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If you're smart -- act stupid!
Feb. 20th, 2008 11:20 amHaving finished my book just before leaving to work yesterday, I had nothing to read on my way to work. It was a quiet traintrip as usual, and my boredom drove me to pick up a newspaper, one of the free ones distributed at train stations every day. It was Dag, one of the lesser quality with the loathed layout that screams at you in bright red colours.
A couple of things stood out in the Dag of yesterday. (Also, it can be viewed online in PDF, a great way to learn Dutch!)
The anti-Geert Wilders movie (Dutch, live stream), which I shall just plug here. I was shocked to my core by the things that "politician" was saying in our Tweede Kamer, and no mistake! He was even compared to Hitler. More on Geert Wilders later this week, if I feel like doing some research.
I wanted to discuss the following article. "If you are a little smart, you act dumb" (free translation, ( original article in Dutch here) )
The article caught my eye because on one hand I do not like people being obnoxiously smart. I am not a highly intelligent person, have never gone to university and never finished college. However, I am by no means as dumb as the back end of an ass (as a Dutch expression goes) and hate it when people are demeaning to me and insult my intelligence.
On the other hand my team at work, consisting of five men and myself as the only woman, seems to dive into controversial items of conversation more and more often. The level of conversation is hardly ever about anything more challenging than the soccer championships on a good day. On a bad day, they make jokes about women who do plastic surgery (in a derogatory manner that is sexually offensive), insult eachother because of their heritage, name, or interests and overall sap the intelligence right out of my brains.
The article writes about Susan Jacoby and her book "The Age Of American Unreason" (MSNBC) and how we are more and more influenced to pretend to appear dumber than we actually are. The MSNBC article mentions for instance the change in adressing the viewer at home: from the polite 'ladies and gentlemen' to the homely 'folks'.
It seems that the nice 'folks' who make television are not completely aware what impact they have on our society. Where "Roosevelt would no more have addressed his fellow citizens as folks than he would have uttered an obscenity over the radio" (MSNBC), we also see that "President Bush assured Americans, “I’ve been in contact with our homeland security folks and I instructed them to be in touch with local and state officials about the facts of what took place here and in London and to be extra vigilant as our folks start heading to work.” " after the London bombings in 2005.
I am by no means trying to compare the intelligence of President Roosevelt, the greatest American president of the 20th century, to Dubya Bush, but merely identifying a trend. There are more examples - quite startling ones too - in the MSNBC exerpt of Susan Jacoby's book.
Maarten Doorman, writer of "Het scherm der verbeelding" (free translation: the screen of imagination) actually is being quoted in the Dag article that "Our mediaculture does not stimulate deep debates. The intellect is despised." He has a revulsion to television, and I don't blame him.
Back to my colleagues. I really do not like the way they joke around and insult women, eachother, everyone's intelligence and the entire world. It's not really funny to say things like "who cares about the whales anyway. Let's eat them all and get rid of them once and for all. That will solve a lot of problems!". You can't tell me that's your idea of a good joke. However, their desire to be popular overrides any intelligence they might have, and everyone laughs at their stupid stupid joke. Ha, I wish I would have thought of that! Hur hur hur.
They have long since given up on trying to draw me into their discussions, and Steffen and Niek don't participate very often, although they laugh along at some of the jokes. I am actually disgusted at times. And when they get too bad, I leave the room for a toilet or a coffee break, or to call my mother. I don't think that my remarks to please stop have any effect, but I do refuse to stop expressing my disgust at their behaviour.
It is sad that smart boys like them can be so dumb, and I fear that this is a trend that will continue.
A couple of things stood out in the Dag of yesterday. (Also, it can be viewed online in PDF, a great way to learn Dutch!)
The anti-Geert Wilders movie (Dutch, live stream), which I shall just plug here. I was shocked to my core by the things that "politician" was saying in our Tweede Kamer, and no mistake! He was even compared to Hitler. More on Geert Wilders later this week, if I feel like doing some research.
I wanted to discuss the following article. "If you are a little smart, you act dumb" (free translation, ( original article in Dutch here) )
The article caught my eye because on one hand I do not like people being obnoxiously smart. I am not a highly intelligent person, have never gone to university and never finished college. However, I am by no means as dumb as the back end of an ass (as a Dutch expression goes) and hate it when people are demeaning to me and insult my intelligence.
On the other hand my team at work, consisting of five men and myself as the only woman, seems to dive into controversial items of conversation more and more often. The level of conversation is hardly ever about anything more challenging than the soccer championships on a good day. On a bad day, they make jokes about women who do plastic surgery (in a derogatory manner that is sexually offensive), insult eachother because of their heritage, name, or interests and overall sap the intelligence right out of my brains.
The article writes about Susan Jacoby and her book "The Age Of American Unreason" (MSNBC) and how we are more and more influenced to pretend to appear dumber than we actually are. The MSNBC article mentions for instance the change in adressing the viewer at home: from the polite 'ladies and gentlemen' to the homely 'folks'.
It seems that the nice 'folks' who make television are not completely aware what impact they have on our society. Where "Roosevelt would no more have addressed his fellow citizens as folks than he would have uttered an obscenity over the radio" (MSNBC), we also see that "President Bush assured Americans, “I’ve been in contact with our homeland security folks and I instructed them to be in touch with local and state officials about the facts of what took place here and in London and to be extra vigilant as our folks start heading to work.” " after the London bombings in 2005.
I am by no means trying to compare the intelligence of President Roosevelt, the greatest American president of the 20th century, to Dubya Bush, but merely identifying a trend. There are more examples - quite startling ones too - in the MSNBC exerpt of Susan Jacoby's book.
Maarten Doorman, writer of "Het scherm der verbeelding" (free translation: the screen of imagination) actually is being quoted in the Dag article that "Our mediaculture does not stimulate deep debates. The intellect is despised." He has a revulsion to television, and I don't blame him.
Back to my colleagues. I really do not like the way they joke around and insult women, eachother, everyone's intelligence and the entire world. It's not really funny to say things like "who cares about the whales anyway. Let's eat them all and get rid of them once and for all. That will solve a lot of problems!". You can't tell me that's your idea of a good joke. However, their desire to be popular overrides any intelligence they might have, and everyone laughs at their stupid stupid joke. Ha, I wish I would have thought of that! Hur hur hur.
They have long since given up on trying to draw me into their discussions, and Steffen and Niek don't participate very often, although they laugh along at some of the jokes. I am actually disgusted at times. And when they get too bad, I leave the room for a toilet or a coffee break, or to call my mother. I don't think that my remarks to please stop have any effect, but I do refuse to stop expressing my disgust at their behaviour.
It is sad that smart boys like them can be so dumb, and I fear that this is a trend that will continue.
