Is America getting more stupid?

Is America getting more stupid? Are Americans, largely, becoming more clueless and less thoughtful? Well, ask just about anyone, and you will likely hear him or her exclaim "YES!" I must say I agree with them. Like it or not, it has become very clear that Americans are thinking less, and are seemingly desirous of a very structured life where everything they do is scripted.

A trend I have seen over the last 17 years working in the restaurant business is very real and extremely troubling. Now I am not, nor would I ever proclaim that we Americans are less intelligent than any other people are across the globe. Quite the contrary, I would gladly put our collective intellect against any other nations in a second.

The issue, it seems, is the lack of common sense many of us are using. We do not think before we act often times. Too many of us seem to live such insulated existences that the concept of the presence of other people is a foreign one. You see, it in the way we drive. I was taught to drive and to be watchful of other drivers. I have avoided countless accidents because I was aware of other drivers and was prepared to react. Many drivers today seem too involved in talking or changing a CD or eating their lunch to be aware.

So what is causing this collective clueless ness? As I previously stated, I have worked since 1989 in the restaurant business. In that time, I have, naturally met and interacted with thousands of people. I have worked with hundreds of waiters, bartenders, managers, bussers, cooks, etc. The intellectual depth of those people has shrunk dramatically over recent years. When I first started as a bartender I was trained by a woman who was brilliant, she taught me the right way to make drinks, wait on guests, and stressed the importance of injecting my own personality into my job. Over the years, I have trained many bartenders and always tried to pass on the lessons I learned.

Today, the training of servers and bartenders is largely not to teach them quality, but to teach them to read scripted greetings and to practice suggestive selling. Instead of encouraging thinkers, chain restaurants, tend to micro-manage and script everything their employees do. As I have been told, the idea is to simplify the job so that any idiot can do it. Well, the problem is that approach tends to insure that pretty soon only idiots will be doing the job.

It is a form of Marxism, and we all are well aware of how Marxism has utterly proven a failure don't we? This system does not reward excellence or thinking, in fact, often times it punishes it. Intelligent people quickly become bored as they come to realize that they will not only not be cited for being a better employee, but will actually suffer for it. No business can be its best if it discourages excellence can it. It only dumbs down the employees, which effects, in a negative fashion, the service, which further hurts the service as tips lower.

Likewise, as I talk to Americans in other lines of work they share similar stories of rewarding mediocrity, and discouraging thinking. This will, of course, lead those businesses to lose their edge as well. The conventional wisdom, apparently, is to script everything employees do, so thinking is not required. As thinking diminishes, intellectual depth suffers as well. Boredom and complacency sets in, and that is not, nor will it ever be, a recipe for success.

The fear that possesses these companies which try to micro-manage their employees, is one of their employees will say or do the wrong thing. Therefore, instead of risking such a calamity, they attempt to insure their employees never act with any intelligence or independence. Ever tried to get simple answers from a customer service agent, waitress, or sales associate. Now you know why, they are not supposed to know a whole lot; they are not supposed to think.

Let me share an example with you. About a year ago I attended a bar manager meeting for a company I worked for. All the bar managers from across the country were there. One night, at dinner, we asked a server if she knew where a good jazz club was in the area. "I am new to the area" she responded' I am not sure, let me go ask someone who does." Now some of my fellow managers were appalled at her response. "You never ever tell a guest you do not know!" whined a manager from South Carolina. Now I thought the server gave a thoughtful answer, she was honest, and in fact, returned with directions to a local jazz club. Yet, to my dumbed down colleague her honesty was offensive. All she knew was the waitress did not give some scripted answer like some robot.

Now as more and more businesses devolve into this Marxist approach to costumer service and running their businesses, is it any surprise that this non-thinking becomes more prevalent in society? Throw in the non-education most American children receive in our schools, and factor in the cell phones everyone has surgically implanted in their ears, and it should be no real shock how little common sense we use?

