In this post I want to give you my reasons for starting this blog as it is not something I thought I would ever find myself doing. But I have become more and more concerned about the state of world affairs, especially as how they are being influenced by the current president of the US. The fact that he was elected at all sent me, like many others, into a state of disbelief. However, as the weeks and months have passed the insanity of his actions and plans has made me feel that I have somehow stepped into an alternate universe. So instead of sitting around fuming and wringing my hands in despair, I want to contribute in whatever way I can to fight against the forces of ignorance that are threatening our world.
I said I surprised myself by suddenly feeling compelled to contribute my voice to the public domain. I am certainly not new to computers as I’ve been using them since the days of floppy discs and the infancy of the Internet — a time when you had to use Unix code to access it. I would definitely call myself computer literate. But I have never felt interested in using social media. I tried Facebook for a while but I soon lost interest because of the sheer banality of most of what gets posted on the platform. Neither did I develop an interest in Instagram, TikTok, and other social media apps. When people asked me if I used Twitter, my response was always, “Real men don’t tweet.” I have, however, always used email and that will continue to be the method I use to communicate with people I can’t speak with directly. Writing in broken and half-sentences punctuated with emojis holds absolutely no appeal to me. Maybe this makes me some kind of Luddite. You be the judge, But just maybe this foray into the world of blogging represents a softening of my harsh views of social media.
Now back to the purpose of this blog. I have been looking into the possibility that Darwinian processes might help explain the rise and spread of stupidity and ignorance in the US. Can ignorance be passed downed from generation to generation? Can it spread like a virus? What makes some people so susceptible to superstition, irrationality, and sheer stupidity? Well it seems that there is some research that says it is theoretically possible for certain human populations to develop cognitive or behavioral traits that make them more susceptible to belief in superstition or resistant to reason and logic, and for these traits to become more prevalent over time. This is a theme I want to explore in more detail in later discussions.
But first, I’d like to share a fable I wrote exploring the theme of a plague of stupidity. The inspiration for the story began when I started thinking about how ignorance and stupidity can spread through a population and what it can lead to. The story also clearly represents my feelings on the state of our times. I have posted the story on my Resources page. Here is a link — Unnatural Selection