reply on: An Inch Deep and a Mile Wide \ stacker news ~mostly

208 sats \ 3 replies \ @Undisciplined 8 Apr \ parent \ on: An Inch Deep and a Mile Wide mostly_harmless

What also often strikes me is how people will start talking to me about a topic like their thoughts are unique when it is clear they are just repeating some slogan being promoted this week by the elite class.

Exactly this.

I sometimes wonder if this is a recent and western thing.

I meant to comment on this initially. I think this is a holdover from the Enlightenment era and the idea of the generally educated citizen.

Somewhere I read that up until the late 1700's it was basically possible for a very intelligent scholar to be well-versed on nearly the whole scope of human scholarship. This became the liberal ideal (and it is very cool). Since then, though, the sheer volume of knowledge has expanded to where basically none of us know anything about anything. Even on the small handful of topics that we specialize in, what we don't know greatly outweighs what we do know.

93 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 8 Apr

This is really irritating. I get all the crap spouted by MSNBC every time I talk to a few of my friends.

51 sats \ 1 reply \ @kepford OP 8 Apr freebie

That's very interesting. Here's something else to think about. I forget the exact dates but I would argue that it is possible for one to be a very intelligent scholar today. I don't think the amount of information that is USEFUL has increased to a point where many people are incapable of human scholarship.

Consider the change in education away from a classical education model to the modern industrial Prussian education model which does not intend to create scholars. The intention is to produce good compliant citizens. In other words, the masses are being dumbed down into submission. That's my thought.

This is why I believe government schooling is one of the most evil systems in US society. Like the most evil systems it pretends to be good.

33 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 8 Apr

I don't think the amount of information that is USEFUL has increased to a point where many people are incapable of human scholarship.

That's an interesting thought. The genesis of my nym is that people are blinded by whichever discipline they're subscribed to and they don't appreciate the insights from beyond it.

There's undoubtedly some version of the 80-20 principle (maybe the second order 64-4), where you can have a very broad general knowledge if you can identify the most valuable insights and not worry about the 96% of less valuable details and esoterica.