Suppression Through Advancement

The American government has long been criticized for the deliberate dumbing down of the people through the reduced funding of the educational system, lowered expectations on standardized tests, and the lack of emphasis on critical thinking. Just talk to any young European and it's pretty obvious that there's something to this notion. Americans have fallen behind in everything from science to languages to geography. And as it's said, if you want to keep a people down, take away their knowledge. (As a socialist, Fidel Castro understood this and, accordingly, implemented a nation wide literacy campaign when he came to power.)

This is nothing new and I'm sure there are numerous studies documenting the phenomenon. But what is older in the realm of dumbification and yet has been more under the radar is the role that technology has played in the ripping away of knowledge from humans. The example I hear people mention the most is the role of the GPS direction givers in cars -- give someone one of these devices and in a matter of weeks they are so hooked that they can't imagine how they'd find their way to the grocery store that they've been going to for years without it. Really, I've heard people talk of this.

Well, I guess losing the skill of navigation isn't that bad. But what other skills are we losing to technological advances? Many of them are benign:

• Picture taking - Digital cameras and Photoshop means that any idiot can become a photographer without having to know anything about lighting, framing, etc. (I like this one because I'm one of those benefiting idiots.)
• Direction asking and time killing - Thanks to web-enabled phones, people no longer have to interact with the outside world even when outside. Of course, Walkmans and other devices were taking us this direction, but the web-in-the-pocket phones have perfected it.
• DJing - I can't stand seeing DJs that have ditched the turn tables for a MAC.

But I don't want to make light of this serious matter. As animals, we humans have lost most of our abilities to function in nature without gadgets thanks to the over reliance on technology. Think of it as technology induced retardation. It may not sound so bad, but what happens if someday a major event (i.e. natural disaster, a major epidemic, war, etc.) forces us to leave our urban settings and return to the land if we want to survive? Would we be able to?

So many basic skills have been lost:

• Food accruing - Nicely packaged food gathered at the grocery store has taken away the need to know how to get food naturally. Unless you garden, most people have no clue how to create conditions to grow food, let alone how to identify edible foods in nature. Heck, most wouldn't even have a clue how to make everyday staples, like bread, from scratch if the ingredients did grow on a tree. And if you want meat, even fewer people know how to hunt or clean an animal.
• Healing - We've come to rely on pharmaceuticals for everything from headaches to depression to asthma. Yet, in every part of the world grows herbs and other plant matter, fungi, and animal byproducts that can treat all sorts of ailments. Would we be like the many in Africa who, torn from their traditions by war and over exploitation of natural resources, aren't able to survive from a bad case of diarrhea?
• Shelter making - Almost nobody builds their own home these days. In fact, few people even know how to do basic home repairs. Hopefully you have a tent that you know how to pitch, otherwise you'd be SOL when it comes to fashioning a home out of logs or plant material and mud.

Like with the loss of analytical skills due to poor education, can the loss of life skills be blamed on the government? In some cases, yes. Think of all of the indigenous people worldwide over the last 400 years who have been forced to leave behind their traditional ways of life for those of modern, urban man - "Civilizing" the "heathens". It's still happening as we speak. The movie Khadak (2006) artfully depicts the forcing of nomadic peoples of Mongolia into cities to become part of the soul crushing machine known as the modern industrial city.

Yes, technology has brought many great advantages. But at the same time, I can't help feel this regret. I'm somewhat of a Luddite, though one who's comfortable enough to use a computer to transfer my thoughts concerning the direction in which humans, as an animal, are headed.