Page 14 - 03-May-2024

ED.
14 EDify. MAY.24
DARE NOT TO BE STUPID
In this issue, you’re going to read about a lot of innovative ideas that were born in Edmonton, but may soon be commonplace technologies around the world. As some- one who does not have a scientific mind, it’s mysterious and inspiring at the same time. It’s like being a fan of Prince’s wailing solo that opens “When Doves Cry,” even though you don’t know how to properly hold a guitar, let alone play one.
Now that I have successfully planted that song in your head, I’d like to discuss another innovative idea. Actually, not so much an innovation, but a rediscovery.
As an editor, author and parent, I am aghast at how little we’re all reading.
Earlier this year, officials from EPCOR met with City Council to review the action plan surrounding the ban on non-essential water use from late January. The E.L. Smith facility’s pumps failed, so the utility went to the media and took to social media in order to let the public know to cut back on laundry, dishwashing and long hot baths.
EPCOR’s bigwigs noted that people 35 and under weren’t getting the message. So, they wondered out loud: If there are emergencies in the future, how will we in- form residents who don’t read, don’t listen to radio, don’t follow news programs?
Instead of sweating over how to reach people who can’t bother to stay informed, maybe we should instead be telling people that it should be a civic duty to know what’s going on in the world.
As an author, I hear it from publishers. Young people aren’t reading. Especially boys. And I’m stunned when my son shows me his supposedly high-school English homework — where he’s asked to write a paragraph or two about a photograph.
We aren’t just forgiving mass stupidity in our world, we’re nurturing it.
At some point, those of us who literally give a shit about our city, our province and our country are going to have to shrug our shoulders and say we can’t babysit those who can’t bother to be informed.
We live in an era where being uninformed is celebrated. It’s almost too Kafka-esque for Kafka. While Donald Trump is a major symptom, the infection started a couple of decades ago, when populist premiers like Ralph Klein were celebrated for being the kinds of people you could talk to over a beer. George W. Bush may have been the son of a president, but he fooled us into thinking he was just a Texas cowpoke.
As comedian Ronny Chieng pointed out, we live in the era of “people who peaked in high school.” It used to be a natural order of selection: Dumb jocks were popular until about the final days of high school, when most clued in that the most embarrassing thing to be... was stupid.
Now, people who spend their lives dedicated to research, art and community service are forced to defend their practic- es from social media hordes who actually brag about the fact that they’re not edu- cated. They’re sold on the idea that being educated means that you’re plugged into some sort of agenda — even though we’ve seen how easily the uneducated are pulled into following agendas.
It’s absolute madness. And it has to stop. The thing is, I know the people who pick up this magazine are the ones who want to be informed. You want to know what makes Edmonton tick.
But, things are going to have to change. Because, if anything scares me about my kids’ future, it’s the rise of the stupid.
Steven Sandor
Editor-in-Chief
PHOTOGRAPHY BY RYAN PARKER