The dumbing of the millennial generation
Our time has got to be the zenith of the information age. Of course, it’s difficult to tell for sure, because it seems that the bar for access to more and more information keeps getting raised. But now, compared to any other time in our history as a specie, we have information that is literally flooding our brains, and everything. I mean every piece of information imaginable is at our fingertips.
For this very reason, we can also say that our time is the nadir of the information age. Because with the increased access comes the dumbing of the generation having this access. Critical thinking, a skill that has brought humankind to our current level of civilization and prosperity, is a skill that is increasingly getting scarcer and scarcer to find. Vocabulary has been reduced to the level of emoticons, and reasoned argument gone the way of the inane meme.
As the sailor in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” laments:
“Water, water, everywhere, And all the boards did shrink: Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.”
He seems to be foreshadowing our contemporary information age, where in the midst of so much information, there is very little that is useful to advance society, and to inform leaders and decision makers to make the right choices for their publics and constituencies.
Such is the paradox of information availability, that it seems the more we have, the less of it we can make use of.
The election of President Rodrigo Duterte is a good case study in the dumbing of the Filipino public. And in the United States, the rise of President Donald Trump to power is a parallel example of how voters, with so much information at their disposal to make reasoned and reasonable choices in the end, threw away all semblance of intelligence, to vote for leaders who arguably, in times less
“informed,” would never probably have contemplated running for office.
It seems that both Duterte and Trump simply took their voters for a ride, and they were none the wiser for it. Truth be told, despite the glaring inadequacies of both men to lead their countries, notwithstanding the countless character flaws that should have disqualified them from even seeking office in the first place, their supporters today still continue to laud their illusory accomplishments, ignore their serious transgressions, and overlook the fact that even by the test of simple intelligence and basic civility, they simply should not even be town mayors, let alone national presidents.
The phenomenon of “fake news” is a convenient excuse that we can blame for their success. There is simply too much misinformation out there that the average voter is simply overwhelmed by it all. Thus, grossly blatant propaganda material that even Joseph Goebbels would have found too fanciful to use end up becoming standard fare for gullible voters. For example, Duterte’s rewriting of the Marcos legacy has barely been challenged by his millennial supporters, this despite the fact that legitimate historical information to the country are as easy to find in the Internet, as the lies being peddled. There is simply too much to process, that each piece of information—the gold and the garbage—are now equally credible in the eyes of the gullible. The only consolation for the Philippines is that even in the United States— where voters should reasonably be more intelligent than ours—Trump’s tall tales are also easily passing for gospel truth.
Could this trend be reversed? Perhaps. Already in the United States, more and more of the electorate are waking up to Trump’s gross failings. And over here, Duterte’s increasingly asinine remarks are making some of his supporters rethink their loyalties.
Perhaps, the tide is turning. Perhaps, an island of hope amidst the waters of despair may just lie beyond the horizon.
Critical thinking, a skill that has brought humankind to our current level of civilization and prosperity, is a skill that is increasingly getting scarcer and scarcer to find.