Ignorance is bliss.

[jackofallgeeks]

lj-userpic: wrath

This Article, which I read yesterday... I don't know. I can't really process how it makes me feel; 'enraged' is the closest I can come, though maybe 'dumbfounded' is a better term. My vocabulary fails me. I can not understand how it could be said casually, almost pleasantly, that in the future most people won't be able to read, and that's OK, good even. To imply that we will be better off whn all u c is sheit like ths, txt messaging and AOL-grammar being the norm. People aren't aware enough of their environment as it is, when they can read and choose not to, and there's supposed to be an advantage when people simply can't read?

OK, ok, yeah, they aren't talking about complete illiteracy. They're talking about... what, grown men reading at a fourth grade level (or lower) and that being OK? -shakes head- That still sits wrong with me; it makes me ill. One of my great vices is that of intellectual elitism, that I feel superior by virtue of my education (sometimes, I think, justifiably, though there's a lot I don't know, especially the sort of knowledge one can only get through experience). But to say that someone might be better off, or even just as well, for knowing less?

The bit, I think, that really sticks me is that the article reduces man to a cog in The great Machine. Some cogs are specially designed, sculpted and honed and taught how to read for a very specific purpose. other cogs, which needn't be so delicately handled to perform their function, get hard-caste into a crude form that serves it's purpose. No need expending extra effort on a cog if it'll work just fine as is. My personal belief is that knowledge refines and perfects man; that man is better as such for knowing more. granted, it's not the only virtue, nor the best, but it is worthy of pursuit.

Gah, morning meeting to attend.

Comments

[starlight1184.livejournal.com]

Um. Yeah. That sickens me more than I care to admit.

Sometimes the internet scares me...

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

But, see, part of what bothers me about this is it's not about the internet; not directly, anyways. It's about... it's about how reading isn't necessary. It's about how a man with little vocabulary and no sense of grammar can stumble through life relatively well, generally absorbing what he's been told and communicating adequately enough the information he needs to communicate. But Leslie below makes a good point in that literacy allows people to gather their own information -- and, tangentially, a keystone in brainwashing is depriving the subject the means of gathering his own information; he knows only what you tell him and has no way of checking the facts (not unlike American media, I think...). but even more than that, psychologically speaking, the words you have to communicate with in great part determine what and how you can even think. Without words for a thing, without describing a notion, it's impossible to get a grasp on it. It's arguable that this is a flaw in modern man, that perhaps a more primitive creature could think in terms of sensation alone and not be constrained the way most of us are to think in terms of words (or numbers, for the mathematically inclined), but still...!

This subject gets me too fired up, I think...  ^_^;;

[starlight1184.livejournal.com]

This article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10084329/ which I believe you showed me in the first place (long ago), still sickens me even more. I'm not so much afraid of people not being able to read as I am of Internet Lingo becoming an accepted form of reading and writing. I'd prefer total illiteracy.

[surichan.livejournal.com]

It's sort of like the "Well, somebody's gotta be the garbage collector" argument. It makes my blood boil, even though I know there's a need in society for menial labor to be done, and until we start mass-producing robots, that won't happen (and even then, we'll have to deal with massive unemployment and death and eventually robot revolts and...but I get ahead of myself). Classist mentalities really bug me, even though I'm guilty of elitism myself, because I know I've been more fortunate than most in many, many ways, and, as Jim says, "If I'd grown up in the ghetto, things might not be so cool". Knowledge does refine and perfect human beings. No one should feel comfortable with certain groups being illiterate because they don't have to have read the classics in order to perform their jobs.

To me, it sounds like those in power would just rather those without not be literate, because literacy gives one the agency to acquire knowledge for oneself, which gives one ideas, which have the potential to make one very unhappy with one's status in life, and make one long for something more. Thus the precious balance of power, the precious hierarchy which the very powerful so want to preserve, is threatened.

But of course, it's a two-sided problem. Those in the lower classes also must be willing to strive for knowledge and literacy - and an unfortunate number seem perfectly content to feed off of television and severely overprocessed food, and are so hopelessly inert that they might as well be nothing more than cogs in a machine.

Nngah.

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

"Well, somebody has to be the robotic-maintenance man."
I hope to have a more intelligent comment later, but I wanted to fire that one off.

[naughtjennifer.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not going to assume you missed this, but I'd rather not assume you caught it, just in case.

Note the date on the meat of the article, under the advertisement under the italicized text. December 25, 2025.

The impression I get is that this article is a semi-dystopian illustration, used to emphasise a point. Namely, that he agrees with you, that there is more to reading, and to education, than simply accomplishing a specified job.

Yes, the statistic for the present is appalling. Statistics usually are. Frankly, though, this is nothing new. You'll remember that you yourself were royally screwed over in the literacy asn spelling departments by our oh so wonderful educational system. Is it a wonder that your peers, a disgusting amount whose parents either didn't care or (as a consequence of their own botched education) weren't equipped to address such a problem, were unable to recover as well as you have?

The problems plaguing our educational system are anything but new. Some of the oldest and most deeply rooted problems are nearing anything from 1 to 3 centuries old. The issue is that, with each iteration, the system degrde even further, especially when compounded with a practical, rather than a liberal, philosophy of education. Music, art, and archaic languages have fallen by the wayside. Literature, history, and philosophy are constantly questioned for their worth. Is it such a surprise that literacy itself will be next on the hit list?

When the biggest concern of a college education is what job you'll be able to get with your classes, when schools are more concerned with passing students than teaching them, is it a wonder that people would consider the idea of treating us as robots, equipped with the minimal information necessary to perform the required tasks? Would it be going too far to say that we are rapidly becoming technologically advanced savages? Or that we've already reached that point?

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

Actually, yes, I had noticed the date -- he mentions it once or twice in his article, but I'd merely supposed... I hadn't considered possible satire. This puts it in a new light. Hmmm. I may have to re-read it when I get home today.

[nif.livejournal.com]

See journal entry, because my comment was too long.