Of Memes and Morons
In today's modern world have you ever wondered what it means to be an “adult”? Is it getting a degree or getting married? (Although now the divorce rate in the modern world is more than half.) Is having a steady income that you can rely on considered adult status? If you ask me I think it’s about civility and emotional mastery because no matter what situation you find yourself in no one can take that away from you. Unfortunately in our society, civility and emotional mastery are a dying breed. People may be adults in a sense that they have a job, a mortgage, and children, but even the richest of the rich have the emotional mastery and civility of a toddler. That to me is very sad and truly pathetic. I think most of this comes from a meme culture that favors instant gratification and soundbites which destroys the critical thinking abilities of the ones who are infected with this culture.
Learning Something Useful
The amazing thing about this behavior is that it’s so looked down upon and taboo when it comes to family and school. Hopefully, most self-respecting parents don’t want their child to make assumptions and jump to conclusions. When a kid doesn’t have it his or her way the parents make it a point to teach them that the world doesn’t revolve around them and that if they act like the world should just go from their opinions then they have a lot to learn. The schools also try to imbue students (one of the things they actually do right) with a sense of getting an assignment (i.e. jobs in the schooling world) finished. So for all the things critical I said about the education system this is one of the things that it does right. If you don’t finish the assignment you most likely won't get a good grade and even if you do the assignment and you finish it, it has to be good quality work.
Society Rickrolls Itself
So where do memes and meme culture fit into all of this? A meme is a silly picture on the internet with one caption above and one caption below it and is used to sarcastically write off the other side of an argument. I admit I like some memes; I think they’re funny and some of them even make sense. However, I know that a debate is dynamic, nuanced and requires intellectual rigor, not intellectual laziness. Unfortunately, in today’s day and age, this intellectual rigor is dying because the greater culture of the modern world promotes instant access and gratification while anything less than that is looked down upon and unjustly ignored.
A Toxic Cesspool of Ignorance
The political and social landscape in the modern world has been ravaged by ignorance and an inability to listen and understand the other side of the spectrum. It has devolved into memes and jumping to conclusions. The person on the opposite side thinks that the other person should just be shamed, yelled at and bullied into believing his or her side, which of course just ends up strengthening that person’s beliefs. Thus, in a vicious cycle, modern society devolves deeper into echo chambers and these echo chambers become a giant, toxic circle jerk of people with the same exact opinions reinforcing their own opinions (preaching to their own choirs) and then demonizing the other side of the debate to the point where they literally call the other side demons.
Getting Society Back on Track
A civil society simply can’t continue on like this. I think it’s time to bring back a sense that we need to get our homework done and do our due diligence. It really is ironic that when I reach out to people who are older than me with my ideas and my works some tell me that I have to comply with this stupid meme culture. It is disappointing because it is the epitome of hypocrisy to me that I spent so much time in the education system that if I acted like the meme culture wanted me to act I would’ve probably failed all of my classes. If I reduced my school and my job into a meme culture where I didn’t put any rigor and critical thinking into my work I would’ve been looked like upon as if I was an unintelligent and unreliable good for nothing. Then on the other side when it comes to a situation that is not school/job-related where your credentials and your money aren’t under any threat (but, your peace of mind and emotional mastery is) people give themselves carte-blanche to act like the biggest, rudest, and most uncivilized people ever, and from time to time they get away with it. I think it’s long overdue that we teach emotional mastery and civility in schools to fight against this meme culture that’s been poisoning our psyche and our national conversation. If our national conversation were a punch bowl, people who jump to conclusions and make assumptions are the ones who are constantly peeing and pooping in that bowl. TIME TO STOP THAT!