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Bad news humanity, we’re turning into dingbats

Chris Harrison

by Chris Harrison

05 Mar 05:55am

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Filed under: Intelligence, Satire, Society, Technology

56 comments

A recent report from Stanford University claims that human beings are less smart and emotionally stable than their cave-dwelling forebears. This is clearly nonsense. There were only three bears.

Either you understand this image or you are one

I read the report on a news website. The date was 11/13/2012. For a second this made me think the content was accurate and I was so thick I had missed the memo adding a thirteenth month to the year. Then I realised it was a US website, with their back-to-front calendar, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Given the content of the report, its author Geraldine Crabtree probably should have published it as a children’s book with illustrations rather than an academic document. Instead, she confounded us numbskulls with complicated sentences such as: “I would be willing to wager that if an average citizen of Athens of 1000 BC were to appear suddenly among us, he or she would be among the brightest and most intellectually alive of our colleagues and companions.”

Phew, not me then, just the people I work and hang out with. (I’d put a winky emoticon thingy after that joke but I wouldn’t want to prove Crabtree incorrect by showing her how we clever-clog humans have evolved punctuation into sign language. OK, perhaps it’s coming at the slow expense of words, but let’s not quibble. I’m not smart enough to quibble. Dribble, on the other hand . . . not a problem.)

The reason for our alleged dumbing down, Crabtree explains and The Huffington Post reports, is because “in our comfortable world, evolutionary pressures are far less intense, leading to a higher preponderance of dumber people”.

Bloody Woolworths. If I had to catch my dinner with a spear I’d be a Rhodes Scholar.

I had to look up the word “preponderance” in the dictionary. I know, I know, that wise old bastard from Athens wouldn’t have had to. He wouldn’t have time. He’d be too busy pulling out his hair and yelling “What the fetta have you done with the economy?! It was working perfectly when we were swapping goats!”

Why Crabtree would use a word like “preponderance” in a report she believed she was handing to human half-bricks is beyond me. But lots of things are beyond me according to the report.

Here’s what’s beyond me when it comes to 21st-century humanity:

1) We design computers that make human beings redundant. I would understand this if computers got married, needed to raise families or go to the dentist. But the last time I checked, apart from an episode of The Goodies in which Graeme Garden married his PC, computers don’t actually feel anything. Even when you belt them because they’re not working properly, they won’t be in the least bit inclined to take out a restraining order against you. Sure, we can use them to our advantage, but to factor ourselves out of the equation at every opportunity seems like a Crabtree idea to me.

2) We measure the worth of things in financial terms. Culturally, this could be costly. The National Library is as “valuable” a building as the Royal Australian Mint.

3) We have made the cost of putting a roof over our heads extortionate. It wasn’t enough to have one home. We needed two, three, four . . . Housing became a way to make money rather than to keep the rain off. Property investment portfolios became the chit-chat at barbecues and before we could say “Is that an organic sausage?” we were looking up terms like “negative equity” in the dictionary. After “preponderance”, of course.

4) We know literacy levels are suffering yet we don’t read between the lines of the effect this will have on future generations.

5) We aren’t prioritising the quality of our children’s education.

6) We know our children are becoming more idle and less healthy because they’re living in cyberspace rather than real space. We solve this by equipping them with iPads to lighten their school bags. Surely we should be weighing them down. Making them carry more. Giving them a bit of a workout.

7) We have blind faith in technology. (See point 1).

8) We didn’t put the bankers who caused the GFC in prison.

9) We know that gambling compromises the integrity of sport yet it’s a sure bet we won’t do anything about it. (See point 2).

10) We didn’t put the person who invented automated phone-menus in a windowless room and deny him/her of oxygen.

That is all beyond my comprehension. So Crabtree’s right - I must be stupid.

See you in the cave. It’s beautifully refurbished. And I’ve just bought the cave next door. Want to rent it out?

Comments on this post close at 8pm AEDST

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56 comments

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    • Bat man says:

      05:34am | 05/03/13

      How cool are bats? Much much cooler than you Liberal troll!

      Reply

    • Anne71 says:

      08:13am | 05/03/13

      “Liberal troll”? Did you even read the article?

