Amerika

Someone made an interesting statement the other day, so I highlighted it on some social networking sites to see the responses. Here’s the statement:

90% of the people that I meet are impatient and too self-concerned to learn anything that is even just a step outside whatever the mainstream opinion about that subject is.

UGM

In a thread of revealing comments, people laid out their support and rage at this condition:

“The problem has to do with the structure of memory. A quite common and useful memory trick to remember a string of random facts is to make a silly story or song up that involves all the facts in sequence. For instance, as children, to remember the alphabet we sing the alphabet song.

The same is true for most “mainstream” information. A large part of these stories are akin to bedtime stories told over and over again to us by the mainstream media. One example of this would be the don’t smoke pot public service ads. Very simple little story with a beginning a middle and an ending. The viewer is supposed to place themselves in the story as a character and believe that the plot of their lives will follow the public service announcement if they make the same decisions.”

“People don’t try new things because they don’t have the attention span and it’s hard. I blame (among many other things) weed. (here come the downmods I know), but seriously… weed is like the anti-uppity drug. If you smoke weed, you just hang out. You don’t get a bug up your ass to try anything new. There are entire generations of kids now who are basically sedating themselves through a formative period in their lives where they could be picking up valuable skills and wisdom.”

“Having an opinion on a subject that falls outside the mainstream sets one up as a target in a time when most people are probably trying to hang on to what they’ve got.”

“Not to mention embarrassed to even consider discussing issues that aren’t completely frivolous/of any importance.”

“And this is why Democracy doesn’t really work, why Plutocracies always form, and why humanity itself is an endlessly repeating cycle of stupidity.”

Some good insight there.