InvisibleBlack -> RE: "The Citizens Have Won" (1/10/2010 10:10:37 AM)
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Thank you for this well thought out and informative response. It must be correct because it matches my preconceptions. [;)] quote:
ORIGINAL: ThatDamnedPanda quote:
ORIGINAL: InvisibleBlack I'm not sure what's driving this need amongst people to believe in the most outlandish and bizarre theories. Do you think the rise of the Internet is fueling this somehow? Well...off the top of my head, I see at least 2 questions in there. What is driving the need, and what is feeding the phenomenon. First of all, I think Madame Thorn hits pretty close to the mark with her theory about the appalling state of science and math education in our schools, but that's only part of it. In my opinion, it's not just that our education system doesn't teach kids how to think critically about science (although that certainly does seem to be true) - it's more that we're not teaching our kids to think critically, period. The mission of our educational system seems to have shifted; it seems to focus now on teaching kids how to memorize facts and pass tests, rather than how to discern what those facts mean, and fit them together to form a comprehensive picture of a larger issue. It seems to me that, past a certain point in a person's cognitive development, their method of arriving at conclusions is fairly fixed - meaning that if they haven't learned critical thinking skills by that time they probably never will. What do you do then? quote:
ORIGINAL: ThatDamnedPanda A country full of people who, just 10 years ago, thought they understood everything that was happening in the world, and were in complete control of it, now have no idea what they know. None of what they once took for granted feels logical anymore, and they're just desperate for some information that "feels" right, so they can believe it and trust that belief. It hadn't really occurred to me that the state of current world affairs and America's place in them could be underlying a drive for "understanding". It makes perfect sense. I'm in somewhat of a different position since I was predicting things like the collapse of the housing market and an economic crash on the levels of a Depression a couple of years ago so I'm at the opposite end of the boat - I feel that modern events have fully vindicated my worldview and my methods of analysis. quote:
ORIGINAL: ThatDamnedPanda The internet is a marvelous tool in many ways, but over the last year or two I've come more and more to the conclusion that on balance, it's going to prove to be the worst thing that ever happened to American society. In any given issue, the lowest common denominator is never more than 3 or 4 mouse clicks away. We have doomed ourselves, because we as a species - and especially we as a society - are too ignorant, and too intellectually and emotionally immature to use this tool wisely. So instead, we use it foolishly. And will continue to do so until nobody, anywhere, really knows how to think at all anymore. Thank god that I'm of an age where I'll only have to see another quarter century or so of this disintegration of of our culture. So what do you feel would be the solution? No technology is evil in an of itself. It's the implementation that contains the problems. How do you resolve the issue of the quality of the information available if people themselves have no sorting skills to determine its accuracy?
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