    • dopey_ninja says:

      06:19am | 05/03/13

      Everywhere you go it’s on display, not so useful people.

      Back in earlier days lots of these people would have been larders on legs for leaner times or at the very least, bait!  lol

      Reply

    • Mahhrat says:

      06:29am | 05/03/13

      I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that this is an apex fallacy.  The BEST from 1000 years ago would be incredibly intellectually active - those lucky few who had the resources to live a studious life.

      Most people were peasantry, who never had an education except in whatever trade they did.  That was all they did.  The married within their village.

      No.  The Renaissance and the tech revolution have provided education possibilities the ancient world could only dream of.  It is up to us to take advantage of them.

      What we’re doing wrong is not educating our children, and as I said elsewhere this morning, it’s because parents now expect schools to raise their children, as well as impart knowledge.

      Reply

    • Stephen T says:

      09:27am | 05/03/13

      @Mahhrat: Your making the mistake of equating education with intelligence, you may in fact find that the studies assumptions are closer to the truth than many so called intelligent modern people would find comfortable.  If you link intelligence to cerebral mass then yes people would be may not be as intelligent, comments made by John Hawks http://johnhawks.net/weblog intimate that over the past 20,000 years, the average volume of the human male brain has decreased from 1,500 cubic centimetres to 1,350 cc, losing a chunk the size of a tennis ball. The female brain has shrunk by about the same proportion.

      This decrease in size may be explained by the encephalization quotient, or EQ ratio of brain volume to body mass, as the planet warmed, selection might have favoured people of slighter stature. So, the argument goes, skeletons and skulls shrank as the temperature rose—and the brain got smaller in the process.  However after following articles and contributions to the punch for a number of years my belief is that a strong case could be made for the idiocracy theory put forward by David Geary a cognitive scientist working at the University of Missouri:

      Ref: 2006 film by Mike Judge about an ordinary guy who becomes involved in a hibernation experiment at the dawn of the 21st century. When he wakes up 500 years later, he is easily the smartest person on the dumbed-down planet.

      As Geary points out. “I think something a little bit like that happened to us,” and “In other words, idiocracy is where we are now.”

    • Brian says:

      09:33am | 05/03/13

      Indeed. Pick the average citizen from Athens and you’ll have someone who may be as capable of intelligence as the average now, but is far, far less educated and likely to use that intelligence than the average person now (except in matters of farming, perhaps). Pick one of those who are actually recorded by history (we have a tendency of remembering the extraordinary individuals) and you’ll have a shining beacon of intelligence.

    • SZF says:

      10:06am | 05/03/13

      You’re comparing apples and oranges Mahrat. The ancient Greeks flourished 2,500 years ago (600-300BC-ish) - at a time when scientific pursuit was celebrated. By comparison, 1,000 years ago we were not far removed from the Dark Ages and busily gearing up for the Crusades and Inquisition. So, you’re correct - a Dark/Middle Ages peasant was definitely less intelligent than Joe Blogs today - but they were also far less intellectual than your average Athenian/Corinthian/Syracuse citizen. Whether Joe Blogs could out-think Joe Pericles…it’s an interesting question..

      Human intelligence/scientific knowledge over the ages isn’t a steadily increasing line - it has its peaks and troughs caused by socio-economic events (good and bad). For example, the burning of the Library of Alexandria, the Crusades and Inquisition, the Renaissance, the Silk Road, etc.

      And of course, this is all from a Western perspective - Asia and the Middle East are an entirely different kettle of fish.

    • Gregg says:

      06:31am | 05/03/13

      I see you mention Woolies Chris and that might get you some freebies but do not expect the same from Coles or any of the IGAs and others etc.

      Meanwhile, there may be a great preponderance to consider that the more than three quarter bricks will have capacity to deal with it whilst too many quarter bricks might wander about and under Golden Arches, a bit cave like those, keep licking fingers and maybe that comes from our cave peoples mannerisms Hannibal would have been proud of even if he didn’t make it to Rome or Athens.

