Do you feel that Amercian Culture is being "dumbed down"

[O.M.E.G.A]

Delibrate media programme to dumb us down?

Market consumer forces to goad us into being a consumer only?

Lack of Education? and lack of UNBIASED and dependancy Free media outlets?

what do you think?

and more importantly IS IT A PROBLEM? and what does it mean for your future family and kids?

[J.S.N.]

no we've always been stupid.

[O.M.E.G.A]

also if you do think we are what does it mean to the future?

don't take the "obvious" for granted , what is "obviuos" to you is not to the younger, the newly born, and those who have forgotten to pay attention

[Phillyboy1]

yes this country is getting stupider by the day. just look at the guy in office for the past 5 years or so lol. he's a complete moron, and more then half of the country is just as bad to follow him

[carbs-rule]

Culture cannot be judged by intelligence. They are completely distinct, and what we think of as idiotic would be rational to others. We're not dumbed down, it just looks that way if you only see what you have seen. Ask your grandfather to post a message on this board and he'll be dumbfounded, even with crystal clear directions. For those of you with kids, particularly in high school or beyond, you will obviously notice they are ahead of you in areas that you would be almost afraid to step into. Try to play their videogames with 8 buttons on a single controller when you grew up with two. Their cognitive training is practically exponential to ours.
Bush's IQ is around the 95 percentile...he's a horrid speaker but he's **** smart. He was right on the middle east, even the New Republic is saying give the devil his due. The metrics used to access intelligence are not the same in every nation, we use the Stanford-Binnet, others use different IQ tests.

I hate most things associated with generation y and whatever they call the next. But, at the same time, I know they are the ones who will outcompete me be design.

[BARLOW]

mmmm but all the kids in highschool now.... so disrepectful....... the younger they get the worse they r..... aint scared of nothing, cause the've never been beat by their parents.........

[***xxx***]

no we've always been stupid.

[carbs-rule]

mmmm but all the kids in highschool now.... so disrepectful....... the younger they get the worse they r..... aint scared of nothing, cause the've never been beat by their parents.........

It just looks that way. People think we are more drunk as a nation now too, but it was less out in the open back inthe days when, on average (!), people we're drinking a pint of hard liquor a day. School violence (and violence in general) are at their lowest points in decades, but the media needs a story.

[BARLOW]

when i was a freshman i never talked **** to a senior...... cause they'd beat my ass....
freshman these days will talk **** and anything to ya.......... its going down the drain....

[BOUNCER]

American culture..

This one...



Or this one



Or maybe this one?

[JDawg1536]

amerika aint in trubil, wes are dooin just fin

[SplinterCell]

fark yeah

[mesomorph]

It pisses me off how dumb the press wants us to be. And they are trying their hardest to make us dumb & keep us that way, so we will believe exactly what they spoon feed us. I would be embarrassed to think that anyone would ever see a Dan Rather news broadcast over seas and think that this what American's want to see when they turn on the news.

And yeah, I don't think education is the key either. Most folks that I have had discussions with that had real opinions about what was going on, their schooling was not related to their understanding, at all, kind of sad too I suppose.

The Internet is an awesome thing, that is all I can say.

[UrbanLegend]

The media seeks to brainwash and sell itself, and it succeeds more often than not.

[O.M.E.G.A]

do to a new breed of a heterougenous "grey race" in America growing esp in inner cities with its radi spreading throughout the country

we have a population with inheritley no cultural ties to the past, or a weakening one through each future generation

now this is not "bad" presay, but its vulnerable to manipluation considering the ever shrinking pool of information we consume comes from a few HUGE corporate sources who have a motive, and that motive is to make us buy


now since this "grey race" has no hitorical data base to extrapolate form

their identity is formed in the here and now, and since most of the information they injest on a daily basis comes form those few biased sources in League with those in power
oh how ever will we be able to brake our bonds whenb they close their grip ?




not saying this will happen but objectively speaking its possible thus we are at risk unless safeguards are in place

[O.M.E.G.A]

I think we are all concerned

with how we have two part to us

the "Civic Self" and the "Private Self"

our current state favors the emphasis on the "Private Self"

for there is no better a consumer than he


The "cultivation of the CIVIC SELF" does not reap immediate rewards and needs people Warriors in fact that are willing to take on the long term invenstment that will assure peace for future generation

[mesomorph]

do to a new breed of a heterougenous "grey race" in America growing esp in inner cities with its radi spreading throughout the country

we have a population with inheritley no cultural ties to the past, or a weakening one through each future generation

now this is not "bad" presay, but its vulnerable to manipluation considering the ever shrinking pool of information we consume comes from a few HUGE corporate sources who have a motive, and that motive is to make us buy


now since this "grey race" has no hitorical data base to extrapolate form

their identity is formed in the here and now, and since most of the information they injest on a daily basis comes form those few biased sources in League with those in power
oh how ever will we be able to brake our bonds whenb they close their grip ?




not saying this will happen but objectively speaking its possible thus we are at risk unless safeguards are in place

Seems like that changes evey few years, for a while eveyone was in touch with their roots. Most Colleges only teach the history of culture though though the Greco-Roman path up until now. I suppose since the great thinkers that wrote the constitution were mostly effected by everything they got from that chain, look at the way the buildings that got built back then even looked Greek, I suppose the educational institutions have a point. Having said all that I guess both ways of thinking about things have their place.

[O.M.E.G.A]

also for those who hole the personal responsibility arguement of who blame parants:

your not seeing things in the long term from conception to death


where did you identity come from?

did it not come form the stimulii around you?

parents, schools, tv, newspaperes etc?


what is the common binding agent for a societies temporal identity sir?

namely gossip, sports, and some facts usually spit out by what do you know?

a news paper, or TV

if all head turn towards that what becomes there common dialogue?


now transpose that fact on an ever increasing centralization of media ( this is well documented)

we can only guess the fruit of it will be

esp considering the lack of historical perspective for the commoner

thus TOP down manipulation becomes likely
__________________

[O.M.E.G.A]

and,


mediums that were once "dependancy free" from the forces of the market
ie; Universities, grade schools, high schools, PBS, NPR are now Dependant on Corporate money, and this can in time weaken the probabiliy of critical thought being created