The Age of Hollowness

[Myst42]

"Is humanity evolving towards a more idiotic state?"

 

Despite the sound of this, this is not a misanthropy post, its more of a reflexion

 

To start this I'd like to display some key points on this theory, the first one being the definition of neural plasticity (sorry if the English term is not accurate). "The human brain is a sponge" that's the premise. Every experience, every image every feeling every movement and every sound is collected, interpreted, recorded and stored in the brain as a memory. There are as many kinds of memories as there are kinds of stimuli. For example besides the memory people think when they remember something, there is visual memory, kinetic memory which is the principle of sport training among other things, olfatory memory and auditory memory. Everything is stimuli, everything, is learning.

 

I put special emphasizing on auditory learning, because according to what is said in many psychological disciplines and music therapy, sound, meaning music has a direct effect in this neurological development. The problem is the kind of stimuli that is being used.

 

There has been a lot of debate regarding the true effect of music on the human psyche, but more or less studies, looking at the big picture makes everything clearer. There's an intellectual difference between old generations and new ones.

 

I assume most of the people in LL are on their 20's, some are from the previous generation from 30+ and older, but the youngest generation here was probably the last smart generation.

How can I say this?

Well take the Renaissance for example. The golden age of human intellect. No TV, no realities. And it produced some of the most brilliant people of all times, known still today for their genius. What did they listen? Classical music. Classical music has certain things other kinds of music don't, meaning explicitly, mathematics. Math is a central part of classical music, there are compasses, times and very organized and complex forms of writing in it. Don't believe me? Do some digging about Bach. Or any other classical composer... do you know how complex is to write an opera, a requiem or any other type of classical music piece thinking about every single instrument their timings interventions, force and harmony with the rest of the orchestra for example?

Going to more recent generations, people grew up to the sound of The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Nirvana, Guns N Roses, Metallica among other legendary bands. It's far less organized and intellectual as classical music, but it has another flavor, the flavor of young thought. The sense of rebellion and energy accompanied by social reflexion and the idea of fighting for new ideals. Still a smart way to live, more scheme breaking, but always questioning everything. Is that questioning that leads to new realizations through an analytic way of view that rejects all prejudices and seeks to see things with an open mind but critical thinking.

 

And now the whole picture goes to hell in a teacup

What are the young generations listening to?

Justin Bieber, Hannah Montana, One Direction and other thousand teen singers all taken from the same sack.

Where are they learning from? Reality shows, gossip magazines and an extremely hollow pop culture.

What's the most important thing in their lives? Their cell phone, tablet, android or whatever the fuck is new on the market

 

Am I being too critical with them?

Maybe. But I've seen how children behave on schools. I remember a long time ago, students used to have respect for their parents and teachers, they used to learn from them and treat them with respect. Now I've seen them treat teachers like crap in a class room where a teacher holds no authority to them, and they threat him/her like their slave employee. Try to talk about philosophy or something more intellectually challenging with a young one and they'll say you're boring. I've heard some people claiming literally: "They don't like to think"

Everybody wants things to be done automatically and no effort is required.

No effort, no learning. No learning, more ignorance and emptiness.

 

I realize there are exceptions everywhere, but that depends only on raising and education. I've met smart kids still, but they tend to grow more and more isolated from their pairs in a world where the mass dictates the right way of living.

 

"You're not your fashioned clothing, you're not your facebook, you're not the sushi you're eating, you're not your fucking cell phone"

 

Is this how it ends...?

[Keltol]

I think you are making assumptions about the new generation too early before giving them a proper chance.  With every generation our technology gets better, I don't think we have any reason to think that is going to stop.  I will say your post reminded me of the movie idiocracy, which may depress you if you haven't seen it yet.

[shyguy92]

Man. . .I'm telling you, there is a war on knowledge going on, don't be so hard on the new generation. It is the parent's job to tell them to beware of the banks and people like  Rockefeller or Rothschild.  Super wealthy people have messed with the education system something fears here in the US, major lack of creativity and media just puffs distractions into everyone's face to keep everyone fighting everyone on all sides then odds are is they return home to watch the T.V.  Religion, politics, race, sex, war. All while the super wealthy just tries to keep us killing one another while they stash knowledge  of whether or not the Earth is a space ship or are we really alone, all to them selves.     What you might be noticing is an attempt of human farming, the dumber the masses, the easier they are to manipulate and control, like the "renaissance" era more people were afraid of "God" and the monarchies back then. Now its just super wealthy people like the Rothschilds we gotta keep an eye on because of how the FED and IRS is messing with every government's economy to be come a global economy, just like when people praised some form of religious stuff, there were nine gods before the dark ages, and by then it became just "God", so its mass homogenization to control the masses.

