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"Cleverness is no more. This is a dumb Britain"

TheGimpMan

so middle class it hurts

Oh? And your point is? You don't have to be middle class to notice the trash culture that appeals to the lowest common denominator.

Reply 21

Liquidus Zeromus

17

Joseph90

Indeed.

The risen popularity of the X Factor is because it is a show that takes its contestants from the working class. It is a way for them to better their lives. So, the X Factor appears to a lot of the public to be a programme for the people. It is a programme for the people, yes. The people it is for though is Simon Cowell, Dermot O'Leary, Cheryl Cole, Dannii Minoguie, Louis Walsh and ITV executives.

A lot of my childhood entertainment came from reading novels. I know people who have never read a full novel and don't want to. And yes, these people I have met at University. Every novel is being made into a film so this is making reading obsolete for people who haven't read before and don't understand the value it brings.

Entertainment and Information are being mixed on Television. Don't even get me started on the people who love politics because of Barack Obama.

Yes, what a shame.
When we talk about widening participation in politics, higher education, literature, and so on, I think some people are definitely being drawn by the wrong things. Many working-class people are ignorant of politics for more complex reasons than it not being seen as interesting.

Reply 22

crazyspacemonkey

11

TheGimpMan

worst "i'm such an intellectual i'm of a different race" post ever

That doesn't make any sense. There is no hint of claiming to be 'an intellectual', just that TV now is so much more X-Factor based than anything else. I pity you if your intellect finds that stimulating.

Reply 23

TheGimpMan

crazyspacemonkey

That doesn't make any sense. There is no hint of claiming to be 'an intellectual', just that TV now is so much more X-Factor based than anything else. I pity you if your intellect finds that stimulating.

best "i'm better than you!" post ever

Reply 24

LukeatForest

13

There are clever people still, there are ingenious people too. As for how many are genuinely, undeniably intelligent, I do not know. But it depends very much on how you define intelligence. It seems to be common for an outgoing generation to deride an incoming one as being somehow less than they were (in many respects rather than simply in terms of intelligence). Maybe this is so, but perhaps the outgoing generation should take some responsibility for it? Irrespective of that, I wouldn't say that this is a stupid Britain, merely a selfish Britain. Everybody looks inwards for their fulfillment, it makes them seem somehow distant and vacuous. I've encountered many people whom you would not think, to outside appearances, are in any way intelligent. But they are capable of having conversations, of being nice, whereas I have also encountered students, supposedly intelligent and decent human beings, who speak stupidly and with rancour in their every tone, as if I am somehow beneath them. This is a Britain where people don't respect enough types of intelligence, or enough types of unintelligence.

Reply 25

crazyspacemonkey

11

TheGimpMan

best "i'm better than you!" post ever

Best "I have nothing to say so instead I'll just try to irritate people" post ever.

Reply 26

Kolya

17

I'm not sure it is as much a change in the population as it is a change in socio-economics and a change in media. It's not that the great masses have become any stupider; it's that the great masses now have money and so are now catered to far more by television and other forms of media.

A similar situation exists with exams: A-levels may have been 'harder' in the past, but far fewer people took them.

Reply 27

im so academic

15

I agree. The young generation is not becoming any more clever.

Drink, drugs etc are taking the minds of teenagers. They are not enthusiastic about their education. In fact, even on TSR some people regard university as a time for drink and drugs which I am disgusted by. Goodness knows what happens in the "real world". People are not enthusiastic about education any more, they are more interested in the respect of their friends, which is quite sad really. People taking education for granted. It really is shocking the priorities of young generation today. It is shameful behaviour. It is not about the idiocracy of "peer pressure", just deny it! People give in to "peer pressure" because of exactly that - earning the respect of their peers. But what for? It's not about the TV you watch, the books you read or the music you listen to - it's about their actions in life. Watching one programme over another does not make you any more "clever". In a way, it's about discipline. The young generation have no control over themselves, and they lack self-discipline.

It is disgusting. And for anyone that says "teenagers are getting more clever" - no they're not. OK, they may be clever, but they do not act clever - this being a wholly generalisation.

Reply 28

blogtrotter44

Watch Idiocracy. I suspect many of the contributors to this thread would enjoy it immensely.