      All things are circular or cyclical in a way and you only have to consider the wheel from the Romans and how much easier that would have made life for the great pyramid slaves and then for perpetuity we have the Pizzas, much better as a wheel shape than that square look.

      And so life continues around and around until things get short on supply, a bit like a tape measure not being able to get around the expanding girths of many brick heads I should say rather than disparage brickies by a preponderance to slang.

      Reply

    • Geoff Russell says:

      06:50am | 05/03/13

      Crabtree should have googled “The Flynn Effect” before writing her report.  But it’s hard sometimes to appreciate the difference between intelligence and knowledge, the latter being highly specialised and uneven. Do you, for example, know how your microwave oven works?

      Reply

    • Iain says:

      08:30am | 05/03/13

      Although one can try to develop a test that measures only intelligence, it is impossible to isolate.  The flynn effect is largely due to an increase in knowledge in the testing areas, not some magical evolution in human intelligence.

    • HC says:

      09:36am | 05/03/13

      @Geoff Russell

      Yes I do know, basically, how my microwave oven works.  It’s called general knowledge which is built from a basic understanding of how the physical universe functions, a general idea of how people behave, think, reason and function within that universe, an all-encompassing passion for reading anything and everything I can get my greedy mitts on, an unquenchable curiosity and refusal to accept a “truth” until understanding the way that “truth” has been ascertained.

      These are (in my opinion) the basic tenets of an intelligent person.  Without all of these you’re an idiot or at least lacking a rudimentary intelligence.  Look around you, how many people do you think live their lives based on these tenets?  I believe, based on personal experience, the answer is very few and steadily declining.

      The reasons for this?  There are many; an education system that sucks all the joy of learning out of students, parents who kill curiosity at an age (under 5) when kids are sponges and should be learning how to learn because parents are ‘time-poor’ or some other pathetic excuse, politicians and corporations that require fat, rich (but not too rich), lazy, compliant and most importantly ignorant people to cling to them and more generally a society that rewards mediocrity instead of excellence.

    • gof says:

      07:15am | 05/03/13

      “A recent report from Stanford University claims that human beings are less smart and emotionally stable than their cave-dwelling forebears”
      You just need to look at the opposition leader for proof of this. Even the archaic and fumbling decision process is testament to their neanderthalensis. Their first policy discussion paper should be how to make a wheel, however they will go around in circles but not produce a thing.

      Reply

    • marley says:

      08:22am | 05/03/13

      Maybe that’s why we should all vote green - ‘cause if we do, we’ll be back living in caves in no time.

    • gof says:

      09:24am | 05/03/13

      #marley,
      “Maybe that’s why we should all vote green”
      As they have shown recently they can not be trusted. They would send us back to pre creation if they could.

    • proberly a misogynist says:

      11:03am | 05/03/13

      In 2007 the people of this country voted out a perfectly good well functioning govt and installed the bunch of dills we have now . Me thinks this lady maybe be onto something

    • Bho Ghan-Pryde says:

      11:28am | 05/03/13

      Whether we are becoming dumber I wouldn’t know but judging by the comments of gof and acotrel some sure are becoming more obsessive. To them everything, even this, article, is about Abbott. Is there a link between obsessive, hating behaviour and intelligence?

    • SAm says:

      11:56am | 05/03/13

      lol your definition of ‘perfectly good’ and ‘well functioning’ differ to mine and anyone else that voted that lazy mob out

    • Lisa Meredith says:

      07:27am | 05/03/13

      Dear Chris,

      The phrase “We have blind faith in technology” explains a lot to me.

      It helps me understand how some people can think that science is a religion and faith is required. We don’t need to understand the Standard Quantum Model in order to use a computer.

      Unfortunately, it seems to me that this allows some of us to argue against a scientific principle or theory without understanding it, or even being able to describe it. The Greenhouse Effect seems to me to be one such example.

      Reply

    • Scotchfinger says:

      08:56am | 05/03/13

      Scientific theories will come and then pass away into history. Common sense and good judgement, hopefully, never will.

    • Lisa Meredith says:

      09:38am | 05/03/13

      Dear Scotchfinger,
      ”Scientific theories will come and then pass away into history. “

      Yes. No doubt this has something to do with the way science is self-correcting. Science recognises its errors over time as new data and evidence comes to light, and seeks to correct them.

