On 4/14/2011 4:47 AM, Invisible wrote:
> On 14/04/2011 10:13, Patrick Elliott wrote:
>> On 4/14/2011 1:40 AM, Invisible wrote:
>>> When I read stuff like this, I find myself wondering: Are all American
>>> people actually stupid? Or is it merely a very vocal minority?
>>>
>> A very vocal and "powerful" minority
>
> I see.
>
>> Romans used to handle the situations: Make
>> sure your supporters are too ignorant to realize what is going on, then
>> distract them, as much as possible, with non-existent threats, and
>> pointless entertainments.
>>
>> There is hardly any point in being smart, if you are ignorant, your
>> history is handed to you by the very people that want to keep you that
>> way, and they know your fears, since they created many of them
>
> Sounds like America is the least-free country in the free world. o_O
>
Well. This trend is always with us, but it has only really become a 
serious problem in the last few generations. The drive to find your own 
path has been lost in many people, replaced with ennui, belief in 
inevitable failure, and laziness. It doesn't help that rejection of 
these things would require rejecting whole swaths of fictional history, 
religious dogma, and political partisanship, which have become a heavy 
part of some people's identities.

> Consider the following conversation:
>
> "So what do all these scripts do then?"
> "This script reads some data from the database and builds this script
> from it. It then runs this script, which does the real work of backing
> up the database."
> "OK. So... this script creates that one?"
> "Yes."
> "Right. So you mean, like, if I were to just completely delete this
> script, that script would recreate it next time you run it?"
> "Yes."
> "Hmm, OK. So why do you need that script then if this one gets created
> automatically?"
> "Because that script is the one that creates it."
> "Right, I see. So I could literally delete this right now and that
> script would recreate it?"
> "Yes."
> "OK, got it. So why don't you just rerun this script each time? Why do
> you have to recreate it?"
> "Because the structure of the database could change, but mainly because
> it copies the files into a folder with today's date on it."
> "Right, cool. So, do you really need to have two scripts?"
> [Repeat this exact conversation 6 or 7 times before the guy finally
> gives up trying to understand and asks me about something else.]
>
> Now if this was some random dude on the street, that would be fine. But
> it wasn't. It was the Senier Director of IT for the entire corporation.
> In other words, the guy in charge of all our IT.
>
> The fact that the Director of IT himself considers it necessary to
> personally understand how a minor piece of scripting works is either
>
> - taking an interest in employee talents
> - a reflection of the small size of our IT department
> - micromanagement / empire-building
>
> depending on your point of view. But the complete inability of the man
> to comprehend a VERY SIMPLE CONCEPT even after having me explain it six
> different ways cannot be regarded as a good thing from any perspective.
>
> The other Americans I've worked with have all been similarly dense.
> Perhaps this is a reflection not of America, but of upper management. :-P

That would be the laziness and "partisanship" showing. One of the Faux 
elite, who imagine they need know nothing, understand nothing, and do 
nothing, except make sure other people know, and do things. The logic 
is, "Why should I have to know that, as long as someone else does, and 
it works?"

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