Is this the "Age of Ignorance"?

[YGBFKM]

The fat trainer at my old gym wants to kick your ignorant ass.

 

[Azrael]

You can be intellectually curious and still be ignorant.

That's a condition that cures itself.

Simic is describing inoperable incuriosity.

 

[Zeke12]

The fat trainer at my old gym wants to kick your ignorant ass.

Gimme a minute, I'll think my way out of it.

You can be intellectually curious and still be ignorant.

That's a condition that cures itself.

Simic is describing inoperable incuriosity.

This.

 

[YGBFKM]

I'm not sure many people, no matter how smart or well-read, are truly intellectually curious. We tend to form opinions on big stuff early on and spend our lives seeking out information to back them up.

 

[Dick Whitman]

There have always been people who declare the young stupid and uninformed, and there always will be people who declare the young stupid and uninformed.

That does not mean, in isolated cases, that they are not correct.

I think in our travels we've all found people of any age who are stupid and uninformed. It doesn't take growing up with the Internet to actively narrow your mind.

From the posted college, FWIW:

Anyone who has taught college over the last forty years, as I have, can tell you how much less students coming out of high school know every year. At first it was shocking, but it no longer surprises any college instructor that the nice and eager young people enrolled in your classes have no ability to grasp most of the material being taught. Teaching American literature, as I have been doing, has become harder and harder in recent years, since the students read little literature before coming to college and often lack the most basic historical information about the period in which the novel or the poem was written, including what important ideas and issues occupied thinking people at the time.

 

[Zeke12]

I'm not sure many people, no matter how smart or well-read, are truly intellectually curious. We tend to form opinions on big stuff early on and spend our lives seeking out information to back them up.

I think the author would largely agree with you, though you'd disagree over whether it was ever thus or used to be different.

And I do think that's where technology comes in. I mean, for a certain generation, the internet is a wonderful thing, because when you can look up minor details so easily, it allows your mind to focus on the larger picture. And you had a base of knowledge coming in.

Now, however... If you assume all knowledge is immediately accessible, how do you build an ideology, a worldview, and how do you teach yourself to think?

 

[Herbert Anchovy]

The young and uninformed don't appear to be as enthused about this election season as the last. The interest doesn't seem to be there. They don't get to be on TV or get valentines written to them about standing up and being heard in the enormity of their times. Is this election unimportant? Is this election boring? (Don't answer that last question )

 

[Dick Whitman]

I'm not sure many people, no matter how smart or well-read, are truly intellectually curious. We tend to form opinions on big stuff early on and spend our lives seeking out information to back them up.

I think the author would largely agree with you, though you'd disagree over whether it was ever thus or used to be different.

And I do think that's where technology comes in. I mean, for a certain generation, the internet is a wonderful thing, because when you can look up minor details so easily, it allows your mind to focus on the larger picture. And you had a base of knowledge coming in.

Now, however... If you assume all knowledge is immediately accessible, how do you build an ideology, a worldview, and how do you teach yourself to think?

One of my best friends is a dedicated Republican who gets most of his information from The National Review and Fox News. He's also a very, very bright guy. Smartest guy in my group of college friends, and the quite successful owner of his own financial planning business. He's intellectually curious, but only about the ideas he has already formed. He does what YGMFKM says people do - strenuously seeks out information that confirms his pre-formed biases.

Anyway, to circle back to Zeke's question, here is what I recommended to my friend: Academic journals. Very few sacred cows there. Peer reviewed. Citations for when they make assertions.

 

[I Should Coco]

I'm not sure many people, no matter how smart or well-read, are truly intellectually curious. We tend to form opinions on big stuff early on and spend our lives seeking out information to back them up.

I think the author would largely agree with you, though you'd disagree over whether it was ever thus or used to be different.

And I do think that's where technology comes in. I mean, for a certain generation, the internet is a wonderful thing, because when you can look up minor details so easily, it allows your mind to focus on the larger picture. And you had a base of knowledge coming in.

Now, however... If you assume all knowledge is immediately accessible, how do you build an ideology, a worldview, and how do you teach yourself to think?

A certain generation that grew up having to obtain information in the pre-internet age not only appreciates how easy it is, but is more skeptical about what they find there. (I don't miss those green guides to periodicals one bit)

For those who are 20? I looked it up on my phone, so it must be true.

 

[Dick Whitman]

The young and uninformed don't appear to be as enthused about this election season as the last. The interest doesn't seem to be there. They don't get to be on TV or get valentines written to them about standing up and being heard in the enormity of their times. Is this election unimportant? Is this election boring? (Don't answer that last question )

They'll get there. Their guy just isn't at the plate yet.

 

[Zeke12]

Anyway, to circle back to Zeke's question, here is what I recommended to my friend: Academic journals. Very few sacred cows there. Peer reviewed. Citations for when they make assertions.

It's not a bad idea -- the Hofstader book was originally published as an article in a journal, IIRC -- if you can get by one thing: readability.

 

[zagoshe]

Anyone who has taught college over the last forty years, as I have, can tell you how much less professors actually know and how much political correctness has jumbled their brains to the point where they are almost useless propaganda machines. At first it was shocking, but it no longer surprises.........

Fixed.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Anyone who has taught college over the last forty years, as I have, can tell you how much less professors actually know and how much political correctness has jumbled their brains to the point where they are almost useless propaganda machines. At first it was shocking, but it no longer surprises.........

Fixed.

I have attended three different institutions of higher learning, and I never felt that I was being indoctrinated or anything like that. In fact, the vast majority of professors I've had have worked hard to hide their leftist biases and even push against their liberal students. The most outspoken professors I've had? The conservatives. And I've loved every one of them.

 

[dreunc1542]

Anyway, to circle back to Zeke's question, here is what I recommended to my friend: Academic journals. Very few sacred cows there. Peer reviewed. Citations for when they make assertions.

It's not a bad idea -- the Hofstader book was originally published as an article in a journal, IIRC -- if you can get by one thing: readability.

Yeah, some of the articles are terribly unreadable. Some of the good ones, though, have completely transformed the way I look at certain issues.

 

[dreunc1542]

Anyone who has taught college over the last forty years, as I have, can tell you how much less professors actually know and how much political correctness has jumbled their brains to the point where they are almost useless propaganda machines. At first it was shocking, but it no longer surprises.........

Fixed.

You're a pathetic, angry parody.

 

[Azrael]

Anyone who has taught college over the last forty years, as I have, can tell you how much less professors actually know and how much political correctness has jumbled their brains to the point where they are almost useless propaganda machines. At first it was shocking, but it no longer surprises.........

Fixed.

QED

 

[zagoshe]

You think for yourself and don't drink left-wing politically correct bull**** and it makes me upset because I can't think for myself and really do believe everything my professors told me was the gospel truth.

Fixed again.

 

[poindexter]

I'll let my 77 year-old mom, who watches nothing but Fox News, and plans her errands around driving in the car when Rush is on, that the younger generation is incapable of intelligent thought.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I'll let my 77 year-old mom, who watches nothing but Fox News, and plans her errands around driving in the car when Rush is on, that the younger generation is incapable of intelligent thought.

Who said this?

 

[Armchair_QB]

I don't know.