 

 

My grammar and spelling is a bit of a mess, and yes I speak and can write in english, I just don't type often.   

[Myst42]

There has always been some kind of attempt to farm humans, true.

But on earlier eras, there has never been one so successful as this one.

 

Religion was the main way to control the masses in first civilizations, the middle ages and some eras after it, but there's a difference.

People were either fanatic or submissive, but they still had some room for thinking. Philosophers existed from the Greek civilization, they used religion to explain what they did not know, but they were interested in knowing more, unlike this time where nobody cares. With religious control, some people were afraid of God, being afraid means you don't like the way things are, you still wave the will to reject what you dislike and fight. Now they are building and entire world of happy zombies, people so asleep that they actually enjoy the status-quo, they like being slaves. It's the ultimate form of brainwash, tricking you into thinking you were born to serve.

Don't blame it on God or religion now. Consumerism is religion. Money is the new God.

 

I really hope I'm wrong and at least part of this new generation can wake up. But I don't trust technology. With technological advance things get automatized, but people is no longer independent so now you don't own technology, it owns you.

 

Now the last hope is down to the few thinking adult individuals and kids. But this depends on parental guidance. Some people "want to be parents" because they "want a baby". But not all of them realize it's not about "their right to be parents" it's about their DUTY and RESPONSIBILITY towards the raising of living human being. Are they up to the challenge? Or they are just gonna handle another zombie slave to the system?

[Guest airdance]

Possible answer

 

 

 

 

 

[LaEspada]

According to my epistemic philosophy class. Yes we are.

 

As the collective group knowledge increases (the advancement of technology and knowledge) we know less as individuals.

 

And speaking of music. Today's music is just horrible, if you listen the "popular" music in America is probably some of the most shallow stuff you can find.

 

From a young age we are taught NOT TO THINK, but to agree and do what the "adults" tell us to do.

[Mumin]

Complaining about the moral and intellectual decay of the youth is probably as old as mankind itself, still we somehow make progress. Actually, something we are really stellar at is adapting to new situations and new times require new skills. That young people today may lack certain skills of older generations should not be confused with stupidity. 

 

Besides, I happen to like both Miley Cyrus and classical music, among many other tastes. And if someone wants to listen to Justin Beaver, I couldn't care less even if I wouldn't want to have it within listening range myself.

[Astaroth-Lite]

 

Well take the Renaissance for example. The golden age of human intellect. No TV, no realities. And it produced some of the most brilliant people of all times, known still today for their genius.

 

Specific individuals, yes; but do keep in mind the majority of people from that time still thought the earth was flat and stayed stationary while everything else revolved around it, that attaching leeches to your body could cure diseases, and that dumping your bodily waste into the city streets wasn't going to harm anyone.

 

Yes, we do hear about really idiotic individuals fairly frequently thanks to the near-instantaneous speed and global outreach of television and the internet, but people of this day are a lot smarter than the majority of people from the past have been overall. Especially in relation to specific brilliant individuals, many of whom still held on to some backward modes of thinking from their respective time periods.

[Mumin]

The flat earth belief is a myth. People knew the earth was round. People also knew how big the earth was, and that was why Columbus' idea of sailing west to reach Asia was poo-pooed; the supplies wouldn't have lasted for such a long journey. (Columbus himself did a rather gross miscalculation of the size of the earth.)

 

On the other hand, superstitious witch-hunts became very common during the Renaissance, although not as bad as the "enlighted" Romans had been (!)

[Myst42]

The same mistake people always make is thinking the people from old cultures were stupid superstitious idiots. The were not. For example movies tell us the people from the US "far west" were dumbass goons who solved everything by shooting it, when in fact, they had a lot of free time they used to read books among other things.

 

Some say now people is smarter because we supposedly know more about things than before. The existence of information does not make people smarter, The information exists, but people don't care for it, they take it for granted and never bother to investigate more.

 

The only reason people used to believe certain things now may be considered archaic, was the lack of true knowledge about them, but thanks to research more has been found about many things and now we know better... Ironic isn't it? We have more information so in a way we know more, but the problem is the mass not caring anymore... 

[formel]

It always existed some form of a more simple music across all ages, a music that were played in taverns on festivity in villages, cities in families etc. in short folk music. A music that is not complex but a music that can be played in backround or a music one can dance to. But we don't know much about this music because it was not writen down for the most part.

