Can anyone deny that the mentality of the world’s population is lower than it was in the past? In my opinion, the world’s population is far stupider than it was a hundred years ago, and getting dumber as each year passes. Why? Dumbing down, is caused by, automation, freebies, handouts, and welfare of all sorts and at all levels. Now just think about it and see if you agree.
Calculators at school? I am still appalled at that. When I was in school, there weren’t any calculators. We had to do the math with our brains. Computers instead of long hand? Computers which do all sorts of things that kids should do by the use of their brains? Public schools in the first place? Before public schools, parents taught their kids, or paid for their education in private schools. First came the one room schoolhouse, which was outstanding in its ability to turn out well educated students. Now we have massive public schools with all the appurtenances known, and they are turning out functional illiterates. Union teachers, whose appetite for educating seems to be overshadowed by more pay, and passing along failures to the next grade, is common. Anything “public,” be it rest rooms, housing, swimming pools, or you name it, is infinitely less desirable and efficient than a private one. The public schools have failed to teach and discipline. The results are a dumbed down population. Compare the handwriting of the elderly to today’s handwriting. When I was in school, we practiced making beautiful letters and practiced till we got it. We learned how to spell rather than using a ’spell check.’
In day’s of yore, we had telephone operators, steam locomotive engineers, elevator operators, and pharmacists who did more than the same do today, just to name four.. Today, telephones are automatic, diesel engineers sit in clean cabs and operate a lever. Elevators are all automatic, and pharmacists move pills from one bottle to another. Those who are true pharmacists are called “compounding,” ones, whereas 50 years ago, all pharmacists ’compounded.’ Modern developments and gadgets have made our lives easier and the same for trades, but the fact is that when knowledge about how to do something is removed, the population has to use less brainpower, and they have been dumbed down. As they are dumbed down, their ability to think clearly, be logical, and even responsible, decline. When no skills are required, no skills are developed, and the brain is not used. Before modern, wrinkle free materials, it was necessary to iron and starch. Before automatic washers and dryers, clothes had to be manually washed and hung out on a clothes line. Lots of effort has been saved, and at the expense of the brain and energy being used. Maybe since the energy requiring skills have been removed, the world has become ever fatter?
Whenever anything is free, the recipient is dumbed down. Welfare encourages no work and no achievement. Public housing’s residents are notoriously lazy and trouble makers. Ask any cop. When one gets free food, rent, transportation, medical care or anything whatsoever, his ability to care for himself, provide for himself, develop skills to do so, and even desire to do so, evaporate. An entire group of welfare recipients has been dumbed down. Before Social Security, people prepared for their old age, saved, and put away. Now they have lost the desire or ability to do so.
Lost a job? Oh well, one can get unemployment for 50 weeks, can’t he? While doing no work? Medicare has removed the ability and desire to care for one’s self, save for medical emergencies, and in general think about the future. When illegals come here to work, and then get everything free, such as education, medical care, etc., how are they improving themselves? People have forgotten how to care for themselves, start a business, or even think logically. How many people simply cannot cook any more, but depend on instant, frozen, or microwaveable foods? How many gals can honestly say they can cook like their moms or grandmothers did? The ability to cook from scratch has been lost to a great degree. “Music” today, is a jumble of noise without any musical ability required, it seems to me, and at deafening volume which is ruining kids’ ears. In the ’big band’ days, the performers had to be super-talented, compared to today’s reciting words to percussion, (rap) which is common. Taking pictures used to require a lot more skill than it does today with digital cameras. Now, no one has to think about “F” stops, shutter speeds or even focusing. Picture taking has become virtually thoughtless.
Before movies, radio and TV, people read books, told stories, or visited. As much as I love movies and old radio, I must admit that reading books is far better for the mind. TV removes even the ability to imagine things. Millions of residents of large cities especially, don’t know their neighbors, ands rarely mix socially, as used to be common. Automatic devices have killed the desire or ability to do many simple things, such as shift gears in a car, or do something requiring manual dexterity. As more and more of life’s things become automatic, government issued and paid for, or subsidized; the populace’s ability to think, be logical, rational, and responsible, fade into the distant past.
The McGuffy’s Readers of a hundred years ago, or the requirements for graduating from grade school of a hundred years ago, couldn’t be met by high school graduates of today, and maybe by even college students. This may sound like the gripes of an old man, and it may be, but the lack of a modern person’s ability to do hundreds of things old people used to do, and today’s poor education compared to a hundred years ago, is not an inaccurate comparison. I am not demeaning modern inventions and automatic stuff. Only observing that modern stuff has dumbed us down. Welfare of all sorts has flooded the world with probably a billion useless, worthless, endlessly reproducing people, who drag the rest of us down, just protecting ourselves from them. Protect yourself…government or the police won’t!