Aibu to think we're entering a new "dark age"?

[Sorrelle]

Over-reliance on social media, living in our little bubbles; economic nationalism rather than globalisation; growing inequality; growth of illiberal democracies... Anyone agree?

[wasonthelist]

Where's the economic nationalism happening? Certainly not here - quite the reverse.

[MilkTwoSugarsThanks]

Wasn't it called the "dark ages" partly because there's very very little information about those times anywhere?

I don't think that's the case now!

[firstdirect]

I think that the terrorism is dark but not so the other stuff, interesting times for sure.

[TheSecondViola]

I'm not worried about those things.I am worried about how rapidly IQ seems to be plummeting from one generation to the next, and how most people don't seem to give a shit about anyone else.

[Sorrelle]

Read interesting article here

m.huffpost.com/us/entry/6867118

[amarmai]

Maybe the Middle Ages? as the different sources of energy continue to be less reliable and our food suppliers from distant areas become less dependable we will be forced to supply more of our needs locally. The farmers and manufacturers that have been outsourced will see a resurgence of local markets. Add wars and water shortages, populations on the move , govs failing , --and the need for a local strong wo/man will give rise to the new Middle Ages.

[Ilikedmyoldusernamebetter]

TheSecondViola do you have any evidence that IQ is dropping each generation? The Flynn effect suggests the opposite if anything.

[QueenStromba]

People are actually getting smarter Viola:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11200900/The-Flynn-effect-are-we-really-getting-smarter.html

Someone of average intelligence (IQ=100) a hundred years ago would score 70 on today's IQ tests and be classed as intellectually disabled.

[SurlyCue]

IQ is dropping with each generation? really?

[Senpai]

I'm not worried about those things.I am worried about how rapidly IQ seems to be plummeting from one generation to the next, and how most people don't seem to give a shit about anyone else.

IQ isn't dropping.

Humans have never given a shit about anyone else. Why do you think people had to march and fight for basic civil rights?

[DeoGratias]

1. People are getting brighter. We read more information more often online etc and that helps and schools in the West are better.
   
2. We have less violence on the planet than we have ever had in history despite what you read on the news, not least because of simple things like taking lead out of petrol and fewer wars.
   

If anything we are in a golden age.

[HesterShaw]

Yes the dark ages were simply after the fall of Rome when there is far less evidence to go on so a lot of history has been lost.

I'd say there was something about IQ's dropping. Certainly the evidence you see all around you might suggest so. The general level of stupidity and lack of applied thought in the everyday population is staggering.

[HesterShaw]

It's not just that. You can develop your "IQ" (as a measure of intelligence it's not great I don't think), yet people are not nearly as curious and as keen to develop mentally as they used to be. The lack of common sense and awareness of consequences is mind boggling.

No I have no proof for this! It's just observations.

Think how much trouble loads of people "in the street" seem to have have stringing a sentence together. It's like they can't apply the thoughts. And no I'm not referring to people with additional needs and disabilities etc etc.

[QueenStromba]

I love that a poster who is so derisive of people's lack of curiosity and mental development doesn't realise that the plural of anecdote is not data.

[GeenGenie]

I think that's possibly a lot to do with the fact it's seen as desirable to be stupid... Think of all the celebrities who have made it cool to be a bit thick

[GeenGenie]

Queen

[ArgyMargy]

No, absolutely YABU. Crime is falling, life expectancy is rising, globally levels of violence are falling (violence from war, violence against women, violence against children). Life is good. Stop paying attention to the sodding media and enjoy the world.

[Curioushorse]

Funnily enough, I was just toying with writing an article about representations of stupidity in the middle ages .

It's inspired by some brilliant representations (both written and in art) that I've seen recently. Here's an example from Led Tres Riches Heure Du Duc De Berry: wtfarthistory.com/post/16865064184/warm-your-crotch-its-february It shows two peasants who are so stupid, they're just sitting their with their bits hanging out warming them at the fire.

I'm not sure that people are getting stupider.

(though I know that it's pretty clear that since we've started measuring IQ, the average IQ has in fact increased....but there are obviously a number of reasons for this, not least the validity of the tests themselves)

[Toadinthehole]

I agree. Things are going to get worse.

In the developed world, it's harder to get a decent job. The middle class is getting squeezed. With more things being done by technology, wealth will be concentrated the hands of the fewer and fewer people who own the technology. It is just the same as mechanisation in the 18th and 19th century.

Democracies will be unable to counteract this because the wealthy can not only play them off against each other, but are increasingly the only people with the money to fund campaigns to be elected.

Mass movements and societies of all kinds (political parties, charities, organised religion), which previously held the powerful to account, are withering on the vine.

[HesterShaw]

OK, I'm wrong. Sorry. And probably stupid as well.


People are getting more intelligent with every generation, as the need for solving problems in everyday life continues. They are applying their intelligence to think for themselves and form opinions and find solutions, based on the evidence they see all around them. They draw their own conclusions from objective material, which they have taken the trouble to find out about themselves. People's written and spoken language is better than it has ever been. Witness the everyday brilliance you see expressed on Twitter and Facebook compared to say the letters exchanged by the troops in World War I and their families, or the letters written by bereaved wives and mothers during the American Civil War.

Or perhaps not.

[HotterWok]

Most things are getting better except house prices, which are too high

[HesterShaw]

And I know your sarcasm was very funny and everything Queen, but I did say in my original risible post that I knew that I had no proof and no data, and that my post was simply based on everyday observations.

[QueenStromba]

A tweet is nothing like a letter and 50% of the population are of below average intelligence.

[Toadinthehole]

What about the environment?

[HesterShaw]

Er...yes. Tweets are not the same as letters.

Are 50% of people below average intelligence?

Clearly I don't mean that the raw materials in people's minds are lower than they used to be. That would make no sense. However I don't think that people are expected to develop them much any more and they can wither.