0
Are we deliberately stupid?
22 January 2006
[indent]Are we obsessively, deliberately and aggressively stupid? Do we glorify the idiots among us over the intellectuals? Do we prefer mindless activities and entertainment over those that make us think and analyse?
Yes, says Albert Nerenberg, the director of the documentary film, Stupidity.
The Canadian-made show, produced for the Documentary Channel, takes an "exhaustive search" into the meaning, origin and cultural impact of stupidity, and our stupefying culture.
Well, I'd hardly call it "exhaustive." Stupidity is so widespread and pervasive that in 77 minutes one can barely scratch the surface. The producer manages to give us a brief look at a few of the more outstanding milestones on the stupidity landscape: George Dubya, smoking, religion, Jackass, TV news, Adam Sandler, reality TV and popular Hollywood films. He entirely misses SUVs, fad diets, TV talk shows, the Simpsons, consumer fads and fashions, astrology and big-box shopping outlets.
Nerenberg also stops short of pointing fingers at any particular source of deliberate stupidity in our culture. Sure, Hollywood takes some deserved buckshot, but no particular genre, director or style is targeted. Adam Sandler gets an appearance, but only to point out he can't possibly be as stupid as the characters he portrays. Pamela Anderson and Tom Cruise are't even mentioned.
Religion gets a fair shake, but he only casually points the finger at the fundamentalist fanatic streak, without delving deep into the the various insanities that have driven stupid (but often deadly) religious movements and cultural activities - such as the Inquisition, witch hunts, burning heretics, intolerance, faith healers and televangelists.
It would be difficult to argue Western religion tolerates - let alone encourages - intellectual inquiry. It generally demands faith over analysis, belief over critical thought - which is exactly what brand name promoters demand: unquestioning product loyalty. Consider too that Western faiths maintain the moral fable about Adam and Eve eating from the tree of knowledge, the result of which is to be expelled from the Garden of Eden. The obvious conclusion is: remain stupid to retain God's grace.
The incredible gullibility of the public to sacrifice themselves to advertising hype - like credit-card-armed suicide bombers of the consumer culture - is barely glazed over. The stupidity that drives otherwise normal suburban families to waste their money on inefficient, dangerous and ugly SUVs that they'll never once take offroad is not even mentioned.
Nerenberg tackles Hollywood, albeit briefly, mostly focusing on the obviously stupid shows like Jackass. The typical mindless Hollywood action flick with wooden dialogue and cardboard characters isn't really a focal point. But in fairness, it shouldn't be. People sometimes need entertainment that doesn't engage the brain in a ping-pong game of intellectual dialectics. The problem is that that's the only cultural fare some people consume...
Politicians get a bit more of a head-whacking, although it's mostly thumped about the noggin of George Dubya, an obvious and rather easy target. As John Stuart Mill, the economist and political philosopher, once wrote, "Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives."
Yes, we're dumbing down. We all know that. And we go willingly to the slaughter. We're lazy, after all. We're the Convenience Culture. We want things immediately, easily and without work.
Face it, it's easier to watch the evening news with its shallow 30-second clips and hot-button sound bites than to sit down and read news-in-depth in a national newspaper. It's easier to stick some glutinous glop into the microwave and call it dinner than to read labels, research the trans fat and sodium content, check for labour violations of the manufacturer, or pesticide use at the farms where the products are grown or raised.
It's easier to believe that drinking a mass-produced, chemically-laden beer is cool, sexy and will lead to a great social life and oodles of barely-dressed women hanging on your arm, than to worry over the social impact of alcohol consumption or its deleterious impact on male potency.
It's easier to believe that a fat, gas-guzzling SUV will transform your shallow, meaningless suburban life into an exciting, adventurous existence than to worry about how it will affect greenhouse gas production, global warming or how it contributes to funding terrorist organizations supported by Middle East nations where the gas is produced.
It's easier to accept that what the FM radio stations pump out is the pinnacle of pop culture and musical art instead of looking around for independent artists, alternate music, experimenting with the music from other cultures and exploring the wide world of music outside the narrow confines of corporate FM broadcasts.
It's easier to watch a film full of car crashes and explosions than a documentary about Noam Chomsky.
It's easier to watch TV than read. It's easier to spend an evening on the couch than take walks, than engage in physical activities. It's easier to play a video game than chess. It's easier to buy your kids a Playstation than to teach them to play chess, or to read to them, or buy them a microscope.
It's easier to do what you're told than to think for yourself.
So Nerenberg is right, at least to a point. he does distinguish between basic cultural stupidity - the kind marketing departments feed on - and "willful stupidity" which means otherwise normal (not necessarily bright) people do stupid things. It suggests - without drawing any any moral lessons or pointing fingers - that sometimes being stupid is fun, but in order to be stupid, we have to shed some level of conscience (and consciousness) and morality. The case in point being the riots in Montreal during and after a Steve-O performance.
But then stupidity, like misery, loves company. People en masse can express a greater degree of idiocy than merely the sum of the individuals.
