A few days ago, I experienced the joy of sitting through a lab. It was nothing difficult as we’ve only just started the semester. I little expected to feel any rise in blood pressure as I leaned over our assignment.
Well, that goes to show me about assuming. Not a minute in, I was surrounded by  strangled whines. Our instructor, senses overloaded, hopped to the board to recount ratio/proportion and scientific notation. I was baffled many students were quick to ask for help (the answer) before attempting to find a solution by themselves. In such actions, I find a total lack of logical processes. Had the instructor chosen not to placate the complainers, he would’ve discovered they only constituted a percentage of the students.
Moments like this induce bouts of cognitive dissonance. I understand if a term wasn’t taught, then a student wouldn’t know it. However, problem solving is simply common sense. As a rationalist, I don’t believe in human stupidity. It’s an oxymoron. Instead, I believe we exist in a state of unthought, a perpetual suspension of disbelief. It’s not for lack of caring. Although apathy is no doubt rampant in our society, passion alone can do nothing to tame ignorance. So how might I explain these acts of seeming stupidity?
Choking on my spit, I think to a recent exercise. Divide a class of, say, 30 students in half: Team R and Team L. Next, some lucky jerk stands in front of the class and waves around a plastic bag, face contorted in a manner that may be interpreted as constipated or smug. “Ready to play Catch Phrase?” she rasps. You know the game: a victim must draw a slip of paper from the bag. On the paper is a phrase and the objective is for the chosen victim to lead his team to say the phrase he was given, without him saying the words himself, any involved letter or any rhymes. The twist: don’t know what the word means? Describe it anyway with a little hint from the bag-wielding sadist. How dost thou think our teams fared?
Surprisingly well. After much whining and fidgeting, the players discovered there was no passing the buck, no way out. With a few blanks filled where inexperience is fault, the students rose to the occasion and proved a mastery of induction.
Based on that trial alone, my faith in human intelligence may not be unfounded. How then to explain the lack of reasoning I witness everyday, not just within my lab?
Somewhere in the past, a mistake was made and it snowballed. Who created this abominable snowman — teachers, parents, the media or some perverted conglomeration? Whomever we have to blame for crushing the first domino, he created the rise of our generation of entitlement. We provide too many excuses for others so we can allow these excuses for ourselves. We accept complacency because questioning is too much work, too much of a risk to the status quo.
Not everyone is guilty — the technological advances of today are proof some dare to question the universe. But consumer mentality has become rife with claims of entitlement and excuses. The strong are obligated to care for the weak, but do you really consider yourself weak?
Although ability differs from person to person, that does not stop people from being people. Be it from a view of evolution or creation, the existence of mankind in and of itself renders null the possibility for any human to be truly stupid. (Physical brain damage is another issue altogether, so close your jaws.)
Plenty a thinker have encouraged us to ask, “Why so?” But the usual responses tantamount to, “Why bother?” I’m not asking anyone to watch CSPAN all day or analyze news stories. No, I ask you to pause for beat and graft the following rhetoric into your life: What do I know and how do I know it?
Question sources: parents, professors, politicians and pastors. Does what they say match up to reality as you observe it? Find out how they know what they claim to know. We have to ascertain that authority figures we allow to influence us are valid in their claims and positions.
You are not stupid. Don’t you dare let anyone take advantage of you because of what you may not know. Learn. Use the brain that, without a doubt, exists in your head and stop rendering yourself submissive.
H. C. Manning is a sophomore majoring in general liberal arts. She can be contacted at [email protected].