Is society becoming more stupid

We were always told that the emissions from the exhausts of cars using Leaded petrol were affecting the brain cells of the young - - - - wonder what's responsible for it now?

Regards Ian.

maybe put it another way, young people seem to be able to do tasks, camping exercise if it is all set up for them and organised. But the spark of self enterprise seems lacking. The will to go forth and enjoy oneself and explore and thereby learn by experience and expanding knowledge has failed. Groups of kids are herded around and shown things once and never or hardly participate in longer periods of application. Education, education, education has been a complete failure in my eyes and political aims have stifled individual endeavour apart from a few bright sparks who have broken free. Otherwise why would young people accept menial jobs when supposedly gained high degrees, but in practice are inept and only want to push buttons. The apprehension of Mothers now who shudder at letting their child walk to school, wow, I walked at the age of 5 a mile each way four times a day in country lanes. Instead the clutter up the roads and that in my opinion is stupid! Rant over

This is supposed to be an engineering website, albeit a hobby one but surely we should be dealing with evidence-based thoughts and actions here, rather than silly, cynical and often uninformed opinions. Surely if you want to trade worthless hot air you should post on the Daily Hell / Dail Express / Jeremy Kyle / Jeremy Vine etc.

Murray

If thine eye offends thee, don't read the posting.

Regards Ian.

Edited By Circlip on 09/03/2018 09:33:30

That's not good. However to put it into context, in 1990 alone there were over 600 child deaths through accidents.

Russell

Co-incidences like this are awful. As it happens this was also the Ouse we swam in although Willington near Bedford but the lad that did die was circa1962 as well - I'd have been 12 then and my folks were just starting to build their bungalow in the village. Most of us swam in the old mill pond but the unlucky kid went in the main weedy river near what's now called the Danish Camp.

pgk

Peanuts are not actually nuts they are legumes.

I mean, we would like to think that a company put out a warning of hazard to particular groups of people as clear as they could make it.

I think people have always been prone to stupidity or cleverness at all times, so I couldn't say that anyone is becoming more or less stupid than they always were. Human nature remains as it always was.

I'm sure even Einstein did some things he felt pretty stupid about.

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 09/03/2018 10:34:13

The peanuts could have been exposed to a risk of cross contamination in the processing plant. Perhaps it is better to annoy a thousand people than kill one?

Brian

The reason is simple. The legislation requires that ALL food that may contain nuts carry this warning.

A few non sequiturs is the consequence of avoiding a much more complex rule.

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 09/03/2018 10:44:34

It Is not illegal to be stupid,just very common.

You dont believe it ? Just look around you and listen .

Completely off-topic but the things he did feel stupid about, he perhaps shouldn't have...

The cosmological constant that Einstein added into his equations for general relativity to ensure that the universe could be "static", and that came before Hubble discovered that the universe was expanding, he regretted afterwards. See **LINK**

"Einstein later reputedly referred to his failure to accept the validation of his equations—when they had predicted the expansion of the universe in theory, before it was demonstrated in observation of the cosmological red shift—as the "biggest blunder" of his life."

...but now it's being used to model the effects of Dark Matter and Dark Energy - even if it is with opposite sign to the one Einstein intended.

Jon

Interestingly, my wife & I had a brief discussion only yesterday along similar lines, the reason being that our local hardware shop is up for sale again. Now this shop is very good - the range of items stocked is immense - over 30, 000 when I asked the previous owners once, but also they will obtain items for you even if they don't stock it. I managed to find some abbreviated accounts on the web, and I was surprised at how low the figures seemed to be, but then, I'm no expert when it comes to shopkeeping and financial accounts, and this makes me wonder if the shop is in decline. Which is where our discussion came in.

It seems to me that the ability of individuals to do things themselves is decreasing, in part due to, in my opinion, over cautious legislation, and in part due to manufacturers making items irrepairable, or at least not without a lot of messing about. The result is that people in general do not know the same things as their elders do/did. So practical ability would definitely seem to be decreasing unless the individual happens to be someone who has that dash of "tally-ho, let's have a go".

Another factor is the legal aspect - what is it, "where there's an accident, there's blame", or something, with the result that in general, people won't have a go, just in case they get landed with a huge bill. A good example is one I came across only this morning: my son-in-law runs an agricultural contracting business and his elder son assists. Now given the recent weather, you would think that "all hands to the pump" would apply, after all they have rather large 4-wheel drive tractors. So why were they not involved in clearing some of the outlying roads? Well, apparently, the council paper work involved is such that for the small number of times they might, note that word might, be called on, is such that it really is not worthwhile for them.

The final comment that I would make is that in general today, people expect far too much to be done for them. Instead of getting off their backsides and doing it themselves, they expect "the council" to do it for them.

So, are people getting more stupid? Yes, if by being stupid you mean unable to do things themselves. Of course, there is the other definition of "stupid", ie lacking sufficient intelligence, nous, common sense to be able to do things. That I'm not so sure of - we've always had "thicko's", and I do not see that much evidence of any increase here.

Regards,

ten0rman

The trouble is the stupid seem to be able to reach breeding age before they do something terminally stupid so natural selection is failing us.

Mike

Absolutely agree. Many friends in this thread have logical mistakes in their posts, which is surprising given the importance of logic in engineering, and ironic given the subject of the thread!

Fallacy of Composition is the most common boob, that is assuming from part of the evidence that the whole must be true. Placing too much value on limited personal experience is often the root cause. From my life:

• Granny smoked all her life and died of an unrelated disease. Therefore smoking is safe.
• In 1965 I crossed the English Channel once on a Car Ferry and no-one got seasick. Therefore anyone who gets seasick on a car ferry is a wimp.
• I have never had occasion to use a Fire Extinguisher. Therefore Fire Extinguishers are a waste of time.
• When younger I did many foolish things with mains and valve power supplies capable of putting out half an amp at 1200VDC. Therefore, as I never got electrocuted, the risk must be tiny.
• Once I was trapped on the foreshore when the tide came in and only escaped drowning by climbing a cliff. Therefore no-one need to worry about the same thing happening to a child.

Even though my personal experiences tell one story, the statistics tell another. Only by widening the pool does the truth emerge.

Poor humanity; even when we understand uncomfortable facts, we are liable to override logic in favour of emotion. I do it most of the time.

Dave

Lighten up chaps, we are in the tea room and that is as bad as the pub if you want to chat s**t. Don't forget your sense of humour and that pinch of salt.

Mike

Agreed. There've always been curmudgeonly old bu**ers like us bemoaning the stupidity of their society and there always will be.

...and there will always be 50% of the population below median intelligence dragging the rest of us down

No this is exactly the right thread in the right bit of the forum to give me a good laugh when taking my lunch break

Don't stop Ancient Bemoaners - you are brightening my day!

Personally I blame the lawyers for seeking every opportunity to extract cash from the law abiding as reparation for the stupidity of some half wit e.g. the US case where they sued an airfield or plane owner or plane manufacturer when someone broke in and started up a plane and drove it around or flew it and did something like killed themselves or somebody else or a possum [probably fake news but you remember it?]

Owners manuals for motorcycles now state "No part of this machine is edible"