"The film tells the story of two ordinary people who are taken into a top-secret military hibernation experiment that goes awry, and awaken 500 years in the future. They discover that the world has degenerated into a dystopia where advertising, commercialism, and cultural anti-intellectualism run rampant and dysgenic pressure has resulted in a uniformly stupid human society devoid of individual responsibility or consequences. In modern society, natural selection has become indifferent toward intelligence, so that in a society in which intelligence is systematically debased, stupid people easily out-breed the intelligent, creating, over the course of five centuries, an irredeemably dysfunctional society. Demographic superiority favors those least likely to advance society. Consequently, the children of the educated elites are drowned in a sea of sexually promiscuous, illiterate, alcoholic, degenerate peers...." More here, if you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy

It is funny, but one can't help thinking the premise of the film is, rather depressingly, absolutely correct.

Reply 29

Joseph90

14

Liquidus Zeromus

Yes, what a shame.
When we talk about widening participation in politics, higher education, literature, and so on, I think some people are definitely being drawn by the wrong things. Many working-class people are ignorant of politics for more complex reasons than it not being seen as interesting.

Either that or they march alongside the BNP. :rolleyes:

Reply 30

bittersweet.poetry

1

I heard on the news that in a recent survey with young people, the profession they most wanted was to be 'famous'. I think its sad thats what the youth of today are aspiring to be.

Reply 31

warrenpenalver

11

Bring back the mines!! got to be cheaper than paying dole money to these people.

Reply 32

imomo16

12

People are more selfish now. When all you care about is yourself and your own little aims and goals it doesn't encourage you to think beyond yourself and be curious about things. Everything's about instant gratification and saleable happiness. It's horrible.

Reply 33

holmes221

18

I feel it may be how society gives more opportunities than it used to. While this can be good, making sure that everyone can go onto school, university, for example means that this generation is perhaps not as pushed, not as hard-working as anyone to go to uni these days. Also the hardworking, intelligent people in school, become the outcasts because, as the majority see it they dont need to waste their time with books when they can drink and socialise etc. Also hardworkers are probably not the focus, and get left out as the average student is more a priority. Of course the are always intelligent people, but hardworkers what our fathers, mothers, grandparents and generation before were we are not.

Look at students in china, india whatever who do not have the facilities in education that we have here but they study much more harder

Reply 34

Drunk Punx

19

Liquidus Zeromus

Oh? And your point is? You don't have to be middle class to notice the trash culture that appeals to the lowest common denominator.

*coughbigbrothercough*

How people can watch that **** is beyond me.
"Hey look, a bunch of celebrities who are wanting more publicity. Haha, look at them! JUST LOOK AT THEM! THEY'RE DOING STUFF! IN A HOUSE! TOGETHER! *explodes*

Best programme analysis EVAIR! :biggrin:

I did have something else to say, but forgot. :frown:

Reply 35

TKC

14

And this epiphany comes from Jeremy sodding Clarkson?
Jesus Christ...Britain has lost it.

Reply 36

asdasta

15

The smarminess in the article doesn't help, but I seem to be in the minority of people who finds a lot of Monty Python to be over-intellectualised drivel. It's all very clever and everything but the only film that I really enjoyed was Life of Brian.

To suggest that one's taste in entertainment is contingent upon their intelligence is absolute balls, though - to many, film and other works are just means of escapism and not much more. Admittedly, if I see someone watching a documentary or something, I'm inclined to think they're more intelligent, or at least have a greater pursuit for knowledge, but so many clever people I know watch tosh like X-Factor, fully aware of how packaged and utterly manipulative it is, because they enjoy the repetition and the formula.

What Clarkson should be whining about is how people settle for formula and generally aren't very discerning when it comes to TV/film etc.

Reply 37

Enzo-259

15

So because someone has a different opinion to him it makes them stupid? While I agree that a good proportion of people are thick as ****, basing this on whether or not they like a certain style of comedy is complete garbage!

Reply 38

XmattieX

1

Britain isn't dumbing down it's just the manner in which the media choose to portray our current situation. Plus i feel like a can't aree with jeremy clarkson.

"Cleverness is no more. This is a dumb Britain"

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