The documentary isn't about low intelligence, as much as it is about choices. Choices to be bright or stupid. Stupidity isn't about humour, or jokes, or those out-takes and bloopers you get with some DVDs. It's about people making the choice to avoid decisions, to avoid intellectualizing, to avoid weighing consequence.
Hence the Jackass phenomenon is broached, but not fully explored. We see headlines about people killing themselves or others attempting some feat seen in the movie (or something similar). We get to see the word jackass become a pop phrase to describe a wide range of irresponsible, stupid acts. But the reason for the popularity of the show is never really examined.
Stupidity,a s the movie shows, can be dangerous, not only to the perpetrator, but to those around him or her. Carlo Cipolla put together these Five Laws of Stupidity:
Albert Einstein once quipped,
The documentary is also about not thinking. In an interview with Selma Hayek about her film, Frida, one is struck by the low, coarse - stupid - level of questions posed by the media, and the results. Instead of articles about how Hayek portrayed the artist Frida Kahlo, about the mix of art and politics, the betrayal of political and social ideals by a right wing government, the murder of Trotsky, the intellectual scene in Mexico between wars... we end up seeing articles on how Hayek enjoyed wearing a unibrow.
The media is not presented as an elite group of probing intellectuals, but (at least in this case) as a bunch a stupid, ineffectual clots. Of course, they are playing to their audience. It seems more people would rather read stupid and shallow Hollywood gossip than anything vaguely meaningful or challenging.
Eye Magazine interviewed Nerenberg and in that interview, he is quoted saying,Whether the intelligensia is pretentious isn't really covered in the movie. But it does play parallel with the old saw that everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.
Stupidity is worth watching, if for nothing more than to challenge yourself to answer the questions it asks.
Are we really stupid? Do people still get caught in Nigerian scams? Do people still buy SUVs instead of efficient, safe vehicles? Do people still smoke? Do people still emulate Jackass? Watch sitcoms on TV instead of read? Think "reality" shows are spontaneous and not elaborately scripted? Listen to rap and wear baggy clothes with the crotch down to the knees? If you can answer yes to any of these, I'd suggest that the answer to the first question is also yes.
[/indent]
Yes, says Albert Nerenberg, the director of the documentary film, Stupidity.
The Canadian-made show, produced for the Documentary Channel, takes an "exhaustive search" into the meaning, origin and cultural impact of stupidity, and our stupefying culture.
Well, I'd hardly call it "exhaustive." Stupidity is so widespread and pervasive that in 77 minutes one can barely scratch the surface. The producer manages to give us a brief look at a few of the more outstanding milestones on the stupidity landscape: George Dubya, smoking, religion, Jackass, TV news, Adam Sandler, reality TV and popular Hollywood films. He entirely misses SUVs, fad diets, TV talk shows, the Simpsons, consumer fads and fashions, astrology and big-box shopping outlets.
Nerenberg also stops short of pointing fingers at any particular source of deliberate stupidity in our culture. Sure, Hollywood takes some deserved buckshot, but no particular genre, director or style is targeted. Adam Sandler gets an appearance, but only to point out he can't possibly be as stupid as the characters he portrays. Pamela Anderson and Tom Cruise are't even mentioned.
Religion gets a fair shake, but he only casually points the finger at the fundamentalist fanatic streak, without delving deep into the the various insanities that have driven stupid (but often deadly) religious movements and cultural activities - such as the Inquisition, witch hunts, burning heretics, intolerance, faith healers and televangelists.
It would be difficult to argue Western religion tolerates - let alone encourages - intellectual inquiry. It generally demands faith over analysis, belief over critical thought - which is exactly what brand name promoters demand: unquestioning product loyalty. Consider too that Western faiths maintain the moral fable about Adam and Eve eating from the tree of knowledge, the result of which is to be expelled from the Garden of Eden. The obvious conclusion is: remain stupid to retain God's grace.
The incredible gullibility of the public to sacrifice themselves to advertising hype - like credit-card-armed suicide bombers of the consumer culture - is barely glazed over. The stupidity that drives otherwise normal suburban families to waste their money on inefficient, dangerous and ugly SUVs that they'll never once take offroad is not even mentioned.
Nerenberg tackles Hollywood, albeit briefly, mostly focusing on the obviously stupid shows like Jackass. The typical mindless Hollywood action flick with wooden dialogue and cardboard characters isn't really a focal point. But in fairness, it shouldn't be. People sometimes need entertainment that doesn't engage the brain in a ping-pong game of intellectual dialectics. The problem is that that's the only cultural fare some people consume...
Politicians get a bit more of a head-whacking, although it's mostly thumped about the noggin of George Dubya, an obvious and rather easy target. As John Stuart Mill, the economist and political philosopher, once wrote, "Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives."
Yes, we're dumbing down. We all know that. And we go willingly to the slaughter. We're lazy, after all. We're the Convenience Culture. We want things immediately, easily and without work.
