[Reflection] #15: Idiocracy, an inevitable future?

During my stay in France, I met several “bobos” and was stunned to see how political correctness had managed to completely brainwash them. I no longer recognize my friends, I no longer share their values. I don’t know why egalitarianism no longer bothered them, even though they now have children. I met a teenager, a genius, one of the smartest I’ve ever met, but his bobo dad (he self-identifies as one) gave a speech against elitism and claimed that the grandes écoles were no better than regular universities.

With others, I cited a Japanese book that claimed everything was decided before age 3 (“Everything Happens Before Kindergarten” – by Masaru Ibuka), that children are born with nearly the same abilities but it’s the environment between ages 0 and 3 that differentiates them.

Research in neuroscience shows that it’s during the first 3 years of life that a child creates the most synapses. These are crucial: they allow neurons to connect and exchange information. “A child is born with a brain containing roughly the same number of neurons as an adult, that is, 80 to 90 billion. But during the first 2 to 3 years, synapses form at a furious pace.“, enthuses Jérôme Prado, researcher at the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL).

The more synapses you have, the smarter you are. If this period is wasted because we don’t stimulate children enough, they’ll take much longer later to develop the same abilities (or they never will). Hence the importance of not exposing them to screens before age 6. I was told that was too guilt-inducing for parents.

I left these dinners feeling like an alien. If even bobos no longer want the best for their children, and want to abolish elitism, what exactly is happening in France right now? While TikTok feeds us stupid videos, millions of Chinese are mass-enrolling in evening classes to face the crisis (link).

It was during a bookbinding workshop in France that I encountered the leveling down for the first time in my life, I’ve already told you about it.

When I was 6, I joined the Hanoi Conservatory after a series of aptitude tests. I didn’t know it, but only by comparing the practice time I did at home vs. others did my parents realize I was extremely gifted. So, my teacher, to push me to practice more, wanted to show me I wasn’t better than others by sending me to a national competition. Worst part: I won several rounds.. and only failed at the national level, where I was too distracted, not talented enough, and ended up with a 3rd national prize. It was the first wake-up call of my life. Luckily I got it early, and afterward I understood the value of hard work, and that innate talent wasn’t enough.

When I was in that elite high school, there were other classmates, too used to being first in their class. From the first assignment, they got a shock: they scored 6 out of 20! Those students who never had to put in much effort to keep up and get good grades all their lives had to quickly wake up and catch up, and by the end of the year, they managed to get 12. But a 12 in that school equals a 19 elsewhere. All this to say: you might be the best in your school, but until you meet people better than you, nothing will push you to go further. I think we need an ever-higher bar to push ourselves to go further, higher. The exact opposite of dumbing down!!!!

In the movie “Idiocracy,” an average American wakes up 500 years after a hibernation experiment and discovers he’s the smartest man on the planet. In 500 years, the world has changed: since the smartest have fewer kids, and the less smart have 10, the average IQ is alarming. Umberto Eco also mentions a short story where a man is projected into the future and immediately recruited by the secret service because he’s the only one left who knows the multiplication table by heart 😀 these examples are funny but they seem prophetic.

I read a book I really liked: “The Tyranny of Entertainment” (Fnac link, Amazon link) by Olivier Babeau, which gave me quite a few insights. We can still save the zoombie generation by teaching them to use their free time better.

When I told people about my plan to be FIRE (financially independent, retire early), they thought I’d do nothing for the rest of my life and get bored. Because they themselves don’t know what to do with their free time, even just over a weekend. There are 3 ways to use your free time, and we probably don’t have the same distribution:

1. turning toward others, for example going out for a drink, going to the movies with a friend, joining an association…
2. turning toward oneself, the skholè, very studious, its goal is personal growth, like acquiring new knowledge, reading a serious book, going to the museum, watching an interesting documentary, doing some leatherworking… It’s based on deferring pleasure
3. self-forgetting, pure entertainment that gives instant satisfaction but its effect doesn’t last (scrolling on TikTok, Facebook aimlessly…)

And people are increasingly abandoning number 2 to do mostly number 3 (and a bit of number 1).

While, according to the author, in order to adapt to our environment that changes at the speed of light, to be more competitive in the job market, to have more skills, we must continue number 2! Inequalities are based on how we use our free time. Those who know how to use their free time wisely (ideally a combination of the three) will come out on top. Those who spend all their free time on entertainment will become less and less competitive at work.

But to limit number 3, we need the ability to resist ourselves. It’s easier to scroll through TikTok for hours than to read 1000 pages on the I Ching. Instead of dopamine, we should aim for serotonin, which lasts longer. We’re taught to live in the present moment, but we also need to know how to plan and aim for the long term. For example: with rising inflation, why is your money still in a checking account? You’re losing purchasing power every year! With xxx jobs that won’t exist in 10 years, why haven’t you already started learning a new skill? To reduce entertainment, we can, for instance, set a screen time limit per app, reduce notifications (you can set that up on your phone), or use a distraction-free device like reMarkable (it doesn’t even have a clock on it!) to read more…

The world is constantly moving, and trust me, in Asia it moves at the speed of light. China and Taiwan impose restrictions that would be impossible to implement in France (banning under-18s from playing video games for more than 3 hours a week, calling for reduced consumption of luxury goods), but they’re saving their teens, their brains, and the Chinese workforce for the future.

More balanced leisure activities would make society both more prosperous and happier.(…) Better use of free time means being more creative, having a more fulfilling social and mental life and giving more to society than just consuming entertainment. The liberal market economy based on free enterprise and the right to own the fruits of one’s labor would benefit greatly from a more limited role for entertainment. Countries will be all the more powerful if they have a population that is cognitively sharpened and motivated.

The Tyranny of Entertainment by Olivier Babeau

For more info, you can read the last part of my other article here.