J: It’s been a week. Here’s my launching topic… Why do people insist on being so stupid? I’ll be more specific… In ten years time, will anyone of the newer generations still have the ability to read, write, or spell? Go!

L: Okay, J. So what prompted this question? Not that I disagree on the rampant ignorance present in our country and world, but a specific something must have triggered this topic. I want to know what it is…

As far as my “retort,” I’m afraid someone has already beaten us to the punch. Since extensive research has already been compiled about the ignorance of the average American, I direct you to the blog AmeriCAN-DO Attitude. Here’s an excerpt from the post The Sheer Depth of Most Individuals’ Ignorance is Shocking:

According to polls taken this year, nearly 65 percent of the public doesn’t know that Congress has banned partial-birth abortion. Seventy percent is unaware that a massive drug benefit has been added to Medicare. At least 58 percent say they have heard “nothing” or “not much” about the Patriot Act, notwithstanding the enormous amount of coverage the controversial law has drawn.

This is not a new problem. As Cold War tensions bristled in 1964, only 38 percent of the public knew that the Soviet Union was not a member of NATO. In 1970, only 24 percent could identify the secretary of state. In 1996, The Washington Post reported that 67 percent of Americans couldn’t name their congressman and 94 percent had no idea that William Rehnquist was the chief justice of the United States. Only 26 percent knew that senators serve six-year terms, and 73 percent didn’t know that Medicare costs more than foreign aid.

Gallup found in January 2000 that while 66 percent of the public could name the host of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” only 6 percent knew the name of the speaker of the House. Last year, a Polling Company survey found that 58 percent of Americans could not name a single federal Cabinet department.

The ignorant can be found in the highest reaches of academe. Of more than 3,100 Ivy League students polled for a University of Pennsylvania study in 1993, 11 percent couldn’t identify the author of the Declaration of Independence, half didn’t know the names of their US senators, and 75 percent were unaware that the classic description of democracy — “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” — is from the Gettysburg Address.

Continue reading the post by clicking here.

I will say though, J, that while some people refuse to acknowledge the power of Twitter, I have been fully converted into a Twitter believer. I get bite size tidbits of a constantly updated wealth of info. And, with just the click of the tweeted link, I can begin my journey into an endless rabbit hole. I don’t worry about the reading, writing and spelling capabilities of future generations. But, I do worry about the chosen ignorance. I fear many people are much more worried about Lady Gaga instead of informing themselves about the alarming rate at which today’s politicians are undermining the very foundations of what the United States was originally established for by our founding forefathers.

I leave you with one of my favorite quotes – from the film Boondock Saints:

And I am reminded, on this holy day, of the sad story of Kitty Genovese. As you all may remember, a long time ago, almost thirty years ago, this poor soul cried out for help time and time again, but no person answered her calls. Though many saw, no one so much as called the police. They all just watched as Kitty was being stabbed to death in broad daylight. They watched as her assailant walked away. Now, we must all fear evil men. But there is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men. —Monsignor, Boondock Saints (1999)

J: I’m just so constantly appalled by everyday stupidity. That’s what sparked that for me. You talked at length about everyday ignorance. Fact blindness I’ll call it. Simply not knowing things that one should know. I’d be surprised if most Americans could even get the population of the United States within 100 million. That’s fact blindness though. I’m talking more about just stupidity. The inability to relate to people in conversation. The inability to even have a conversation without the catalyst of alcohol. The inability to differentiate between “your” mom… and “you’re” a mom. They’re over there with their friends… I have two more items that need to go with you too.

I think it’s speech really. I think that’s what gets my goat. Writing, speaking, vocabulary, all that jazz. That’s what I’m really raw about now that I think about it. Speech can be such and unbelievably powerful tool and it can really change the world. It’s one of the few things that we as people can use to get our points across eloquently and thoroughly in a very concise manner. Grunts do some good… body language is a huge one as well… but really, speech is what allows us as people to connect in such an unbelievably powerful manner. I consider speech to be the spark that jumps between neuron and axion in the brain.

The neuron is the speaker, the axion is the listener, the electric spark is the speech, and the brain is the collective consciousness of our world.

That spark that leaps between the two transfers so much information in such a little time; it  happens very frequently throughout the brain. It also allows that information to then be sent anywhere else in the brain. But we have so many annoying speech retardations, of late. The LOLz and the omgz… The unbelievable grammar dysfunction. I don’t know. I’m all for shortening “I don’t know” into “dunno”… I don’t care if YOUR becomes UR in a text message. It’s just the fact that no one seems to be able to speak anymore. Let me give you a case in my point here (though i prefer to mix the colloquialism and refer to it as a point in a much larger case i’m trying to make…).

