Amazing Discoveries of the Clueless Mind

Amazing Discoveries of the Clueless Mind

A little learning is a dangerous thing ;

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring :

There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,

And drinking largely sobers us again.

~~Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism

Based on my recent rather limited experience interfacing with a few college-age generation or individuals whose educational attainment appears to be of college level, or at the very least, high school graduate, I have come to the deplorable conclusion that the internet foments and proliferates the culture of ignorance.  This observation was instigated by comments exchange on my last four posts at the AllPoetry dashboard, Facebook and other social media.

My consternation centers around the word “Twilight” and the text string “The Big Bang Theory.”  Both of them are title locutions for two rather popular sitcom series TV shows.  To encounter a single individual who cannot associate any meaning to these text strings beyond the sitcom usage would have been ghastly.  But to discover more than three individuals with such mindset is nothing short of scandalous.

Ignorance on the scientific pedigree of The Big Bang Theory may somehow be tolerable.  After all, unless somebody has been exposed to a halfway decent secular course in Natural History one does not routinely ruminate over the origin of the universe beyond what is discussed in the catechism as taught in the Catholic Church or in Sabbath Bible Class sessions.

But to not relate to the fact that twilight refers to dusk, a time of day marking the transition from daylight to night, is simply beyond the pale.  Only two or so generations ago “Twilight Time” was a rather popular song famously played by The Platters.  There was no mistaking the meaning of the phrase, “when purple colored curtains mark the end of day.”

Have we been so engrossed by the pursuit of banality that we hardly notice the daily occurrence of sunrise and sunset?  Or is it simply the case that we notice them but we don’t know any longer what they are called?  It is a sad indictment of the trends and proclivities of our age.

Purveyors of education had better be aware of the disturbing trend.  They have to compete with popular culture in providing content in the internet.  Otherwise, we are in danger of being swallowed into cultural oblivion by the undertow of a tsunami of mediocrity.