Trust me this sort of non-thinking was not around in the days of our Founders. If so, we would still be a colony. Marxism does not work, not in nations and not in business. The effects on this nation are plain to see aren't they? Are we becoming more stupid? Yes! Can we blame the senseless pursuit of sameness and conformity in the business world and schools? Yes!

 

maybe we're just getting to be smart enough to realize how stupid we were to begin with. i mean, we can't all claim the brilliance of the upper class, highly educated, eloquent statesmen of our history. those are a chosen few. now we're just being more egalitarian, for real. and stupidity is better reported. we're coming into contact with far more people than we used to, when people mostly hung out in their small communities with like-minded folk (and who doesn't think that like minded people are more intelligent than those who don't agree with them, basic human egoism).

 

??marxist buisnesses ??.....could i have some oxycontin with that oxymoron

 

The answer to the original question would appear to be "no"

 

yes, its not more stupid, its not worse, it just has never been that great

 

whoa man, yea, that is like....yeaaaaa

 

Ive noticed that common sense has diminished in the workforce as well.....

when I get new coworkers, I have to babysit them....... its not just training them, and letting them go on their own, because you cant do that. most have no common sense, and you have to babysit and push them to do anything......

 

In many jobs also if your not the supervisor or higher they dont want hear your ideas , they think becouse you dont have a degree in what ever ..your opinion is useless . many time is that low paid mecanic or worker who sees that machine running 24/7 340 days that fully understand the problem . many people get tired and say f....k it. This is why the japanase have been kicking our ass for the last 40 years.

 

at my work this summer...i swear some of these kids i worked with had no common sense at all. i was coaching some kids for football. one of the little kids baskebtall coaches comes all the way to the other side of the stadium to me and tells me the water is out at his site.

so i ask "why did you come all the way to the other side of camp to tell me this?"

he says "for you to refill the water"

so i reply "do you not see me coaching kids right now? did you not see the jugs of water on your way over here? so walk back, pick up a jug of water and refill it on your own, theres no reason why you needed to get me for water, when you could do it yourself"

 

But people didnt used to be like that also?

 

Japans starting to come out of a depression they've been in for the past decade. In no sense have they been kicking our ass.

Unless you like bad ass cell phones.

 

Sportbikes,Cruiserbikes, Sportcars, dirtbikes, ATV, Cameras, Hi Fi radios and HDF TV , powertools, generators, bulldozers, forklifts, ham radios, Jetskis, and outboard boat motors, the list is way too long. and they are also bad ass or the baddest in its class . and now Large Size Trucks . i been involve with most of the stuff listed here and no one can touch japan here. better crawl out of that rural town you live in. Tokio have one of the world most expensive rent so japanases are making good money.

 

any idiot can own a cell phone this days . few can afford the latter japanase toys. want the best digital profesional camera = Made in Japan. want the fastest street sportbike = Made in JAPAN . The fastest most exotic toys are built in japan except for a few exotic Italian Sportcars and Germany Porche .

 

Yeah, but Japan doesn't even have a military. Constitutionally mandated.


We've got them on pharms, IT, internet, computer investment,and of course, an infinitie amount of military expenditorues.

Japans esentailly an outsource.

I love Japan and all, but they;re not in any state to su[ercede the US as a superpower

China perhaps in a decade

 

Outsourced. Cheaper contracting deals through loppholes. We could produce the same material in the US, but it's cheaper to have SONY outsource it

 

we are not talking about aging nuclear ICBM sitting in silos for years my boy.

 

Japan products are no longer cheap, japanase dont work for a few pesos maybe this was the case in the 60s and 70s. but it would appply to the chinese product flooding the world market. in a few years japan well tremble under chinas .

 

We never even try to compete against the Japanase the greed in the executive office put a stop to that. lets build the same old crap until they get tired then we fold up. and the american worker = fuck them . Thats the mentality with many major americans companies . until no ones have money to buy anything. then the backfire.

 

yes. people have always been stupid. we're just getting more exposure to each other now.

 

*Nods* Exactly....