      Thus: science sees itself as an ongoing discourse of evolving tenets, not a set of unchanging edicts.

      Common sense has also changed over time, and, I believe, is in the mind of the beholder. What I see as common sense, may appear fanciful to the next person.

    • Al says:

      09:49am | 05/03/13

      Scotchfinger - Scientific theories will come and then pass away into history. Correct to a certain extent, the theories will pass away into history when they are replaced by a more accurate theory or better theory that more accurately explains the observable.
      As for ‘common sense and good judgement’, what planet do you live on as it certainly isn’t Earth as Earth is full of examples everyday of a significant lack of (un)common sense and good judgement.

    • Jaqui says:

      10:03am | 05/03/13

      @Lisa Meredith: Apparently! I would love for you to scientifically show in a lab the greenhouse effect taking place in a system with the same concentrations of CO2 we are talking about.
      The part you are going to struggle with are the laws of thermodynamics which seems to elude most of you alarmists.
      Hey Lisa, what has the warming been for the last 16 years?

    • Scotchfinger says:

      10:21am | 05/03/13

      Yes Lisa and Al, unfortunately many people ignore their own sound judgement if they feel on firmer ground under the opinions of a trusted Authority. This authority may be science or pseudoscience. But the fact that they discount their own powers of logic makes it equally dangerous no matter with whom they place their blind faith in. This I believe is the modern predicament we find ourselves in. We are more sheep-like than ever.

    • Al says:

      10:43am | 05/03/13

      Scotchfinger - a little skeptcisim goes a long way. Blind faith in anything (or anybodys opinion) is dangerous. Yes I do understand that there have been experiments into the psychology of this and the vast majority will do things just because someone in authority tells them too (even if they don’t think it is right).
      However it is also dangerous to completely discount that advice as they may actualy be right. I am always wary of people who give advice along the lines of ‘just do it because I know whats right’ rather than those who actualy do (or at least attempt to) explain why that course should be pursued.

    • Lisa Meredith says:

      11:40am | 05/03/13

      Dear Jacqui,

      The current explanation is as follows:

      1.  The energy first comes from the Sun. It is shortwave infrared and cannot interact with CO2 or any other GHG in any major way. It is not absorbed and passes through the atmosphere primarily unimpeded. If this energy hits cloud or ice some or all of it is reflected back into space.

      2.  The shortwave energy that continues, strikes the ice-free ground and water, where it is absorbed and heats up this land/water at the Earth’s surface.

      3.  As the ice-free ground and water heats up it emits longwave infrared radiation up into the atmosphere.

      4.  The photons of longwave infrared radiation are absorbed by the greenhouse gas (GHG) molecules; one per molecule. Once absorbed, the photon pushes an electron into a higher energy orbit, which creates a magnetic dipole that causes the molecule to vibrate.

      5.  The vibration injects extra momentum into each collision between the GHG molecule and the other gas molecules in the atmosphere, such as O2 and N2.

      6.  Eventually the higher energy orbit of the electron decays, it falls back into its ground orbit and emits a photon of longwave infrared radiation.

      7.  This emission can be in any direction: up (where it can escape the atmosphere and head off into space), down (so it can be absorbed by the earth’s surface or another GHG molecule) or sideways, where it can be absorbed by another GHG molecule or perhaps escape into space). This is called scattering.

      8.  As per step 5, the greenhouse effect raises the energy level of the atmosphere/ocean system by increasing the molecular momentum of the atmosphere to begin with, but then it goes on to drive other knock-on effects.

      9.  The predicted knock-on effects of this increased momentum include: thermal expansion of the air and oceans, increased ice melt, increased net latent heat of evaporation due to increased humidity, increased temp of the air and the oceans. Air temp is only a small part of this picture and is not representative of the total energy increase due to increasing GHG concentration.

      In conclusion, the heat transfer involves longwave emissions from the surface upwards, converted into energy of vibration and then scattered both up and down. The longwave energy scattered up leaves the Earth system, but that which is scattered down continues to be available to drive the greenhouse effect.

