Is it me, or is it them?
May. 9th, 2006 04:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pezToday during lunch, my coworkers once again reminded me just how shallow, unimaginative they are, and how tiny their knowledge bank is.
It's not that when at the pub, over a pint of beer, that I expect people to throw some intelligent discussion across the table. But... and I'll be very general, very sterotypical here - is it that people who have not travelled much, who have not lived in big cities, or have not received top education, or is it just men? My own friends, people who I don't know through work, people I've met online and in university, none of them are like this. The people who I like to associate myself with tend to know bits of random knowledge and trivia and can hold a proper discussion. They are people who can accept that there is a possibility that humans can spontaneously combust - it happens to monks in monasteries, people in long term protest, and loads more, and they would not simply argue "I've seen on tv that people have proved it with a dead pig it's just them catching fire from the fireplace and yanno it's only old people alone at home near a fireplace that die like that" and laugh at the person who brought it up and make themselves, in my eyes, look incredibly STUPID.
These guys... does their knowledge only come from the telly (and only the free channels + skysports)? When was the last time they set foot in a bookshop or library, and when was the last time they looked up something because they didn't know what it was and felt vaguely interested? When was the last time they went somewhere without stepping into a pub? When was the last time they went on holiday, looked at a famous statue and thought more about it than taking some pretty pictures? Could they, just once, talk about the French or the Germans without saying something xenophobic? Does mocking people in foreign countries make them cool? Aren't they curious about the way the world works, how people in different parts of the world live? Is their mind so small that they can't accept that science has not yet explained everything and things that aren't explained aren't necessarily myths? How can they be satisfied with living in a tiny box of... I don't know, a tiny world like that?
Or is it just me? Because I have parents who have always encouraged me to be imaginative, think, look things up for myself and ask questions and be curious about things? Because, as far as I'm aware, that's the only way to live and to move forward.
Maybe I just shouldn't bother with people who don't know the difference between "waist" and "waste", and don't know where to put an apostrophe in a sentence.
(I asked my mum about this, and she summarised the problem in a single sentence: "this is what they mean by difference in class" - and I know she didn't mean class as in "middle class" or "upper class" but rather, what you make of, and want to make of, yourself. She's highly likely to be right I think.)
It's not that when at the pub, over a pint of beer, that I expect people to throw some intelligent discussion across the table. But... and I'll be very general, very sterotypical here - is it that people who have not travelled much, who have not lived in big cities, or have not received top education, or is it just men? My own friends, people who I don't know through work, people I've met online and in university, none of them are like this. The people who I like to associate myself with tend to know bits of random knowledge and trivia and can hold a proper discussion. They are people who can accept that there is a possibility that humans can spontaneously combust - it happens to monks in monasteries, people in long term protest, and loads more, and they would not simply argue "I've seen on tv that people have proved it with a dead pig it's just them catching fire from the fireplace and yanno it's only old people alone at home near a fireplace that die like that" and laugh at the person who brought it up and make themselves, in my eyes, look incredibly STUPID.
These guys... does their knowledge only come from the telly (and only the free channels + skysports)? When was the last time they set foot in a bookshop or library, and when was the last time they looked up something because they didn't know what it was and felt vaguely interested? When was the last time they went somewhere without stepping into a pub? When was the last time they went on holiday, looked at a famous statue and thought more about it than taking some pretty pictures? Could they, just once, talk about the French or the Germans without saying something xenophobic? Does mocking people in foreign countries make them cool? Aren't they curious about the way the world works, how people in different parts of the world live? Is their mind so small that they can't accept that science has not yet explained everything and things that aren't explained aren't necessarily myths? How can they be satisfied with living in a tiny box of... I don't know, a tiny world like that?
Or is it just me? Because I have parents who have always encouraged me to be imaginative, think, look things up for myself and ask questions and be curious about things? Because, as far as I'm aware, that's the only way to live and to move forward.
Maybe I just shouldn't bother with people who don't know the difference between "waist" and "waste", and don't know where to put an apostrophe in a sentence.
(I asked my mum about this, and she summarised the problem in a single sentence: "this is what they mean by difference in class" - and I know she didn't mean class as in "middle class" or "upper class" but rather, what you make of, and want to make of, yourself. She's highly likely to be right I think.)
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-09 04:24 pm (UTC)It's as easy to get drawn into stereotypes about the English/British as it is for us to be zenophobic and, I'll be honest, there are points at which that starts to be equally offensive. Knowledge doesn't have to be derived from travel, living abroad or a university education - and a wide range of general knowledge doesn't necessarily mean that the knowledge is well-applied.
I've heard it said in the past that general knowledge tends to increase with age (and then decrease again, probably, when you hit the magic mark of middle age and start forgetting things). The (younger) pub-going male is probably not the best representative of cultural sophistication and I wouldn't be surprised to find differences across professional groups.
Oddly enough, I remember watching a documentary on spontaneous combustion years ago. I don't remember it as having been superficial or sensationalist. I think there has been a tendency to 'dumb down' factual reporting on television over the years (I stopped watching history documentaries when they started filling up with poorly-acted dramatic reconstructions) and there *is* an issue about people relying increasingly on the power of Google without considering the bias/authority of their sources etc.
*gets back on with work*
no subject
Date: 2006-05-09 04:35 pm (UTC)Those so-called documentaries are mind-numbing. It used to be just channel 4, but now even BBC seems to have caught on with "more drama, more repeating the same question for 40 minutes and at the end tell them we don't know anything really".
The internet thing is something I totally agree. I take everything on wikipedia with a pinch of salt but a lot of others don't do that. And people click on a search result and assume it to be true, without reading it properly and considering it in context with the rest of the webpage.
I think, what I'm most disturbed by, is what people *aren't* doing, their world seems so small and I don't know why they can be satisfied like that. Though, it could just be the people in this office showing a cross-section of the society I really can't bring myself to like :/
no subject
Date: 2006-05-09 04:59 pm (UTC)I think most people drift into a small world at some point. When I was younger, I used to go abroad every year, usually to visit places I'd studied or read about, and I lost weight every holiday because I touristed so damn hard. But now it's all mortgage and work and who'll look after the cats and the world actually feels smaller and less safe anyway - the next place on my 'list' 3 years ago wasn't actually Japan it was the Baghdad Museum, to see a particular sculpture which probably isn't even there anymore.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-09 04:42 pm (UTC)And then I'm thankful I'm who I am, and know who I know, and pity the people who just... don't SEE things.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-09 06:56 pm (UTC)It's just who we are, and it's just who they are. I'm pretty sure they think we're weird too.