The Dumbing of America

[kevin_standlee]

As it happens, Lisa and I were discussing this very subject yesterday, to varying degrees of despair. Thanks to jaylake for spotting it.

The Dumbing of America -- not only are Americans getting dumber, but we're proud of being dumb, too. Possibly this is why intellectual throwbacks like Lisa and I enjoy old radio programs like Jack Benny more than most modern fare.

Comments

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I'm one of those few people aware of the country changes, but of course I need to know this stuff so I can do international transportation projects. Besides, I like maps and geography. My favorite category on the old The Joker's Wild game show was "Maps of States," a category I noticed people would pick only if they were absolutely forced to do so with a natural triple or something like that. (I seem to recall someone going "off the board" for a $50 question in a different category rather than take a $200 game-winning question in Maps of States.)

It drives me to distraction when I get relatively recent data extracts that still use the old codes for those countries. Mind you, it shows the way my mind works that my first reaction to the Kosovo's declaration independence was, "Oh, great, now I'll have to watch out for the new ISO-2 country code and make sure I don't misroute something the next time we do a European routing project."