Irrational denotations off the deep end

Whenever I read something David Brooks has written, I always regret it. It leaves me with something worse than a stale aftertaste… — I feel like I have to take a shower or something.

So when Paul Krugman mentioned in a blog post that David Brooks had responded to Krugman’s editorial from last friday (to which I had also replied), I was a little bit curious about what Mr. Brooks’ response might be. Plus, I had been asked about my position, and so I thought it might make sense to clarify it some more.

Forget David Brooks — that is just so confusing that none of it is worth mentioning at all.

When I mentioned bogus values, I think it was not clear to some that I meant jobs. Jobs are simply a leftover side-effect of 19th century capitalism. We no longer need jobs. What is needed most of all today are people who are literate enough to work in an information society — and presently I think no more than 1% of most national populations on Earth would pass muster.

The only literacy most people have mastered is how to buy things with paper money, and how to consume mainstream media such as television programs and tabloid press. From a productive point of view — e.g. one that would make a democracy (or a republic) function the way the so-called founding fathers found might be fruitful — the vast majority of the human population is by and large incompetent… and disinterested.

In contrast, anyone who is interested doesn’t really need a high school education — the Internet has more than enough information in it. The problem is: most people don’t know how to use it, simply because no one is teaching them how to use it. Even most lawmakers are incompetent, hence progress is moving ahead at about the rate that Professor Krugman is moving forward on his treadmill.