Knowledge vs Opinion

I was driving my son to school this morning, and had the radio on the local NPR station. Yes, I listen to NPR. Get over it. Anyhow, the leading news story was that fashion designer Lily Pulitzer Rousseau died recently. Sad, yes, especially for her family, but not overly interesting to me. For those who do not recognize the name, she is famous for designing bright, colorful clothing with floral prints, paisley, stripes, and such. Not my taste, but apparently she was able to turn a side hobby into a booming career. Good on her. We were half listening to the interviews when the story ended with, “Also, former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher passed away on Monday.”

I was surprised. Not about Ms. Thatcher dying, although that is sad. What irritated me is the leading story was not about a prominent, albeit former, world political figure dying but instead about a fashion designer. Now, to be fair, NPR did follow through with a story about Thatcher’s life in politics. Still, placing such an iconic, influential person after a fashion designer only emphasized something my son had said the night before: Our society values opinions more than knowledge.

I will veer from my normal rants and not talk politics as such. Instead, I have to comment on how our society has fallen from the bright future of knowledge we once foresaw to the obsession we now have with image. Going through the line in the grocery store, we are bombarded with information about celebrities and their antics, as well as stories on how to improve our image and make people think better about us. We can find articles on make-up, hair, clothing, diets, and a plethora of ways to make ourselves appear better to others. We have become a vain society.

When did we go from revering Einstein and other scholars to revering Kardashians and other rich, spoiled, talentless people? Why have we become so obsessed with image rather than knowledge? Part of it, I believe, is because of the decline in education. Over the past few decades there has been a push to let children through school regardless of grades. Anyone familiar with “No Child Left Behind”? Unfortunately, this allowed some children to graduate high school with little ability to read comprehensively. I realize it also enabled some with learning disabilities to progress more than they would have otherwise, and that is good. However, many schools are not equipped to work with learning disabilities and so just ignore them. The curriculum has been downgraded to make things easier for children, while more emphasis has been placed on participation in athletics. Latin used to be taught in high schools. Now many high school students can barely speak English as a first language. Rather than push children to expand their minds, we have allowed them to grow stagnant in order to not make them feel bad for not knowing their multiplication tables.

As these children grow physically, their mental abilities are not focused or encouraged enough. More emphasis is placed on physical appearance and ability. The star athlete, the head cheerleader, these are the school heroes rather than the head of the honor roll. Once out of school, this emphasis continues in the working world. Dress right and you get promoted. Wear your hair a certain way to attract a man. Everything is about appearance and making others like you more. No more does the intelligent child become the prominent employee. Now the favored ones are the well dressed, well-manicured, pretty people who use more body than brain to get ahead. Is it any wonder, then, that we have become a society so enamored with opinion rather than knowledge? Is it any wonder, then, that a news report about a fashion designer would take precedence over a news report about a political figure?