I
know I’m not the first and probably won’t be the last to post about
this latest article, but I can’t resist the temptation to pile on. Now
I’m not taking
everything in this article at face value, but I also can’t deny the
overall trend of brainlessness on the rise in this country.
"Technology may be getting smarter, but humans are getting dumber, scientists have warned.
Evidence suggests that the IQs of people in the UK, Denmark and Australia have declined in the last decade.
Opinion is divided as to whether the trend is long-term, but some researchers believe that humans have already reached intellectual peak.
Opinion is divided as to whether the trend is long-term, but some researchers believe that humans have already reached intellectual peak.
An IQ test used to determine whether Danish men are fit to serve in the military has revealed scores have fallen by 1.5 points since 1998.
And standard tests issued in the UK and Australia echo the results, according to journalist Bob Holmes, writing in New Scientist.
The most pessimistic explanation as to why humans seem to be becoming less intelligent is that we have effectively reached our intellectual peak.
Between the 1930s and 1980s, the average IQ score in the US rose by three points and in post-war Japan and Denmark, test scores also increased significantly - a trend known as the ‘Flynn effect’.
This increase in intelligence was due to improved nutrition and living conditions - as well as better education - says James Flynn of the University of Otago, after whom the effect is named.
Now some experts believe we are starting to see the end of the Flynn effect in developed countries – and that IQ scores are not just levelling out, but declining.
Scientists including Dr Flynn think better education can reverse the trend and point out the perceived decline could just be a blip. However, other scientists are not so optimistic.
Some believe the Flynn effect has masked a decline in the genetic basis for intelligence, so that while more people have been reaching their full potential, that potential itself has been declining.
Some have even contentiously said this could be because educated people are deciding to have fewer children, so that subsequent generations are largely made up of less intelligent people."
(link here for the full article)
Now
a good number of people have seen the movie Idiocracy by now, and those
that have would see the similarity between the movie’s premise and the
statement
in bold above. Now the article (and to some extent the movie) imply
that the lower intelligence passed on is largely due to genetics. I
would argue however that the subsequent generations are not getting the
short end of the intelligence stick as a result
of their parents’ genes, but rather through substandard upbringing on
the part of their parents and society.
So how smart (or dumb) is America?
Countries With The Highest Average IQ | ||
Rank | Country | Average IQ |
1 | Hong Kong | 107 |
2 | South Korea | 106 |
3 | Japan | 105 |
4 | Taiwan | 104 |
5 | Singapore | 103 |
6 | Austria | 102 |
6 | Germany | 102 |
6 | Italy | 102 |
6 | Netherlands | 102 |
10 | Sweden | 101 |
10 | Switzerland | 101 |
12 | Belgium | 100 |
12 | China | 100 |
12 | New Zealand | 100 |
12 | United Kingdom | 100 |
16 | Hungary | 99 |
16 | Poland | 99 |
16 | Spain | 99 |
19 | Australia | 98 |
19 | Denmark | 98 |
19 | France | 98 |
19 | Mongolia | 98 |
19 | Norway | 98 |
19 | United States | 98 |
25 | Canada | 97 |
25 | Czech Republic | 97 |
25 | Finland | 97 |
According
to this reference, we’re tied for #19 in IQ. With Poland ahead of us at
#16, perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick in telling Polish jokes (but hey,
at
least we kicked Canada’s butt! Yeah! USA! USA!)
Now
on one hand, whether it’s genetics or environment it doesn’t really
change the overall situation; i.e. the lack of intelligence has been and
is still being
passed on regardless of the means of transmission. But on the other
hand if I am right about environment being the dominant factor, it means
that the trend can be reversed relatively quickly and easily with the
proper amount of effort applied in the right
direction. Apathy in this case is the key obstacle here that needs to
be overcome. If more parents simply took some active interest in their
children’s development and education we’d see a lot of improvement. Even
if the parents in question are lacking in
book learning and rusty in their critical thinking skills, just the
encouragement and personal engagement with the child is enough to make a
difference. And by active interest I mean doing more than simply
looking for a good school or occasionally helping
with homework… parents who do that but little else are still passing
the buck to the schools. And the schools are a big part of the problem
in the first place.
Now
some people at this point would start shouting “more money for
education!”, “better schools!”, or “reform the educational system!”. But
I remember these
being common refrains back in the 80’s and 90’s when I was in school,
and despite doing all those things the educational system as a whole
continues to get worse. So I say no, the system of public education is
at least in part contributing to the decline,
and needs to be swept away and replaced with an entirely new system.
Trying to reform and tweak and modify the current system simply amounts
to polishing a turd…. you might be able to put a good shine on it, but
at the end of the day it is still a turd.
The
next step in reversing this trend is for more people to watch less TV.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those “Oh, I don’t watch TV” types (some people come by it honestly, but I think more say it for the snob appeal).
And there
is actually a decent handful of shows and programs out there. They
aren’t the majority by a longshot, but they ARE out there. Unfortunately, you
have to acknowledge there is far more mindless drivel than quality shows. But while the Kardashians, Honey Boo-Boo, the Bachelor, and the other various assorted drek is not doing any wonders for American intelligence, I think equally damaging is television's nature as an exceptionally passive
form of entertainment along with its tendency to stimulate people heavily on an
emotional level. These two factors combined make for a situation that not only doesn't require deep thought, it tends to steer us away from it. Even the news on TV
tends towards content and delivery that triggers emotional responses
more than logical responses. And then we have the
political advertising, which has elevated emotional manipulation almost
to an art form. Emotion is a part of who we are and is not bad in and of itself, but too much
emotion does tend to diminish a person’s ability for critical thinking.
Ultimately
that’s what the leaders on both sides of the aisle (as well as many other world leaders) want… less critical
thinking. They want people asleep enough so we continue to swallow all
the
false promises, shallow hyperbole, and lame excuses they send our way.
They want us to leave the critical thinking to the political class and
those running big business, or the new aristocracy as I like to call
them. They want drones that will mindlessly do
as they’re told and keep working to support them, either directly through taxes or indirectly through debt and mindless consumerism. I
don’t really believe they will get what they want, but I have little
doubt this is what they desire. George
Carlin summed up the situation beautifully:
“They
don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table
and think about how badly they’re getting f***ed by a system that threw
them overboard
thirty f***ing years ago. They don’t want that. You know what they
want? They want obedient workers. Obedient workers, people who are just
smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb
enough to passively accept all these increasingly
sh***ier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced
benefits, the end of overtime and vanishing pension that disappears the
minute you go to collect it.”
But is our decline into brainlessness inevitable? No.... I really don't see that happening. The new aristocracy may fancy themselves as vastly more intelligent than the unwashed masses, but I think they've proven their lack of true intelligence from their recent history of making ever greater messes in areas economic, environmental, political, and geopolitical. So their can't keep the current game going for much longer. Additionally, I think some of our collective mental laziness has been nurtured by virtue of having it too easy and being coddled by an environment of relative plenty and abundance. When that environment changes and we find ourselves having to struggle and figure out how to get by with less, all but the toughest who insist on remaining idiots will find themselves at an extreme disadvantage. far more than they could have imagined. It will be a painful process, but ultimately hardship and struggle are the things that push us towards self-improvement.
As for that small number that still refuse to learn? Well, I imagine that problem will eventually sort itself out....
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