      But, the warmer it gets, the more energy leaves the Earth’s system. This is the migration towards thermodynamic equilibrium as dictated by the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. The earth is currently not in equilibrium: energy absorbed is greater than energy emitted. Eventually the planet surface and top of atmosphere will warm up (with attendant changes to the emission spectrum) such that energy emitted equals energy absorbed.

      Not only are no laws/theories of physics broken, but this is actually what physics predicts.

    • Jaqui says:

      02:09pm | 05/03/13

      @Lisa Meredith: While replicable in much, much higher concentrations than we see today, what is clear is that the concentrations we see today are basically negligible and as such have little to no impact. The theories of cascading are fundamentally flawed because of the requirements for cascading to occur. Basically the same as landing a specific atom on a pinhead by sneezing.

    • Lisa Meredith says:

      03:45pm | 05/03/13

      Dear Jacqui,

      It is easier to predict the behaviour of a million molecules than one molecule. Current CO2 levels suggest a rise of nearly 40% since the advent of the Industrial Revolution, increasing at 3% per annum, compounded.

      The Standard Quantum Model does not just predict this behaviour; it quantifies it, predicting, for example, the probabilities and energy levels involved.

      Thus, we can test the theory by studying the atmospheres of other planets and moons in the Solar System, we can program climate models based on this prediction and see how it compares with the current knowledge we do have about past climate. We can test the theory in the lab at current atmospheric concentrations. Research has refined our results and there are still unanswered questions, but there is very little dissenting evidence as yet.

      We can test it here on Earth by predicting the increase in molecular momentum of the ocean/atmosphere system and comparing it to current measurements. They don’t match perfectly if we ignore deep ocean temp change, where about 80% of the ocean resides. The ARGO buoys will show over the next decades what is going on at depth.

      Finally, we can test the theory by applying it to all other elements of the periodic table and as many molecules as we can to see if the predictions work across the board. So far there is no evidence that the rule has exceptions. It can predict how all atoms and molecules, their electron clouds and molecular bonds interact with photons and how the wavelength of the photon is important, and the probabilities and energy quantities involved.

    • acotrel says:

      07:32am | 05/03/13

      The reason that we appear to be less emotionally stable these days, is that most of us are delusional.
        “The system runs on bullshit, and bullshit baffles brains’. - except when the bullshit is assessed by someone with a cold unemotional scfientific brain. It would be interesting to expose Abbott’s crap to assessment by a mob of scientists at a conference .

      Reply

    • nihonin says:

      08:20am | 05/03/13

      ’ “The system runs on bullshit, and bullshit baffles brains’. - except when the bullshit is assessed by someone with a cold unemotional scfientific brain.’

      Is the Punch’s self proclaimed scientist doing a self analysis?  wink

    • marley says:

      08:25am | 05/03/13

      It would be even more interesting to expose your musings to a mob of scientists at a conference.  Fact free zones R us.

    • acotrel says:

      08:55am | 05/03/13

      @nihonin
      Some people believe their own bullshit. Abbott is not one of them - he knows he is telling lies.

    • gof says:

      09:19am | 05/03/13

      #acotrel,
      “It would be interesting to expose Abbott’s crap to assessment by a mob of scientists at a conference .”
      It would be a quick test, they would hook him up to an EEG and the thing would flatline! Test over.

    • Stephen T says:

      09:49am | 05/03/13

      @acotrel: As opposed to a politician that you invariable support on bended knee who displays all the symptoms of histrionic personality and narcissistic personality disorder.  A politician who invariably exaggerates things in an effort to one-up her opponents and when confronted with her falsehood would rather argue and bring out the sharp knives than admit that there’s anything wrong with them.  The barely suppressed anger when her lies are questioned, the distraction techniques and word games are all classical symptoms of mythomaniacs.

    • lostinperth says:

      10:09am | 05/03/13

      acotrel never fails to disappoint.

      Its all Abbott’s fault - the computer, the Renaissance, why children are overweight, global warming, the price of real estate, why people in all western countries are less emotionally stable - everything is Abbott’s fault.
      I only have tolook at your posts to find evidence of Crabtree’s theory of diminishing intelligence.

