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So, red state = dumb people, blue state = smart people.
That was a rather odd implication.
States with the highest test scores and public school rankings include Utah, Nebraska and the Dakotas. Not exactly "blue states."
A different type of measure shows that there's a fairly consistent tendency for the middle-educated to be more conservative while the most and least educated tend to be more liberal.
For example, college grads and people with a master's degree tend to vote more conservatively than people with PhD's and high-school dropouts.
This makes sense but I'll only explain on request because I don't want to bore people.
TheHarvester;1250524]That was a rather odd implication.
I did a poor job of making my point (yeah I know, that's hard to believe). Too many times posters boil down huge segments of the population to "this ideoligical color = good, this ideological color = not so good".
Last edited by doc1; 08-10-2007 at 05:56 PM..
Reason: the usual reason
In my opinion, the media is a huge factor as to why American society/culture is "dumbing down" or at least, it's a reflection of it.
For one thing, I cannot name ONE tv show, or popular musician out there that has a message to tell the masses. Back in the day, r&b girl group TLC promoted safe sex and condoms. Also many TV shows, albeit somewhat cheesy, tackled real life issues. And yes, rap music did have a message, and if you listen to people along the lines of Common and Mos Def, they really had something to say. I'd even say NWA spread the awareness of the ghettos and police discrimination that they went through back in Compton. None of the rappers right now are saying anything more than bling, half naked women and 20 inch rims. Currently r&b music consists of Rihannas and Ciaras who probably never had to suffer a day in their lives to make it into their successful yet short music careers, which explains why they don't really sing much about their feelings anyway. That's not r&b, it's just glorified commercial pop.
Back on the subject of TV, Full House dealt with a big family and issues girls had while growing up. Fresh Prince, Cosby, all those recent nick at nite shows portrayed people growing up, facing issues no matter how huge their houses or incomes were. What is this generation being given now? Shows like The Suit Life of Zack and Cody (disney channel) which has characters that represent Paris Hilton (a girl named 'London'). No true value to speak of. Kids can't learn from that.
There are NO people in the media representing 'real people' these days. That's why youtube (as well as other online media outlets) is getting so popular and TV is slowly deteriorating. What we need is a media comprised of real people, with a message to get across. Messages that are neither selfish nor unrelated to the masses.
Restoring the morale in America is a collaborative effort. I believe we are all guilty of promoting, in some way, the dumbing down of American society. Even for the fun of it, go grab your camera and film some sort of short movie. Get your messages across. It could be about anything, honestly. Cooking a great recipe, your workplace, school, etc. America, especially mainstream America, desperately needs force feeding at this point.
Also, I like to believe that technology is another primary factor, but I'm getting my fingers tired..
......I trailed off, but I'll remind you all, just take this post with a grain of salt. I don't watch much tv at all other than history/travel/food channels so I don't normally check out tv shows anymore. Thanks for reading this post.
Our media (Hollywood) is responsible for the "dummying down" of American Society and everyone, like lemmings to the sea went along with it.
Lack of imagination, and more importantly, the lack of realizing the significance of creative original ideas and products is what is feuling the "dummying down" of our society.
When the creators and inventors of our society are encouraged, thats when our society will see an upswing from the "stupidity" that prevades.
Exactly! Nothing is original anymore. At least in mainstream media. One has to dig up beyond what's obviously there for something of decent quality. The only concern for the powers that be are the heaps of money. As long as money is made we'll keep sing unimaginative things in the media.
In my opinion, the media is a huge factor as to why American society/culture is "dumbing down" or at least, it's a reflection of it...
...take this post with a grain of salt. I don't watch much tv at all other than history/travel/food channels so I don't normally check out tv shows anymore.
You fixed your post with your closing comments. The reason YOU aren't "dumbed down" is probably because you don't spend your time passively watching TV. Passive entertainment rots the mind. Educational passive entertainment rots it less quickly but still rots it.
We evolved to be actively engaged with our physical and social environment. Any time you sit and merely watch a screen, many parts of your mind-body system go on stand-by and are not challenged. Too much of this leads to atrophy of the system.
If you spend 15 hours a day watching science and history programs, you will be able to pass yourself off as 'smart' by virtue of your ability to recite data that has been spoon-fed to you, but that doesn't make you smart in terms of the complexities of life, social interactions, research, problem solving, or finding the "off" button on the remote control.
p.s. --- your name intrigues me... I used to have a tape with a tune by that name, some old-school rap stuff. Loved it, even though it was corny.