I was at a bar the other day… It was around 3 in the afternoon. I had gone to pick up some music equipment I’d left there the night before. It was literally 12 degrees outside. I was in a sweater, scarf, gloves, peacoat, pants, wool socks, the whole get-up. The bartender was a good looking frat-type guy in a Hollister polo and tattered looking white jean-type shorts… and flip-flops. It was 12 degrees outside. That was exhibit A. He proceeded to talk with his friends at the bar, some of whom I will assume were co-workers currently off duty. I did not hear a single stimulating thing come from the whole lot of them. They spent the hour I was sitting there eating my chicken sandwich and drinking my sprite, rambling on about how wasted they were. The bartender braggadociosly vomited stories about his drinking habits, the shakes he had because of them, the fact that he woke up that morning and got drunk by 10 oclock, napped and sobered up enough to be there for work… Meanwhile his friends laughed and chimed in about how drunk they were last night, and where they were going to go get drunk tonight… etcetera etcetera etcetera…  I was just flabbergasted, because I know how common those conversations are. I have no problem with anyone going out and getting a little drunk and having a good time. I do it! You do it… Again, most of us have an innate desire to alter our consciousness. But… if that’s the only sensible topic of conversation (i say sensible sarcastically of course) you can come up with to talk to your friends about… My God! What is this world coming to? If you wanna trip acid and sit around a bar and talk about how your trip helped you discover the double-helix formation of DNA, helped you write a brilliant sociological expose that changed lives, write a novel that changes the way we think about certain people groups, write… uh… any music that changes the world. Whatever. I’m all for that… But if you’re substituting mind paralysis for mind expansion, please stay at home and facebook message your friends all this banal crap. I don’t want to hear about it. It ruins my chicken sandwich.

L: I’m not going to lie. I had to “Google” the U.S. population in order to know that as of July there are a recorded 304,059,724 citizens of the U.S. and an unofficial estimate of 308,593,767 from the U.S. Census Bureau at the time of my search (Sunday, January 31, 2010 21:50 pm). A simple check on “Google” did not make it clear, however, whether the term ‘population’ includes only official citizens or if it includes anyone living in the defined territory – citizen, immigrant or alien. Until now, I haven’t even thought about what exactly constitutes population. So, first of all, thanks for prompting me to know – once and for all – a 100,000 ballpark figure of the U.S. population. It’s a question I’ve been embarrassed about not knowing several times before… yet never remembered to remedy that ignorance until just now.

Since we’re talking population, I’ll throw the world figure out there too: just under 6.8 billion.

As far as stupidity vs. ignorance… sigh… I feel your frustration. Just today I was recounting my incredulity at an exchange I had a few months ago while living in Guatemala. In La Antigua I met a U.S. citizen (I am no longer comfortable saying American because all Latin Americans claim they too are Americans) who believed that he was currently exploring a “department or city” of Mexico. Even while the young man was in Guatemala, he was not aware that Guatemala was a country in Central America and not a region or city of Mexico. My young paisano (fellow countryman) was proudly a part of our very own U.S. military. He and his soldier buddies were enjoying a night off duty, having just reached a Guatemalan port a few hours away from LAG. Incredible.

I understand your frustration about “your” vs. “you’re,” “two” vs. “to” vs. “too,” “their” vs. “they’re” and more. But, this doesn’t necessarily mean stupidity. I, myself, am familiar with these simple rules of grammar. Yet, admittedly, I occasionally let a typo slip through here and there including a your/you’re or their/they’re mixup. In fact, you – my dear Justin – have a typo in your post above.

I am as alarmed as you, though, about drunks aspiring to be nothing more than getting drunk again as soon as possible. These are the minds that make up the future of our country? Heartening. Really.

Blatant stupidity, sadly, does exist. I would suggest education is key. But then, your story would force me to shove my out foot in my mouth.

Do you have any thoughts on how to remedy this issue of stupidity in America?

J: What’s the typo? I must know! Haha. I think you get my point though. Typos are acceptable every once in awhile. Not knowing the basic rules of your own language… Sickening. And what’s the remedy? Eugenics. Just kidding. The remedy to stupidity is sadly unattainable. What could help though is getting together lots of really smart people and just breeding them… Genetic superiority. Again. Kidding… Kind of. I won’t go all Hitler on you. I’ll be the one who says this though… Our world could really use another leader as effective as Hitler. I mean that honestly… Now everyone that hates me immediately, please bear with me. We need someone who is as creative, put together as well, as powerful a speaker, as effective a leader, as brilliant a thinker, and as commanding an officer to make some changes in this sick world. Now here’s where I redeem myself. Hitler was the vilest, basest form of evil imaginable. I would have him resurrected just to strap him down in front of any of the major forms of entertainment until the credits roll with the names of 10 or 20 of the most successful Jewish businessmen, artists, etc. Then I’d take him to Wall Street and let the Jewish community there buy and trade him for devious reasons. Then I would kill him by repeatedly giving him papercuts all over his body until he bled out of the… ok I’ll stop here for the sake of sanity. As horrific as he was though, he truly was one of the most powerful people to ever exist, and he affected the lives of millions upon millions of people. We could benefit greatly from an Anti-Hitler. Someone who has all the same charisma, can rally the people of this world, etc… But has flip-flopped ideals… No, not “kill all the Christians, or Muslims” this time… But rather than eliminating people, incorporating them. We would be so lucky to have someone who could truly change this world for the better by the millions. Another suggestion? Maybe stop putting warning labels on items that could potentially kill or cause infertility. But I guess people would have to be able to read for those to be effective anyway, so there goes that idea. I don’t know. I’m not preaching intellectual superiority here… It might sound like that. I just want people to be more open and to constantly seek wisdom and harmony. I think that’s the first step to anything really even remotely resembling utopia. People just need to wake up. Bleh. I’m sick of myself. It’s you’re turn two speak about whatever your wanting too say too our people, and you can make it long to, or short. Some wear their thinking about there little bloggers plugging away over they’re in the cyber world. Haha. Do you know how difficult it was to actually type that stuff? I don’t just mean how difficult it was to get over the awful grammar and spelling, but literally it was hard for me to think the wrong way. Conditioning. We should talk about that. And no… Not pantene vs. treseme, but how people get conditioned and what we can do to become unconditioned… Or deconditioned rather.