    • Joan Bennett says:

      08:39am | 05/03/13

      Could it be because life is so easy now, we don’t have to exercise our brains to solve that many problems anymore?  Use it or lose it, perhaps?

      Reply

    • A Dose of Reality says:

      08:46am | 05/03/13

      The crux of the original article seems to have been lost here.

      It basically re-iterates the old saying “we stand on the shoulders of giants” and applies it to society in general.

      There is no doubt that we as a society have a greater store of knowledge than our ancestors.  However that simply means that instead of solving a problem - all we need to do is search out=r collective store of such knowledge for teh answer.

      This promotes research rather than problem solving.

      For example - could today’s architects, engineers and tradesmen construct a building without blueprints?  Not just a square ‘box’ but something with mathematical symmetry and of beauty?

      The answer is, naturally, of course not.  Yet the builders of the parthenon did.  Without our store technology.  Because their training centered on the ability to THINK.  Our systems teach the ability to research (basically to copy).

      University courses today are predominately vocationally based - they are ‘useful’ because they are ‘related to’ or ‘lead to’ a ‘profession’.

      The pure educational aspect of higher education (think the BA in Arts) is now more and more derided (as ‘business’ thinks it a ;waste’).  As a result, spin is dumber and dumber - yet the population still sucks it in and believes it!

      An educated person from the victorian era would be amazed at how we are so blind - I’m sure.  (Then again, they used to build steam engines without plans - just a knowledge of the physical principles).

      Reply

    • Brian says:

      09:40am | 05/03/13

      I would say that you’ve made an error there. There are indeed some of today’s architects who could make such a building, although many could not. This is no different to the Ancients (who typically did make designs similar to blueprints before building things) - most of their buildings are boring and functional (as with today), with a few temples, circuses and so on showing up as the work of the top architects.

    • Fotis says:

      09:24am | 05/03/13

      Fetta and Goats really! Democracy, astronomy, cynicism, nihilism, medicine, economics, literature, history, and every other bloody thing you manipulate to come up with ‘funny’ quips and you end up aligning Greeks to ‘goats and fetta’! Clearly she’s right in your case.
      Idiocy reigns supreme it seems among the barbarians!

      Reply

    • Frank Frank says:

      02:16pm | 05/03/13

      Err, I think the article’s actually saying that they did get the economics right.

    • Achmed says:

      09:47am | 05/03/13

      We use technology to replace people then complain about the unemployment, lack of service etc…..

      Reply

    • Tubesteak says:

      10:05am | 05/03/13

      Has no-one mentioned Idiocracy, yet? That is where we’re headed despite the protestations of a cracked.com article trying to state that our average IQ remains roughly the same.

      Life will be perfect when robots do everything for us. We won’t need to work. We can sit around doing whatever we like. There will be no need for money because the entire supply chain will be managed and controlled by robots who will be our servants.

      At this stage though we do, thankfully, measure everything by its financial worth. This is a measure of its contribution to the bottom line. If it’s not making a contribution then it’s not mcuh worth.

      Blame the lack of supply and our need to live close to work for the high cost of housing. Housing will only devalue once supply is increased (local councils and residents stop whining about high-rise buildings) or we develop a better train system that runs all over the city and I can get from Penrith to the CBD in less than 30 minutes. I won’t be forced to live near the city. Also blame the tax system that taxes people again and again. If I save some of my after-tax income and put it into a savings acocunt I shouldn’t have to pay tax on the interest it earns. Don’t blame negative gearing. If you remove negative gearing I’ll raise the rent I charge on my invesmtnet properties to cover the outgoings. In a market of <2% vacancy rate you won’t have a chance to move anywhere else and you’ll only find their rent has increased too.

      BTW It wasn’t bankers that caused the GFC. It was the US government fuelling a property bubble by creating their own lending institutions and an environment where reckless loans were par for course. The government did this over successive regimes to placate the indolent lazy selfsih people who wanted the “American dream”. Take a look at a speech delivered by Dubya in 2002 where he basically stated this.

