Marching Morons
Jun. 19th, 2006 12:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stickmakerThe old SF idea that the stupid would destroy civilization by outbreeding the smart is wrong. They're destroying civilization by making stupidity an accepted alternate lifestyle.
Dear Ghu, it burns.
I just saw several cascades of stupidity while driving home for lunch. One person would do something which inconvenienced someone else - through stupidity or simply circumstances - and that someone would perform a rash (read: blindly stupid) action in response. Instead of dropping back, taking a look around and then taking a rationally-decided action to compensate for the stupidity of others.
An example: One person stopped in the road (for no visible reason) behind me. The SUV driver behind him simply swerved around. Cutting off the SUV driver behind _them_, which had been paying marginally more attention and swerved around sooner. None of them signaled. And the second SUV was nearly rearended by someone following too close behind, despite unable to see around the larger vehicle. The first SUV driver, meanwhile, nearly rearended me through screaming at the driver of the SUV he had cut off, for nearly hitting him. All of them ranting at the stupidity of others without making any effort to avoid being stupid themselves. And that was only _one_ of about three examples of such cascading stupidity I encountered in that short drive.
I see this as one, small symptom of what plagues the world today. Yes, there have always been stupid people, but now they seem to be running things. Screaming at each other the whole way.
Dear Ghu, it burns.
I just saw several cascades of stupidity while driving home for lunch. One person would do something which inconvenienced someone else - through stupidity or simply circumstances - and that someone would perform a rash (read: blindly stupid) action in response. Instead of dropping back, taking a look around and then taking a rationally-decided action to compensate for the stupidity of others.
An example: One person stopped in the road (for no visible reason) behind me. The SUV driver behind him simply swerved around. Cutting off the SUV driver behind _them_, which had been paying marginally more attention and swerved around sooner. None of them signaled. And the second SUV was nearly rearended by someone following too close behind, despite unable to see around the larger vehicle. The first SUV driver, meanwhile, nearly rearended me through screaming at the driver of the SUV he had cut off, for nearly hitting him. All of them ranting at the stupidity of others without making any effort to avoid being stupid themselves. And that was only _one_ of about three examples of such cascading stupidity I encountered in that short drive.
I see this as one, small symptom of what plagues the world today. Yes, there have always been stupid people, but now they seem to be running things. Screaming at each other the whole way.
