Ignorance & Mediocrity: Our Cross To Bear.

I fear we are on the verge of a complete downturn in the history of human innovation and imagination. The prevailing thought these days isn’t to use your God given abilities to find the answers to questions or solve problems but rather to have others do your thinking for you. This is a tragic development in human history, and I believe it is only going to get worse.

We live in a world that is on the go 24/7. The days of pure relaxation and enlightenment are long gone, and we can no longer appreciate moments because we are constantly moving ahead to the next thing. How can we as a society survive and thrive if we are not challenging ourselves to better ourselves? How can we truly know what it is like to be free when we chain ourselves in ignorance and mediocrity?

I work at a radio station in a small town. Over the past couple of weeks, our community has seen several major events, primarily that which pertains to weather. Years ago, the State of Ohio instituted a Snow Level policy which was designed to demonstrate to what degree of caution motorists should use when traveling out on snow covered roadways. It means nothing, but is designed to give people some insight.

Since its implementation, I’ve discovered that people are using it as an excuse to not think. Rather than judge for themselves the level of caution they should use when driving on snow covered roadways, they chose to let others do their thinking for them. In the last week, I received a call from an individual who was mad (with me for some apparent reason) because snow plows hadn’t been our plowing the snow roadways. He said that he was driving on one of these roadways and almost slipped into a ditch.

There is nothing I could do about this (obviously) but I listened to his call, and casually inquired as to how fast he was going when this happened. He said that he was driving 60 mph because the county wasn’t on a level and he assumed it was safe.

Modern critical thinking at its best.

How did we get here? I’m not entirely certain, but I theorize its roots begin in the notion that we must test schools and students as a method to judge performance. No universal test can be administered which would cover every single individual, but that was the idea. Schools which perform better, receive more funding (odd considering they were doing ok with normal funding) and poor performing schools and educators (at least according to the standards) were phased out.

Now we have a clear understanding of what it takes to succeed today. And in the process, the only thing we’ve lost is our ability to think for ourselves.

Anyone see a problem with this?

Current testing methods teach students to recite back facts and data, and while teachers are instructed to apply those lessons critically, students quickly learn to only memorize that which appears on the test. Passing the test (and by extension the class) is the only driving factor as it’s the only thing that actually counts. The process of learning is at best, a quaint notion.

Funny thing is though, when you look back at all the great minds, individuals who have impacted history and those who are living today, ask yourself, did any of them get to where they are by simply parroting back facts and data or did they challenge themselves to better themselves?

The world is full of mediocrity, but that which defines our lives is that which chooses to not live according to societies whims. In order to truly impact the world, you must step outside of it. In order to truly innovate, you have to try new things, ideas, methods, and not be stuck in the same tired practices.

During the American Civil War, technology allowed arms to be fired more accurate but men were still massed in battle lines charging into enemy guns. As a result, many more men were killed in battle than had ever happened before in American history.

One of the things I’ve dealt with over the past ten years is a constant fight with complacence. We are comfortable where we are, and consequently we treat all change as a fight against our values. We cannot accept a fate which leads to an unknown because we’ve become complacent in our lives in the here and now.

The modern, technology crazed world we live in takes all emotions thoughts and issues then magnifies them to extreme levels, so this problem is in fact smaller than we may believe it to be. But still it is imperative that we recognize it is happening, if only to save ourselves from ourselves.

Clearly, all these guys were just going along with the flow.

Challenge the status quo, accept and embrace change, be cautious but also open minded, and don’t let a fear of the unknown prevent you from fully realizing your potential. The difference between a leader and everyone else is that the leader was the only one with the stones to put themselves out there. Ask yourself, would you do the same?