Thoughtless

Artwork By Michael DiMilo

In the 2006 movie, Idiocracy, the main character, a very average guy, volunteers to be a test subject for a top-secret hibernation program. After a mishap, he awakens five centuries in the future into a society that is so ignorant that the president of the United States is a retired professional wrestler and that this “average guy” from the twentieth century is now the smartest man in the world.

The movie was funny when it first came out, but it seems eerily prescient today. The America of this imagined future awards law degrees through the future equivalent of a Costco, has forgotten that crops need water to survive, and laughs along with TV’s favorite comedy,  named “Ow My Balls!” which consists solely of a man getting kicked, hit, or bitten in the crotch.

There are obvious parallels to our current society—the overt influence of commercialism, the unquestioned value of conventional wisdom (Of course it’s good. It’s got electrolytes—what are electrolytes anyway?), and the circus clown car that our politics have now become. We haven’t yet gotten to the point where a public trial takes place at a monster truck show, but we’re getting there—just watch Judge Joe Brown or Judge Judy.

All this begs the question of whether our society is presently sliding into an idiocracy, if we are indeed becoming more ignorant—dumberer. At first glance, the numbers say no. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, for the first time in history, 90% of Americans over 25 years of age have high-school diplomas while 25% have earned bachelor’s degrees. This compares to only 25% graduating high school and 4.6% having BAs in the 1940s. So, we certainly seem to be more educated today. 

But then why, in this day and age, do we seem to have record numbers of anti-vaxxers, flat-earthers, and moon-landing skeptics? Why can only 26% of Americans name all three branches of government while 37% are unable to name a single right guaranteed by the Constitution? Why can only 36% find North Korea on a map? Since more Americans are finishing high school and college, these numbers have to beg the question as to what type of education our young people are getting. Apparently, it’s not everything it used to be.

Traditionally, college students not only learned content but were trained in the art of critical thinking as well. A traditional liberal arts education encouraged the questioning of assumptions and also taught that evidence can, and should, be constantly subject to interpretation. In other words, students were taught to analyze problems logically while still keeping an open mind.

But a recent trend has many colleges veering away from the liberal arts toward academic prioritization, a process used to reallocate university funding. This prioritization typically champions the more pragmatic and job-oriented programs like health sciences, sports management, and business; however, expanding these programs usually comes at the expense of humanities courses like history, ethnic studies, English, and foreign languages. 

Many liberal arts colleges have cut humanities courses and even—in some cases—entire departments. Last March, The University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point proposed dropping thirteen majors, including history, philosophy, geography, sociology, Spanish, and even English. The powers that be at the university cited declining enrollment and a huge deficit as the main reasons for eliminating these programs. They also maintained that students preferred majors with “clear career pathways” like marketing, computer information systems, and finance, majors that assure these undergrads will be job-ready after they graduate. Fortunately, after significant student and community backlash, the school backed off its proposal and only minor curriculum cuts were made.

Even though a greater number of Americans are getting college degrees, it appears as if the scope of their education has become narrowly focused on career-oriented curricula. Our students know their career material inside and out, but how adept are they—we—at sifting through data and deciding what is reality and what is not? And what about the acquisition of basic facts about our world and country? 

Reasons for these knowledge deficits range from the belief that subjects like history or psychology are too boring for today’s students to concerns that some subjects are not appropriate for today’s marketplace. Many students do not feel that studying history or geography or philosophy carries any sort of value. How much money do history majors, or philosophy majors, or—for that matter—English teachers make? The perception that a correlation should exist between the intrinsic value of a subject and its potential monetary worth is both widespread and pernicious.   

Others also blame social media for perpetuating rumors masquerading as facts. Anecdotal misinformation about common childhood vaccines still echoes across the internet despite countless studies and medical evidence contradicting them. The proof that vaccinations stem the spread of disease and save countless lives is beyond scientific dispute, yet thousands maintain vaccines are detrimental to children’s health.

Some established belief systems fly directly into the face of scientific fact and logic. Fundamentalist Christians maintain that, according to the Biblical timeline, man must have existed side-by-side with dinosaurs. Even though this assertion that has been proven as scientifically impossible, this belief has persisted and proliferated despite the mountains of archeological, geological, and paleontological evidence contradicting it.

People will believe what they want to believe: the earth is flat, the Holocaust never happened, the moon landings were faked, and Elvis is still alive and hiding out in the Argentinian pampas. But when beliefs are given the same weight as facts and logic is dismissed as “fake news” is when we begin to stumble down a very slippery slope. Evidence, proof, logic, and the scientific method are the bricks upon which our knowledge base is erected. If we start replacing these bricks with flimsy assertions and hysterical beliefs, when we lose faith in our educational system and the principles on which it was based, that is when we sink into the swamp of idiocy. 

Belief cannot take the place of thought. Gossip cannot take the place of truth. Idolatry cannot take the place of our democracy, and narrow-mindedness should not replace education or even good old common sense.