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Humanity Is regularly celebrated for its technology, which has lifted us above all other animals. Curing diseases, motorised vehicles, supermarkets, splitting the atom, computers, mobile phones, and even space rockets. These are but a few of the amazing inventions created by humans. How come then masses of us think and act so stupidly? Why so dumb if some so smart? Has it always been the case that the majority of us are low intel creatures and only a minority are much smarter? The experts tell us that it is our ability to share information which has set us apart on the intelligence scale from the other species of animals on the planet.
A Few Smart Cookies & The Rest Of Us Dummies Tagging Along
Is it a case of a few smart cookies and a whole bunch of dummies tagging along for the ride? The prevalence of anti-intellectualism among populations of Westerners is well documented. The rise of Donald Trump and his demagoguery is founded on this anti-elitism amid masses of Americans. American males, in particular, have been identified as predominantly non-college educated and ripe for the politics of grievance. That they feel that they have lost status in the modern America. The ‘can do’ country has, perhaps, been hamstrung by the new norms present in the 21C. I mean, the whole world has been forced to become typists, which was previously considered a woman’s role. Prior to the Digital Age overwhelming everything record keeping was thought of as women’s work. Men did stuff and maybe a secretary wrote down what got done. This, as we know, has all been flipped on its head to a large degree. Women are now considered smarter in the workforce, with more of them filling undergraduate places at universities globally.
AI Smart Equates To A Dumber Humanity
Now, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is coming along and taking over many of the roles previously available for humans in areas like middle management. There is, obviously, great insecurity happening and moving like an undercurrent through communities. Anxiety and uncertainty tends to make people more susceptible to those promising more control and certainty. Authoritarian leaders, strongmen of the tribe, Alpha males – they become a viable choice for the insecure masses. “I will fix it.” “I am your champion.” These political promises reach more ears in this kind of climate. Labour saving devices have made us physically weaker over the years. Indeed, we have been forced to invent gymnasiums full of labour producing devices to fill that need. AI claims to be an intelligence saving technology, as it will think up the answers instead of you. Use it or lose it, is a well known aphorism. If humans are no longer required to employ their intelligences for great swathes of their lives – what do you reckon is going to happen? Better ask AI. Not much improves through lack of use, in my experience. In asking the question, why so dumb if some so smart? I think we are getting closer to an answer. We are witnessing the demise of human smarts through a policy of machine replacement.
If You Only See The Flowers, You Miss What Makes Them
Sure, some areas of knowledge are going to be enhanced by AI. However, we tend to focus on this part of the equation, homing in on the better part but what about the vast repository of obsolescence. Public relations (PR) communications always highlight the good stuff at the top. What about all those left behind in its wake? The wheels of technological progress invariably make processes faster and more efficient. Yes, businesses will be more profitable and cost efficient in the short to medium term. However, we have to at some point ask ourselves what is the long term goal for humanity here? If 95% of humanity becomes obsolete, where does that leave us? If the majority of humans are not deep thinkers and are instead ordinary folk seeking a worthwhile life – what is in it for them? For the longest time humanity has derived its worth and self-esteem from its labour and what it produced. This along with the ability to create and feed a family – to love and nurture. If we become extraneous to requirements in terms of the capitalist business model, outside of being consumers of the things being made, and how will we afford to buy the stuff if we no longer have jobs for which we are paid?
AI & Its Need For A Living Wage
I have heard Sam Altman and other tech billionaires talk about the need for the establishment of a living wage, which makes sense for these guys because if their AI inventions render us all jobless they won’t have a viable market for their AI made goods and services. This is cost efficiency gone mad – removing humans from the equation for what? Will we all be useless biological creatures sitting around watching screens for our entertainment? Hang on, this is pretty much where we find ourselves at the moment. The late David Graeber wrote a book about Bullshit Jobs, which exposed the fact that many of the roles we fill in the modern world of employment lack meaning.
Millions of us already feel we are wasting our time in return for the necessary income we derive from performing these largely worthless tasks.
Meaninglessness Renders Us Dumber
Has this kind of thing contributed to us becoming dumber than we were? Are lives, lacking meaning outside of our relationships and families, akin to the hole in the doughnut? Can we be smart individuals if we just push paper around and stare at screens all day at work? Places where we are forced to spend huge chunks of our waking lives in worthless occupations, are they, indeed, bad for the soul? Is this kind of thing contributing to where societies find themselves in 2024 and beyond? Does the politics of grievance feed off such states of malaise in the modern world? Why so dumb if some so smart?
