We are moving (have moved) into a Post-Modern society where rational thought is not prized as highly as it used to be under Modernity. Personal experience and Emotional experiences are being given higher creedence and “spiritual” things (toward which your friends angels and “precious moments” collection are a token (and not particularly meaningful) gesture) are growing in popularity. No longer can we convince someone else of the right/wrongness of their thoughts/beliefs/actions, because at the end of the “discussion” they can simply say “Well that’s what you believe.” - to which there is simply no response…
No, I don’t think it was meant particularly as an insult. Note that your question began with the words, “think about it.” I think your friend was trying to say that you were being silly, and that she wasn’t too impressed with your criticism either…Obviously, that’s not what her collection means to her. So her logical retort to your pretentious “think about it,” was “you think too much!”
I too have been accused of thinking too much, but I think that sometimes this is a valid criticism. Overanalyzing situations and perfectionism can sometimes cloud your perception of what is really important and hold you back in life.
This topic brings to mind a pet hate of mine. Those damn “_____ for Dummies” books. Who would be seen dead buying a book that labelled them stupid? Why do they sell at all? They are simply insulting
We have one at work, and dammit, they really are for dummies. The contents of the whole book would be covered in the first chapter of any real text/instructional book.
Well, I’ve only seen Survivor and one episode of the Australian version of Big Brother…
They have the fascination of a car crash.
They’re so cringeworthy you have to watch.
Besides, I recently read a transcript of argument before the Australian High Court in a trade mark dispute between Nike and a Spanish company with a similar trading name. Half of the six judges didn’t know who Michael Jordan was. One of them kept calling him “Malcolm Jordan”. These judges are very smart people. But half of them didn’t have their finger on the pulse of what was happening in popular culture. It may be embarrassingly horrible, but do you really want to be that out of touch with the majority of people?
I’m pretty smart and I hate seeing someone on a show who is smarter than me, 1) it makes me slightly jealous and 2) it’s not entertaining. Now I know networks are not concerned much about number 1, but number 2 makes me want to change the channel, and that’s something the networks are very concerned about. So stupidity, whether we like it or not sells, (much better than intelligent anyway) and that’s all that matters.
That’s sad. That is truly sad. Hell, I quit watching game shows when I realized how stupid and ignorant so many of the contestants were. Jeopardy is the only one I’d watch now.
I think there is an undercurrent nowadays that thought that isn’t applied directly to a problem (especially an economic problem) is impractical. The flip side of this is to celebrate idiocy as being “too smart to spend all that time thinking when you could be out making money.”
I think this flows in part from some of the more famous captains of industry (Bill Gates might be considered an exception here). I think that vibe of “I didn’t graduate Ivy League, but I’m making piles of money” is fairly prevalent.
Another way to look at it is that there is a strong disdain for the contemplative life. Life should be all action and no thought. We’re hurtling toward the culmination of that attitude at light speed.
I once read tabloid profile on the million dollar winners from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. Most of these people, who were reasonably intelligent, were doing intelligent things with their money like investing it or paying off debts. But the article was mocking them as being foolish because none of them had gone off on spending splurges.
I remember hearing about a study in an article somewhere (darn it, I can’t find a cite!) which found that the more ignorant someone was, the less likely they were aware of just how ignorant they were.
I have to disagree with you about Keaton. I’ll admit some of his characters were naive, and sometimes over-enthusiastic, but there was always a great cleverness in the way he managed to get out of his predicaments. Watch the scene in The General where he’s wrestling with railroad ties on the front of the locomotive and tell me you saw that coming.
Of course they aren’t; haven’t you noticed how incredibly thumbworn all the copies are in the checkout lanes at the supermarket? I just pick a long line, snatch a copy of the most bizzare tabloid cover, and thumb through it while moving glacially forward. By the time I hit the checkout, I can put it back, pay the cashier, and be on my way, smugly confident that there are plenty of people in the world more stoopider than I am.