Late night television host Jay Leno’s shows used to have a recurring feature called JayWalking in which he went out to public settings and asked common people what should be basic questions. Much too often they failed miserably with answers such as the largest country in South America is Africa.
Or the Panama Canal is in the United States, named for the guy named Panama who built it.
I vividly recall one episode from a college commencement service in which the recent degree recipients produced such bon mots as the supposed astronomy major who thought the Sun revolved around the Earth.
The show audience chortled throughout, secure in the knowledge that these imbeciles were exceptions and not the best and brightest among us.
I admit to laughing then and I shouldn’t have, because these functional illiterates represented an unfortunate trend and now are everywhere – arguably the majority.
Allow me to recount some examples.
While watching the Boston-Toronto Stanley Cup Playoff hockey game Wednesday night, I was struck that neither the play-by-play guy nor the stereotypical former player providing insight from the between the benches was proficient in basic math.
Said the the ex-player, noting that it was a physical game with the teams having 48 and 41 hits, respectively, at that point in the game, “The next hit will put them at “100 for the game.”
Because I’m wired the way I am, I immediately yelled to no one in particular that he was wrong. I rewound the broadcast to check myself. Yep. The next hit would be a combined 90, not 100.
It got worse. Shortly thereafter, a graphic appeared on the screen, recounting total hits for each of the previous two games, along with the current contest’s total.
The play-by-play guy chimed in that the teams had combined for 200 hits in less than three complete games.
The total actually was much closer to 300 – 288 or so as I recall. Technically he wasn’t wrong, just understating.
It reminded me of a former editor who said writers always should strive to avoid mistakes, big or small, in their reports lest they come off as idiots writing for the Village Weekly by those tuned in enough to recognize the errors.
Back then, credibility was important to us.
These days, being uninformed or just plain wrong is no problem and in extreme examples is viewed as some sort of badge of honor.
On zerohedge.com this morning I was treated to a video of some sheep-like Hamas supporters at a protest. Said “student” protest was at New York University (NYU).
One protester, a ring in her nose and hair hanging annoying over her right eye, said she came to support Palestine and didn’t actually know what NYU had done that they were protesting. She professed to be from Columbia (presumably the university not Colombia the country) and just came down to protest because word had gotten out.
She then asked her companion, resplendent in this outdoor setting wearing a COVID-style black mask, what they were protesting specifically regarding NYU.
Admitting to terminal cluelessness on the subject, the masked one said, “I wish I was more educated.”
Chimed in nose ring person: “I’m not, either.”
And therein lies the problem. Packs of people are eager to get out and protest without any knowledge of underlying issues. Too often these protests escalate into violence from similarly uninformed types.
I’m reminded of advice given freely by my late paternal grandfather, who told us to make sure the brain was in gear before putting the mouth in motion.
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