Dumb, Dumber, and... US

A topic I have noticed pop up over and over again on the internet and in my various social circles is the notion that we are getting stupid. Maybe one of the reasons we are noticing people are "stupid" is because it seems that people no longer take responsibility. No one wants to make decisions. I mean, these days you can sue McDonalds for making you fat. Give me a break.

One area of life that people seem to assume the least amount of responsibility in is raising their children. They drop them off at daycare for 10 to 12 hours a day and have them watched by strangers. So who is raising these children? Is there any wonder kids are growing up, screwed up?

Notably more kids go to college than ever before, especially coming from my economic background, you are given no choice when it comes to college—you just go. But really is there motivation from kids to learn? Is there any inner sparkle that ignites their imagination? I think we would love to assume so, but we are mostly wrong.

I have tutored children, mostly 2nd and 8th graders, and—not all—but some of them are so difficult to work with because they just don’t care. And, either their parents care so much that they stress their children out, or they don’t care at all, and leave no creative environment for their child to practice their school work.

Maybe it is just that our society is becoming more hedonistic, which creates a more self centered and greed based lifestyle. Most people just want to fill the void with new tech gadgets, fast food, fast cars, and just fell good things, to get them through the day. It really shows in the way they treat their fellow human beings, which is mostly with indifference.

Non-the-less, I am not assuming that this will change much, I think that people wish it would, which is why people like banding together as nations for causes like global warming and conflicts like Darfur and Burma, people just want to regain a connection. Not to say that those things aren’t benefited by it, or that people’s intentions are bad, I just think it feeds a needed outlet for us in this new technological age.

Most people wish that we could all cuddle and be united, and that we could all grow together as one united world. But I am fairly sure that that kind of idealism only leads to socialism.