It’s become cool to be uninformed. It’s become cool to distrust smart people. Whether you know every woman The Situation has brought home, the past five shows worth of American Idol finalists or watched every Twilight movie, TV and movies have replaced reading as a way of staying informed. I’ll admit that many people don’t find books entertaining, and I can’t say I blame them. It takes a higher level of commitment, a higher level of imagination and a higher level of intelligence to find reading entertaining.
Most of the American public is stupid. They watch hours of TV per day, never stooping to pick up a book, read a blog post from a renowned author or even listening to an audiobook on the way to work. I simply do not care about these people and anyone who does is doing them a disservice.
Most people would tell you to adapt your message to an audience. Use non-complex terms, go easy on the big words and keep your thoughts succinct. For this, I would agree, but when even the subject material becomes simplistic. David Merman Scott reported today that JustSpotted has now launched, which allows fans to keep track of celebrities in real time. Wow, what an absolute waste of technology, time and smarts.
Who cares if it sells? You’re making your audience, the very ones that pay your salary, dumber. Wouldn’t a better idea to embrace more complex ideas, like tracking carbon emissions, be a better use of such fantastic technology?
So the world lives in fear of smart people. It’s time for the educated, intelligent and savvy of us to get the hell off our perch and raise the level of conversation among the masses. It’s not about talking down to people, it’s sharing the natural and learned skills we have with others so that they can see the world in the way we do. They can see a world full of possibility, full of discovery and full of accomplishment.
It sure beats watching reruns of Jersey Shore.
9 Comments on “Why do we distrust smart people?”
I love reading, so I appreciate the sentiment about the kind of people who read. It makes me think that my love for reading is perhaps a derivative of my active imagination and love of thinking about deep subjects. I, too, wish people would talk more in person, instead of attacking each other via comments or tuning out dialogue altogether.
I think there’s a political element to this, as well. People are afraid of intelligent people (experts) telling them what to do, or what’s best for them.
Is that because too many “smart” people are out of touch with the average American?
I think it’s the other way around—that too many Americans are out of touch with the “smart” people (i.e., it’s an education issue).
Right on.
Maybe it’s because they define their own sphere of intelligence as the only valid one, and describe “most” other people as stupid, all while talking like a fuckhead about “renowned authors” and how important fucking “books” are. Maybe that.
You’re cute when you try to be funny.
I’m all for this…as long as I don’t have to leave the house.
Just read this today, written in 2005: http://bit.ly/fRUv7q