Slackjawed Subservience

In any given place where Americans gather, in the lecture hall, the restaurant, or even just the street, you will notice them furiously punch their thumbs at the addicting plaything resting in their hands. This drubbing of digits for digital diversion is definitely dumbing down the denizens of democracy. One need look no further than the current election cycle in the United States for evidence that a steady stream of misspelled 140 character broadsides of tripe have allowed the rise of the rule of idiocracy. Reducing political discourse to a level of bumper-sticker sloganeering has resulted in a man of proven incompetence, bigotry, and bloviated boorishness to be seriously in danger of gaining the highest office in the land. (These lines are being composed just two days before the election.)

At True Archives, we believe that Information Science has aided this phenomenon of foolishness by destroying the learning and memorization capacity of our citizens. Never far from their precious electronic devices, slackjawed users whose abilities to read, navigate, or even socially engage are entirely dependent on their handheld computers lend a cruel twist to the very old democratic idea that any idiot is qualified to govern. Their “smart phones” have validated their vacuousness, and woe to anyone perceived as possibly possessing a portion of prudent perspicacity. As writer Isaac Asimov has observed:

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.

All our country ever needed for the Jacksonian celebration of the “common man” and the corresponding triumph of ignorance was the invention of devices tailor made to destroy our brains. Even the overt knavery of the service providers, whose fees and charges are reminiscent of pushers exploiting their addicts, will never stem the growing ranks of those who mistakenly believe that knowing how to ask a question equals actually knowing the answer. Like drug-addled drones, they will pay ANYTHING to keep the electrons flowing.