Once there was zero tolerance of stupidity,both in our culture and in nature.If a person did something stupid,be it jay walking in city traffic or bitch slapping a Lion on the Serengeti,barring providence or cosmic luck there was usually a high price to pay for such activity.
No longer,we have embraced the idiocy and created exceptions for stupid behavior,an activity that used to be called stupid is now just normal.Furthermore if you point it out and acknowledge it’s existence you face the very real possibility of being ostracized and labeled a racist,sexist,misogynist or any number of ists.
The latest trend is lowering the standard even further as to what level of stupidity is now supposed to be tolerated and embraced.I call it dumbing down the stupid,the latest example,installing traffic lanes on public stair wells for walking,running and wait for it,wait for it…..texting.
http://www.businessinsider.com/utah-valley-university-creates-staircase-texting-lanes-2015-6
So now we have one more exception created to inconvenience everyone else because of some who insist on behaving stupidly. The Lord gave us Ears to hear,Eyes to see and a Brain to think.If those three are used correctly it keeps us out of danger and the overall level of stupidity is kept low.The trouble is many refuse to see,they ignore what they hear and very few use their Brains.
I guess I can accept the texting lane,so long as it travels up ten flights of stairs and ends in an open elevator shaft.
All part of an inexorable drive towards regulating society by the measure of the lowest common denominator.
“All part of an inexorable drive towards regulating society by the measure of the lowest common denominator.”
To true I am afraid – consider this statement by a teacher in Paterson, New Jersey.
” I teach its young. My students are hogtied by ignorance. I find myself speaking to young people born in the U.S. in a truncated pidgin I would use with a train station chai wallah in Calcutta.”
Bodes well for the future, doesn’t it? For years we’ve been living off the accomplishments and the integrity of our predecessors.
What now?
Planet of the Apes,no offense intended to the Apes though.
People stopping to text in a pedestrian choke point pi$$es me off no end, along with fat people who walk abreast at a snail’s pace and leave no space for others to pass. Almost all of them are women.
Yep. And stopping to talk in narrow supermarket aisles, without the wit to move their bloody trolleys out of the way.
Pet peeve! I just use my trolley to batter theirs aside. The looks of disdain are hilarious, especially when I just look at the silly bitches and give them a shrug and a wink in reply!
My personal favorites are the arseholes who sit through an entire green light at an intersection because they are on the phone or texting.
I think I may have an effective solution though
https://youtu.be/5na6Lhs34ho
Oh, YES!
I couldn’t understand why stupidity is so embraced today but reading the book “Australia’s secret war” by Hal Colebatch there is a chapter that attempts to explain why the unionists were such arseholes in Australia in WW2. The disease is called identity politics and it is, in its destructive forms, a leftist disease. It requires construction of a coalition of groups bound together by a sense of victimisation. It exploits indignation and cultivates righteousness although the causes (gay everything, transgender are topical) may be overblown fantasies. Idiots can be idiots with encouragement because in progressive eyes its good to be an idiot. It won’t last though (nature and economics don’t allow endless self indulgence) but it will be a pain while it does.
“It won’t last though (nature and economics don’t allow endless self indulgence) but it will be a pain while it does.”
Exactly, Brown.
I would be happy with them putting a bar protruding from the wall at around nose-level, or one at shin-level, either one will be good. So a few will get smacked in the face or trip over and roll down the stairs and break their phone but I believe in the long run it will save lives and like some say, if it saves just one life, it’s worth it, oh and [stops to take a deep breath] will somebody please, please think of the children!
Darin, you could empty a shopping mall with one of those! I’d love one on my car as well. I’m having happy thoughts about using one. Thanks.