      Reply

    • SAm says:

      11:45am | 05/03/13

      Id love to live in that world Steak, but knowing humanity, someone will want more than the bloke next to him, and somehow claim they are ‘entitled’ to more because they have more robots, or something, and then all our robots will have robotic rebellions for us and robot-fight each other, all the while our fat arses sit back and complain no-one has handed us another big mac

    • Sam says:

      10:51am | 05/03/13

      A recent report from Stanford University claims that human beings are less ... emotionally stable than their cave-dwelling forebears”

      Social media is dragging us down into a cesspit.

      Reply

    • the phantom says:

      11:05am | 05/03/13

      lostinperth says:10:09am | 05/03/13
      Its all Abbott’s fault @
      Nailed it in one Good work———————it is all the Mad Monks fault!!
      What is most scary about this person is that he can’t get through a sentence without twisting things or outright lieing. It’s like he is contantly spinning everything to try to manipulate people’s perception. he’d lies about things it makes no sense to lie about.
      When he speaks without thinking, he says what he thinks.
      Seriously the MAD mONK should plead contemporary insanity.
      Fair dinkum Abbott has delusions of adequacy.

      Reply

    • Jaqui says:

      02:31pm | 05/03/13

      You mad bro? Because it seems to me you are bro. Whats the matter?

    • Mad Man says:

      11:05am | 05/03/13

      Me less smart…!?

      That’s unpossible…

      Reply

    • AJ in Perth oops, meant to say Athens ... Athens 1 says:

      04:25pm | 05/03/13

      It’s “impassible” ...

    • Scotchfinger says:

      05:04pm | 05/03/13

      actually it’s IMpossible.

    • the phantom says:

      11:19am | 05/03/13

      According to a new DNA study, most humans have a little Neanderthal in them—at least 1 to 4 percent of a person’s genetic makeup.
      In the Mad Monks case it is more like 75%

      Reply

    • LC says:

      11:30am | 05/03/13

      “We didn’t put the bankers who caused the GFC in prison.”

      How is it fair to put people following a law that mandated sub-prime loans into prison? They’d end up fined, closed down or imprisoned if they didn’t, you know.

      Put the blame at the heels of those who enacted the laws, where it belongs.

      Reply

    • Richard says:

      11:33am | 05/03/13

      Acotrel’s answer to Life, the Universe and everything. “The system runs on bullshit.” Not exactly scientific for a person of Acotrels proclaimed experience.

      Reply

    • du says:

      11:40am | 05/03/13

      This is wrong. we were always dingbats,parasites on mater earth

      Reply

    • GammaGlobulin says:

      01:37pm | 05/03/13

      “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for
      authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place
      of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their
      households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They
      contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties
      at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.” This is a quote by Socrates or Plato or some other ancient philosopher dude. The point is that Crabtree is not saying anything that has not been said before over the last few thousand years. In fact she makes the annoying misstake of assuming all Athenians were Socrates, rather than being the vast majority who condemned him to death because it was better blaming the old weirdo for their defeat at the hands of the Spartans than facing a reality that would be critical of them collectively.

      Reply

    • the phantom says:

      03:54pm | 05/03/13

      aqui says:
      02:31pm | 05/03/13
      You mad bro? Because it seems to me you are bro. Whats the matter? @@

      mad as cut snake just like yuor beloved leader Pastor Abboat.
      hah hah hah

      Reply

    • Tanya says:

      04:26pm | 05/03/13

      Not sure if this is anything to do with the theory but I witnessed a phenomenon on the train this morning.Two horizontal bench seats that spanned half a carriage were taken up with students sitting in a rows, interacting incessantly with i-phones and other networking devices. An alarming number of them were bug eyed and slack jawed. They are the next generation of academics.

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      06:28pm | 05/03/13

      That list of 10 are symptoms of, I think, Globalization, and, specifically, how we get so much information every day about matters that should not, and do not, affect us, and as a consequence, we have to think largely of things out of our control : such an act devoids us of a responsibility that we know we cannot resolve ; we lose good social skills, then, because if we keep them, then we become instruments in our own demise.

      Happy birthday doomsday.

      Reply
 
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