Wednesday 12 June 2013

Armageddumb.




I know how the human race is going to end. It won't be in a nuclear holocaust with the survivors driving around the irradiated wasteland in spiky cars and wearing leather.

It won't be in a zombie holocaust with smelly dead people shambling around and eating living people, it won't  be a biblical plague or an alien invasion.

No, our eventual fate is that we will become so stupid that we will simply cease being able to function and probably be overtaken by ants or something. 

Have you ever seen a film called Idiocracy? Luke Wilson is a soldier with below average intelligence who volunteers for an experiment to be frozen for a year. However the scientists forget about him and he awakens a hundred years in the future to find that humanity has become so stupid that he is now the cleverest person on the planet.

It looks like we are already well on the way to allowing the thickies to take precedence. There was recently a news article on the BBC saying that the English language was too complicated and needed to be simplified to make it easier for children to learn.
Examples given included the words 'there' and 'their', why have two different spellings when one will do?
Or 'receipt' could be changed to 'reseet', rhubarb could become roobarb.

Now I understand that language is a fluid form and new words are created all the time but why do we need to dumb down the basic structure? There is nothing wrong with the language but rather than asking children to apply themselves and learn it as it is we change it so they don't have to apply themselves too much.

What a load of crap.

It' is similar to the health service spending millions of pounds on bigger ambulances and beds to cope with all the overweight people. Surely the money would be better spent on getting these people to a manageable weight instead of just reacting to the symptoms of the problem.

It is like people no longer take responsibility for themselves and expect someone to come along and take away all the nasty words that they can't be arsed to learn. Then they can sit on their backsides eating takeaway food in front of the TV until their health deteriorates to the extent that a team of six people have to lift their massive carcase into the back of a giant ambulance.

This is a possible vision of the future if we allow the lowest common denominator set the standards. Instead of us dumbing down to their level they should be trying to better themselves.  This is called achievement, something that many people seem to have lost the ability to do.

Jesus, I sound like my dad.

17 comments:

Stina said...

Complicated? Have they seen French????? That's why I like Spanish and Finnish. You pronounce the words as they are written. There are no several different spelling and meanings for the same sounding words.

Pat Hatt said...

Pffft what a load of crap. Yeah it can be a pain in the arse, but whoopdi doo. People are becoming waaaay to damn lazy and are totally expecting someone else to save them. Let's eat all we want, become brain dead cavemen the size of a barn and then wonder why our life is shit, oh wait, it's the other guys fault.

Rob Z Tobor said...

Ah yes the English Language . . . . Their buy hangs a tale . . . sew two speak.

Crystal Collier said...

But I'm all geared up for the zombie apocalypse--and as soon as the zombie locked in my closet gets free, it will be upon us! Then again, zombies aren't the brightest things, are they? ;)

The Angry Lurker said...

Totally agree, you sound like me!

Outcast said...

Changing the way these words are spelled would have me absolutely livid, to change everything because people are becoming more and more stupid would be crazy and the thought of that just annoys me, stupidity is becoming the new thing and it's scary. I've never seen Idiocracy before but it's plot sounds class, I'd love to check it out!

Janie Junebug said...

President Teddy Roosevelt tried to simplify the English language. He insisted on using an "easier" form of spelling. He used it till the end of his life. It didn't catch on.

Love,
Janie

Laura Clipson said...

Oh my goodness. Really? I like the fact that English words are sometimes a bit confusing - it makes them interesting! Besides, it would be far more confusing to change them. Eugh.

Dana said...

People can be so lazy. This is crazy.

Kellie @ Delightfully Ludicrous said...

That reminds me of a film I saw once called Harrison Bergeron. In that one they tried to make everyone average. Not smart, not dumb, just average. Even to the point that they'd marry the really smart people to the really stupid ones in the hopes of evening out the gene pool.

Crazy Life of a Writing Mom said...

English can be fun though--editing has almost become a game to me :)
I need to watch Idiocracy.

jamiessmiles said...

Sounds like an expansion on what the U.S. already did. Take out all those darn Us. Why bother with the English language at all? Why not just text-speak? Hey, we can just dictate and not learn how to write at all, and have a reader to read everything. Life would just be so much easier if we never had to learn.

Seriously, though, I know people my age who can't read handwriting. Can't crack the code between printing and script.

Anonymous said...

I was kind of looking forward to a closet full of leather outfits, but you're right,of course. These basics should be taught in skool.

Emmylou said...

I agree with what you wrote. From governments to schools, it seems like dumber and dumber ideas are being promoted as being the "right" way, when it just really means the easy and lazy way. Meh. You know what they say? There's no cure for stupid.

PK HREZO said...

That's interesting cuz both my kids are in school and the work keeps getting harder and the expectations to complete it, higher. They're def not anywhere near dumbing down the education system where I am. (good thing!)

Margaret said...

I love Ideocracy. But it has electrolytes!

Nicki Elson said...

Your dad is a very wise man. I agree with every single thing you said here. In America we're definitely headed toward expecting someone else to accommodate our failings - like laws in New York that make it illegal to buy a giant-sized soda. Let's not ask people to have the self-control to be able to make that decision for themselves, right?

I concur with what Pk says about schoolwork getting steadily more difficult, but I'm not convinced that cramming a bunch of higher level info. into kids' heads will make them smarter. There's something to be said for giving them the time to truly absorb and apply the basics (like the difference between "their" and "there" for cripes sake) and then adding to that at a pace that will allow them to really understand, and thus retain, what they learn, rather than keeping it in their brains only long enough to spit it out on a standardized exam.

By the way, is nice to see you again, Sir Helsing. :)