Idiocracy? Is it happening?
I thought I'd post my thoughts here and get your input. I can't help but notice that either more or more stupid people are infiltrating the workplace or people are just getting dumber across the board. A recent transaction with a well-known home goods hardware store illustrated the problem. I assisted an elderly lady friend of mine who insisted on using this national chain store to acquire a microwave oven because she got a veteran’s discount. The clerk in the appliance section couldn't help with the product and couldn't type a part number for the desired microwave oven into a database - couldn't simply type it in. The customer database had the wrong name for the customer, but the address and phone number was right. The entire organization remains unable to fix the database (so, when the delivery/installation guys showed up they thought they were at the wrong house). I measured the hole in my friend’s cabinets to help select the properly-sized microwave. But, the store had a couple guys show up, take measurements, and then tell my friend that I measured it wrong. Then, when the microwave showed up with installers, per their revised measurements, it was 10” too deep to fit in the cabinets and had to be sent back. It’s just been a folly of errors and a staff unwilling to correct anything.
But, I see this kind of thing everywhere. Most orders at restaurants get screwed up. Most grocery stores charge the wrong prices. Most auto mechanics get it wrong. Many doctors I’ve gone to have misdiagnosed. It seems like almost everybody is getting it wrong. Has it always been this bad? It seems to be getting worse. I’ve been trying to buy a specialized fishing reel all last week and several stores I’ve done business with in the past simply failed to get back to me on it – no response. I have to get in touch with the owners to get an answer. It’s a $500 reel. You’d think they’d get back to me. It is as though people have just given up. Pride in one’s work?...what’s that? I can’t figure it out. A population can’t be getting so stupid, so quickly. Can it? I heard similar stories about the Soviet Union just prior to it’s collapse.
But, I see this kind of thing everywhere. Most orders at restaurants get screwed up. Most grocery stores charge the wrong prices. Most auto mechanics get it wrong. Many doctors I’ve gone to have misdiagnosed. It seems like almost everybody is getting it wrong. Has it always been this bad? It seems to be getting worse. I’ve been trying to buy a specialized fishing reel all last week and several stores I’ve done business with in the past simply failed to get back to me on it – no response. I have to get in touch with the owners to get an answer. It’s a $500 reel. You’d think they’d get back to me. It is as though people have just given up. Pride in one’s work?...what’s that? I can’t figure it out. A population can’t be getting so stupid, so quickly. Can it? I heard similar stories about the Soviet Union just prior to it’s collapse.
http://humanachievementinitiative.wordpr...
I wish they would quit hiding all your posts.
" People are afraid to fail, so they never try."
Oh, gawd. You have, in a sentence, explained my entire life.
"A big part of it is the idea of unearned guilt."
And there's the other stumbling block that's always defeated me. I know Rand and a lot of Objectivists here explain how the slavers use guilt, either religious or socialist, to control people and harness them to a yoke of their own construction. Guilt for being different (read, "better"... you're not supposed to be better, that's bad). Guilt for aspiring. Guilt for failing, which leads one to not try, or to never follow through, making failure self-fulfilling prophesy.
I've only recently, at this late stage in life started trying to reverse the habits, and I think, if it's this hard for me, who's naturally contrary and self-willed... how hard must it be for "normal" people?
----
Maj. Walter Gerber: "I think deep down you wanted to be caught."
Anna Hedler, Nurse: "Why?"
Maj. Walter Gerber: "Guilt cries out for punishment - punishment as a specific cure for a feverish conscience. "
- "36 Hours", starring Rod Taylor and James Garner
----
Once they get people in the habit of feeling guilty for everything; for prosperity, for success, for skin color, for intelligence, people's own minds take over and control them without further effort.
Of course, I now have help... and hopefully so do thousands of others...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAKbvTa0...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-_L4Un4...
Now I'm not about to claim that if you're poor you're stupid. But there is pretty strong correlation. REALLY stupid people usually don't wind up running companies or doing anything really worthwhile. They don't invent things. They don't figure out ways to make tons of money in the stock market. Basically, what the poor mostly do is collect welfare and have lots of babies.
Meanwhile, the "smarter" people see the cost of raising kids and generally have smaller families.
So: Stupid people - lots of kids. Smart people - not so much. In the past, this wasn't such an issue because the stupid people were allowed to die when their stupidity caused them to starve. But we don't allow that anymore. So they hang around and reproduce.
Here's the last factor: A very large percentage of intelligence is hereditary. No, it's not politically-correct to recognize that fact - and if it outrages you, just head on to the next posting with your umbrage intact.
To sum up: Stupid people have lots of kids that our social policy insists must live long enough to have lots more stupid kids. Smart people are penalized through taxes and discouraged from having large families. The kids of stupid people tend to be stupid. The kids of smart people tend to be smart. Stupid vastly outnumbers smart. Viola! Our species is devolving.
But Darwin was ultimately correct. We're headed for tough times when the government handouts won't be sufficient. Lots of dumb people will die. Smarter people will tend to survive. We get a second chance (as a species).
But you? You're screwed. You're treading water in a sea of stupidity, and eventually, you're going to get tired.
I recommend to you The Deteriorata https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFLvhKv-...
At the grocery store the other day a customer wanted a price check on an item. The stockboy couldn't help her because neither one could figure out if the price is 3 for 10, how much for 1 !
Then, while at the checkout there was a sale for 4 -2 liters of soda for $5.00, get 2 free. The cashier rang all 6 up and it came to $7.50. He couldn't figure out how much the discount coupon was supposed to be.
*weeping*
Why does one have to drive around for 15 minutes (slight exaggeration) just to find where the exit is?
Have had this experience in malls in GA, NC, FL, TX, AL, AZ, CA, WA, OR, MS, TN.
No service in ingress/egress design (imo), but may be an infection that has spread from municipality to municipality in government traffic regulations and lowest cost response thereto.
http://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/kornbluth...
It's corollary:
http://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/kornbluth...