterly ignorant to a degree that it segues into the surreal. But later, it becomes rather sad and, as a number of bloggers expressed on Tai’s responses (and I agree with them), you feel sorry for the girl. But, you feel even sorrier for the rest of us when you learn that the young female has been deemed an ‘honor student.’ That’s chilling.
But, I do feel sorry for her in that her ignorance is there for the world to see, and I feel sorry for her in that she seems so intellectually oblivious to the world around her. Good thing she’s cute because she doesn’t seem to have much else going for her.
But, she is just symptomatic of a broader malaise that seems to afflict the young more than their elders, and that is an appalling degree of unawareness about not only the world beyond their realm of I-Pods and mobile phones, but an intellectual oblivion about anything that came before the time they were “mewling and puking” I their mothers’ arms.
Wendy tells me of the young woman in her office who is, it is obvious to anybody, being fast-tracked to a managerial position, primarily because she has influential friends and family. The other day the name of a former premier of British Columbia (about 15 years ago) came up. Now this young woman, in government service at big time pay asked: Who’s that?” when the name was mentioned. “What do you mean, who’s that?” asked Wendy’s incredulous colleague. “He was premier of BC in the early 1990s.” She replied that was before her time, so it meant nothing to her.
How precious such people are to deem nothing that came before them worthy of consideration. That’s akin to a recent poll in the US that showed a large percentage of young people had no idea that Britain and the US were allies in World War Two. That was among those who had some idea what World War Two actually involved, and who were the good guys and bad guys in that conflict. Many didn’t.
Is this stuff important? You bet it is. History is a continuum and we learn from our errors of the past hopefully, despite those in the Bush administration who seem to have very faulty recall of how Vietnam played out.
Who is to blame? What is to blame? Many factors and elements, I suspect. It’s easy to blame schools and teachers, but those people have some mighty heady outside influences to counter in order to drum in some dreary facts and concepts, I guess.
But, the fact that the young lady earlier was an honor student suggests that something is remiss somewhere because she should be in a remedial class in the hopes of salvaging three or four brain cells.
“D’oh!”
Labels: a life unfettered by thought, how relaxing
posted by Ian Lidster at
1:46 PM
15 Comments:
I found that teen model video painful to watch. My only hope is that it was somehow a case of nerves/stage fright that made her so incoherent. It not, it is ironic that she got the question she did.
By the way, as you asked, feel free to borrow any pictures you like off my blog. :)
This post really hit home because I've been on both sides of the fence. I was one of those "honor students" once. I was also as dumb as a stump regarding world history and cultural matters.
Embarrassing as it is to look back on, it was simply part and parcel of the time and place I grew up. The prevailing attitude was "you live in the greatest state in the greatest country in the world. Why on earth would you want to go anywhere or learn about anything else?" Being brought up among hard core religious fundamentalism didn't help. There was active discouragement regarding becoming "worldly" and mingling with "sinners", which is to say anyone who wasn't white and who didn't subscribe to the particular brand of religion popular in that area.
It took moving to another state and meeting people from different countries and cultures before I realized my ignorance and became curious.
Unfortunately, I don't think my experience is as "exceptional" as one would hope. When I visit my former hometown, the attitudes I grew up with are still very prominent. Speaking cynically, I think that in the U.S. the political leaders find it very convenient to have citizens who are as ignorant and incurious as sheep.
Baaaah.
I think the thing that bothered me the most was that I heard she defended her answer the next day. I've put my foot in my mouth enough (especially under pressure) to know that sometimes it's difficult to speak intelligently. But have the grace to say, "Wow. I really let the pressure get to me, didn't I?!" and have a good laugh about it.
There are so many other points to this post that I'd like to go on about, but *defending* an answer like that? Please, someone tell me that she didn't. How embarrassing.
That poor poor girl. She obviously had no idea what she was talking about. I wonder if she really is that ignorant, and not just overwhelmingly nervous. I also wonder if she won!
V.
We are always surprised that, as New Zealanders, we were taught a lot about world politics, & social customs etc. Amazed to find how it seems to be 'mind over matter'- America doesnt mind, & we (ie, the rest of the world, not only NZ) dont matter!
i watched the pageant last friday. she placed 3 or 4th; can't remember which. i think she was extremely nervous. not to make excuses for her, but it's no easy feat being in front of all those people, and then to get asked a random question and only have so many seconds to answer, you have to talk quick. unfortunately, she messed up--big time.
i didn't hear where she made an excuse, but i did see her on good morning america where she admitted she messed up, how humiliated she was and still is, but she said pretty much life goes on (not exact words, but same meaning). she knows it's something she'll have to live with for the rest of her life.
there may be young people today who may not know history, etc., but there are plenty who do know. i see and personally know many young people who are smart, intelligent, and are doing positive things with their lives.
i don't know what percentage, but i do know there are lots.
i do think she should have been better prepared when question time rolled around, but this will be a learning lesson for not only her, but for other young people as well.
She probably knows a lot about lip gloss.
It was excruciating to watch that video because even extreme nervousness wouldn't have produced such a vacuous response. U.S. Americans? Oh, my. Only defective brain cells could do that.
I think we are living in an Orwellian world in which the masses are being lobotomized so they can be taken over easily, and it's scary as hell.
Even worse is that there is peer pressure to be stupid. My daughter is very smart and knows things from all times. She tells me that often when she tries to talk about something with her friends they have no idea what she is talking about, show no interest, and even act as if she is strange for "knowing all this old stuff."
How sad is that?
Hopefully, as usual it's the idiots who stand out. I'm sure our generation has more than it's share of people who know nothing about anything and worse, don't care to.
I know lots of youngsters who are intelligent, articulate and know what's going on and what came before them. I can only hope they aren't too small a minority. Because if that miss teen is an example of what's to come (granted, she was under tremendous pressure), it's going to be a scary world in the years to come.
I'll repeat what I said on Tai's blog...there are moments when one is ashamed to be part of mankind...
LOL @ Heart. "She probably knows a lot about lip gloss."
i stand with heart on this issue... well said
my sense is it was all exacerbated by that twit of a 'pediatrician', ben spock, and his ilk, re. child rearing
if only MR.SPOCK's outlook was more adhered to
One doesn't know whether to laugh or cry when one sees something like this. I'm sure she was nervous but still....
Ian, I think you are turning into an old curmudgeon. Two ranting posts in a row (I'm reading backwards)!
regards
jmb
He who ignores history is doomed to repeat it. George Santayana...
Enough said
I saw the video on another blog and my immediate thought wsa that she will likely be our next president. The U.S. seems to have developed a huge tolerance for incoherence.
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