Face it, it's easier to watch the evening news with its shallow 30-second clips and hot-button sound bites than to sit down and read news-in-depth in a national newspaper. It's easier to stick some glutinous glop into the microwave and call it dinner than to read labels, research the trans fat and sodium content, check for labour violations of the manufacturer, or pesticide use at the farms where the products are grown or raised.
It's easier to believe that drinking a mass-produced, chemically-laden beer is cool, sexy and will lead to a great social life and oodles of barely-dressed women hanging on your arm, than to worry over the social impact of alcohol consumption or its deleterious impact on male potency.
It's easier to believe that a fat, gas-guzzling SUV will transform your shallow, meaningless suburban life into an exciting, adventurous existence than to worry about how it will affect greenhouse gas production, global warming or how it contributes to funding terrorist organizations supported by Middle East nations where the gas is produced.
It's easier to accept that what the FM radio stations pump out is the pinnacle of pop culture and musical art instead of looking around for independent artists, alternate music, experimenting with the music from other cultures and exploring the wide world of music outside the narrow confines of corporate FM broadcasts.
It's easier to watch a film full of car crashes and explosions than a documentary about Noam Chomsky.
It's easier to watch TV than read. It's easier to spend an evening on the couch than take walks, than engage in physical activities. It's easier to play a video game than chess. It's easier to buy your kids a Playstation than to teach them to play chess, or to read to them, or buy them a microscope.
It's easier to do what you're told than to think for yourself.
So Nerenberg is right, at least to a point. he does distinguish between basic cultural stupidity - the kind marketing departments feed on - and "willful stupidity" which means otherwise normal (not necessarily bright) people do stupid things. It suggests - without drawing any any moral lessons or pointing fingers - that sometimes being stupid is fun, but in order to be stupid, we have to shed some level of conscience (and consciousness) and morality. The case in point being the riots in Montreal during and after a Steve-O performance.
But then stupidity, like misery, loves company. People en masse can express a greater degree of idiocy than merely the sum of the individuals.
Quote
One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.
- Edward Abbey
- Edward Abbey
The documentary isn't about low intelligence, as much as it is about choices. Choices to be bright or stupid. Stupidity isn't about humour, or jokes, or those out-takes and bloopers you get with some DVDs. It's about people making the choice to avoid decisions, to avoid intellectualizing, to avoid weighing consequence.
Hence the Jackass phenomenon is broached, but not fully explored. We see headlines about people killing themselves or others attempting some feat seen in the movie (or something similar). We get to see the word jackass become a pop phrase to describe a wide range of irresponsible, stupid acts. But the reason for the popularity of the show is never really examined.
Stupidity,a s the movie shows, can be dangerous, not only to the perpetrator, but to those around him or her. Carlo Cipolla put together these Five Laws of Stupidity:
- Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
- The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
- A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.
- Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.
- A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person. The corollary to which is: A stupid person is more dangerous than a bandit
Albert Einstein once quipped,
Quote
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.
The documentary is also about not thinking. In an interview with Selma Hayek about her film, Frida, one is struck by the low, coarse - stupid - level of questions posed by the media, and the results. Instead of articles about how Hayek portrayed the artist Frida Kahlo, about the mix of art and politics, the betrayal of political and social ideals by a right wing government, the murder of Trotsky, the intellectual scene in Mexico between wars... we end up seeing articles on how Hayek enjoyed wearing a unibrow.
The media is not presented as an elite group of probing intellectuals, but (at least in this case) as a bunch a stupid, ineffectual clots. Of course, they are playing to their audience. It seems more people would rather read stupid and shallow Hollywood gossip than anything vaguely meaningful or challenging.
Eye Magazine interviewed Nerenberg and in that interview, he is quoted saying,
Quote
I find our intellectual traditions elitist and boring," he says. "People automatically dissociate intellectual pursuit with sex and adventure. It's not just that we have a society that's dumbing down like crazy, but it's also that we have an intelligentsia that's ultimately pretentious."
Still, Nerenberg is troubled by what he sees as a rejection of intelligence, something he identifies as being part of our society's worship of teenagers: irresponsible, sex-crazed beings with poor impulse control. It all goes back to TV and Noam Chomsky, says Nerenberg.
Still, Nerenberg is troubled by what he sees as a rejection of intelligence, something he identifies as being part of our society's worship of teenagers: irresponsible, sex-crazed beings with poor impulse control. It all goes back to TV and Noam Chomsky, says Nerenberg.
Stupidity is worth watching, if for nothing more than to challenge yourself to answer the questions it asks.
Are we really stupid? Do people still get caught in Nigerian scams? Do people still buy SUVs instead of efficient, safe vehicles? Do people still smoke? Do people still emulate Jackass? Watch sitcoms on TV instead of read? Think "reality" shows are spontaneous and not elaborately scripted? Listen to rap and wear baggy clothes with the crotch down to the knees? If you can answer yes to any of these, I'd suggest that the answer to the first question is also yes.
[/indent]