Big Money Telling Lies
In the capitalist world it is all about making money. Smart people are those considered clever and or well placed to facilitate wealth accumulation. Many of those in the Trump cult would not say they have been fortunate enough in this regard to date. Thus, they have a bone to pick with those they consider the root cause of this or are the beneficiary of government money the MAGA faithful adjudge them not entitled to by their aggrieved standards. Trump and his GOP exaggerate and demonise targets as villains for their angry followers. Trans people, although making up a tiny percentage of the population, have copped a $100 million of negative political ads aimed at their ill founded existence. Immigrants have all been branded as illegals, murderers, rapists, drug dealers, and eaters of the pets of God fearing white Americans. This kind of thing has a fancy name – downward envy. This is where aggrieved folk are directed to aim their hate toward poorer and less fortunate groups further down the food chain. This has the advantage of the targets being largely powerless to fight back at being slurred and wrongly identified as scapegoats. The wealthy and powerful people at the top love this tactic because it deflects any blame from them who are the actual cause of the inequality damaging the lives of tens of millions of Americans. The Republican party is the party of tax cuts for the rich and stupid working class MAGA faithful vote for the GOP to the economic detriment of their own lives. Why? They do this because the political process involves more emotional responses than rational ones. Identity politics plays on the prejudices and biases of these folk by targeting stuff like LGBTQI and foreigners and the fear of these things within communities and populations. Group fears and anxieties are fed with negative ads spreading lies, exaggerations and misinformation. Hundreds of millions of dollars of advertising told outlandish stories about prisoners receiving sex change operations at the expense of tax payers. The truth was in a country of 333 million people just 2 individuals got medical help whilst in prison of this kind. Do the math! The ads gave the impression that this was going on enmasse – this kind of misinformation is rife in GOP material.
Aggrieved and disgruntled folk pay attention to these kinds of lies designed to shock and outrage. This is American politics.
Identifying Fact From Fiction
We live in a world where lots of us cannot tell the difference between truth and lies, facts and fictions, or choose not to at any rate. Information has flooded our worlds and most of us have not been trained to verify sources. Indeed, most folk do not even recognise the need to perform such a task. Computers and smart phones are portals to an endless sea of gossip and erroneous data. Human beings are keeping their heads above this flow, but only just, and not in every case. Going under and down the rabbit hole is becoming more common day by day. I heard someone say that Donald Trump is a time traveller. This was said in a recorded interview with a guy I watched via a video at one of his rallies. The cult psychosis is apparent in this very American manifestation of it. I wonder at a culture enamoured of the gun to such an extent, where every movie celebrates gun violence. Indeed, where violence is such a ready antidote to every tense situation. The expedient solution to complex circumstances is presented in the form of gun violence on every screen. Generations of children are growing up under the auspices of such cultural brain washing. If you are going around armed with lethal force and cannot tell the difference between fact and fiction, heaven help those you encounter along the way.
“About three-quarters of Americans who say they follow news and current events agree that “fake news is a big problem,” according to a study by Deloitte in 2021.”
This is, obviously, getting harder in the current era. The social media platform algorithms reward audience engagement via outrage. We are presented with videos headlined by shocking statements and accompanying images. Things that make your blood boil suck us in. We get fired up and often entangled in online fights. Many of us might be arguing with a bot, a machine, rather than another human being. Why so dumb if some so smart? The system is set up to weave a web of lies and misinformation around us all.
There are smart individuals warning us of the dangers, up on the watchtower looking all around and into the future. Believing bad information is greatly increasing your likelihood of falling victim to some sort of disaster. You have to ask yourself what your current beliefs are doing for your community. We are social animals and have to balance our perspective with our place in our local community. It is a good idea to take a break from looking at screens and get out into the real world at least a few times a week. Talk to some flesh and blood humans in your neighbourhood. Go for a walk in nature and take some time to touch the earth, trees and plants. Take a deep breath, exhale, and another deep breath and exhale, repeat in relaxation mode. Passion needs to be balanced with some grounding.
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.
©MidasWord