The music classical music you are refering to happend only on the court of rich princes and the most people didn't have access to it, and it remained an upper class entertainment for a long time.

 

Following Adorno, the creation of modern pop music is a locical development of our ecconomical system. In it art in generall - but especially music and movies - is transformed into a product which value is determened by how often it is traded. So art lost its autonomous character and become only a further mean to generate capital.

Culture as an product needs to find its consumer, too find one the artist or his/her publisher adapts the product to the consumer. But the coustumer doesn't act demanding in this exchange but he/she let the culture be servee to them. Cluture is part of the free time, and this is a regenerative phase and as such it should not require too much energy . So logicaly a simplistic product will sell best.

 

[Astaroth-Lite]

The same mistake people always make is thinking the people from old cultures were stupid superstitious idiots.

 

Well, I should have stressed the fact that more people have access to better education now, at least in the more developed parts of the world, and that everyone benefits from it. That was the point I was trying to make.

 

But yes, I should remember that it is not a proper thing to judge other cultures; but I still get taken back by the things once thought to be common knowledge and values dissonance in general all the same.

 

The information exists, but people don't care for it, they take it for granted and never bother to investigate more.

 

Some people do that, and it is a shame; but such folks are far more in the minority now than you are implying. Indeed those who revel in their own ignorance are far more in the minority than they, themselves, proclaim to be. And I am certainly thankful for that. I hope you are as well.

 

The flat earth belief is a myth. People knew the earth was round. People also knew how big the earth was, and that was why Columbus' idea of sailing west to reach Asia was poo-pooed; the supplies wouldn't have lasted for such a long journey. (Columbus himself did a rather gross miscalculation of the size of the earth.)

 

Again, educated people knew this; the general populace was still in the dark on such matters. Even to this day we see the general populace being fairly slow to embrace new scientific and social discovery, but the good news is that they eventually do embrace it! And all the more quickly with better education and better means to spread new information. All the more reason we need to keep improving both those things.

 

On the other hand, superstitious witch-hunts became very common during the Renaissance, although not as bad as the "enlighted" Romans had been (!)

 

That is sadly one mistake humanity keeps making; even into our very day and age. Modern Russia, Uganda, and even some parts of America immediately come to mind. Ignorance and hatred may be devastating forces, but they can be overcome so long as there are people out there willing to fight it rather than accept the status quo.

[AKM]

Shyguy92, have you ever heard of George Carlin?  He was a comedian and political satirist who liked to point out the obvious... the so blindingly obvious that most people completely miss it.  Anyway, one of his skits was your post, almost exactly.  Can't say I don't agree with him/you.  I've seen too much of the way the education system in particular has been f*cked by people who think they know more than the people in the classroom about how to run a classroom and what, exactly, constitutes successful teaching, learning.  Those same people seem to have an absolute obsession with "formal" education, at the complete disregard and degradation of any practical skills the human race once had, specifically: how to go out and get your own meat from the (now paved over) forests, and farming for one's vegetables etc.

 

 

OH!  And speaking of education...  You know how for a while the country as a whole has been on a "What are we doing wrong?  Why do our children not score as high as X, Y, or Z country's children" bender?  I saw something on the front page yesterday or the day before about "Are we being too hard on our students?"!  Good Lord, people!  You can't have it both ways!!!

[Nonsense667]

 

On the other hand, superstitious witch-hunts became very common during the Renaissance, although not as bad as the "enlighted" Romans had been (!)

That is sadly one mistake humanity keeps making; even into our very day and age. Modern Russia, Uganda, and even some parts of America immediately come to mind. Ignorance and hatred may be devastating forces, but they can be overcome so long as there are people out there willing to fight it rather than accept the status quo.

 

*Sees an opportunity to quote Picard and takes it*

(And yes, it's Picard and Worf)

 

"We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. And then, before you can blink an eye, suddenly it threatens to start all over again."

 

"I believed her. I-I HELPED her! I did not see what she was."

 

"Mr. Worf, villains who twirl their mustaches are easy to spot. Those who clothe themselves in good deeds are well camouflaged."

 

"I think, after yesterday, people will not be so ready to trust her."

 

"Maybe. But she or someone like her will always be with us, waiting for the right climate in which to flourish--spreading fear in the name of righteousness. Vigilance, Mr. Worf. That is the price we have to continually pay."

 

The Drumhead was such a good episode... but any further quotation would be off topic... TO THE POSITIVE THOUGHT THREAD! AWAY~~~~~