If you spend 15 hours a day watching science and history programs, you will be able to pass yourself off as 'smart' by virtue of your ability to recite data that has been spoon-fed to you, but that doesn't make you smart in terms of the complexities of life, social interactions, research, problem solving, or finding the "off" button on the remote control.
Yes.
The problem is that we are reaching some sort of bread-and-circuses tipping point in which people *do not want* to deal with these complexities.
We slog through each day at work, come home, sit on the couch in front of American Idol or HBO, and the brain cell death commences.
Some of us would love to save the world, but we don't know what to do.
As Thisbeatisshot says--it's all about money being made.
Everything gravitates to the middle because the median is what is valued and lauded by the democratic type of society. Thus, distinguished levels of accomplishment and innovation are marginalized -- it is the very essence of the median-based mentalilty. What is utilitarian is treasured; exceptionalism becomes "impractical."
The 'elite', would-be torch-bearers for society -- those extraordinary few who would otherwise set the pace for society, as well as blaze trails in order to subsequently elevate society towards a higher condition of quality -- are shunned, devalued, and mostly rendered disengaged. Democratic systems inherently demand that this be so in order that the masses are galvanized; this effect also operates conversely: for it is precisely the glavanization of mass thought, conformity, culture, and ethos that the democratic system itself is sustained.
But, like all systems and civilizations, democracy will run its course, civilization will inevitably collapse, and subsequently re-organize from the ashes under another system's umbrella. A Phoenix rising; only the same old bird with new feathers.
(Funny: whatever tag -- an -ism, -ocracy, what-have-you -- that will be applied to the refurbished system will be surely trumpeted from the rooftops as The greatest system the world has ever known!)
Nothing really changes; just the names of the systems themselves, the particular strata of the society which wields the power, and the ever-so-slight progress that we make in oursleves as more humane human beings and more sophisticated communties. The progress becomes that which lends us hope -- for humans to continue to struggle, to eke out an existence, to forge onward in this mortal life.
For further exploration into this subject, I recommend reading Plato's The Republic. Of his four possible political systems which organize society, Plato lists democracy as the second-to-least desirable system (3rd out of 4), ranking it only ahead of Tyranny -- the system which generally arises out of total chaos and dumbed-downness caused by the mob rule within a democracy.
Other seminal works which delve into the 'cycles' of civilization -- their rise and fall -- are Morris Berman's The Twilight of American Culture, Oswald Spengler's The Decline of the West, and Edward Gibbon's classic The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
Call me crazy but i say it has something to do with the New World Order. Google it. I used to think it was far fetched but every day it seems like that is becoming a reality. Jobs being outsourced, wages going down, kids dropping out of school more & more. You have to deliberately "dumb down" a society in order to rule over them. Think about it. We are becoming like a 3rd world country slowly but surely. Rich & poor while the middle class is disappearing. If you have a bunch of high school dropouts with little ambition, they will take the low paying jobs and won't complain. If you look at the jobs that are growing in this country, it's mostly "service" jobs like working in a hotel, restaurant, etc...Like I said, call me crazy, but wake up and pay attention. Next thing is the North American Union (google that too) and the US Dollar will collapse and we'll get the Amero. Oh geez, how nice, we get to become one with Mexico & Canada. I'm not feeling that arrangement. It's scary.
This was an interesting comment from the link.
“Not to be too much of a contrarian, but....
it does have to be remembered that states are not uniform in either their social conditions or their political conditions. For instance, in Tennessee (we are ranked at #9 for murder, #2 for divorce, #11 for out of wedlock births, and #10 for teenage births), the murder, out of wedlock births, and teenage births are driven to a large degree by Memphis and Nashville, both of which are solidly blue areas in a sea of red. Ditto for my home state of Louisiana (#1 for murder, #2 for out-of-wedlock births, #3 for teenage births), where the relevant statistics are driven largely by New Orleans and Baton Rouge- both also much more blue than the surrounding areas of the state. Take out those big metro areas, and Tennessee and Louisiana would probably look more like Montana or the Dakotas- not top of the heap, to be sure, but much better than they are now.”
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Simple answer to that:
