George Orwell quote- "If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them."
I love this quote by George Orwell. The quote definitely describes how most people are nowadays. People for some odd reason just do not like to think, or question anything that has been brought to their attention. They believe what the internet, television, or radio tells them, and it's pretty sad to be honest. I remember in high school, teachers telling us what to do and not giving us a chance to think on our own. We were not allowed to question what the teacher said, or disagree with them. They were the law and if you questioned them, they would kicked you out of class or send you to the principles office. Then what happens is, when these kids get to college, the teacher expects them to question and think on their own. This completely turns the students' world upside down.
Another reason I love this quote is because on social networking sites, teenagers write in such a way that I just do not understand. They throw numbers in for letters, cut out vowels, and just do not care how well their grammar or sentence structure is. Then, when you go to correct them, they either say, "I do not care because I will not use this in the real world," or, "You are trolling." All I am simply doing is giving them constructive criticism to help their English writing out, and they say I am spamming and picking on little kids.
Finally, I believe politicians take advantage of this quite a bit. They know how lazy Americans have become, and that most of them do not do the research to question what they say. Most politicians can speak a load of non-sense, and get support because of how foolish people have become. Quite a few do not care about how they can fix the problems going on in that city, county, or country. Most just want the paycheck and benefits that come along with it, so they fool and trick most people in to voting for them because they do all the thinking for them.
This is an interesting and astute blog about the state of our nation. I have to say that my experience as a college teacher really bears out your points. Students do come into my classroom not even realizing that they can (and should) think for themselves. I think our education system in K-12 has much to do with this, but I also think our consumer mentality does, too. As a culture, we are inundated all the time with messages tell us what to think about ourselves and buy.
ReplyDeleteThanks for giving us so much to think about!
Kimberly