While researching problem solving
The second class, the vast majority of Americans, are people who cannot think for themselves. I call these people “idea consumers” — metaphorically speaking, they wander around in a gigantic open-air mall of facts and ideas. The content of their experience is provided by television, the Internet and other shallow data pools. These people believe collecting images and facts makes them educated and competent, and all their experiences reinforce this belief. The central, organizing principle of this class is that ideas come from somewhere else, from magical persons, geniuses, “them.”
Aren’t we all at least part-time members of this Second Class? I know I am guilty, and as much as it stings to admit it, I think I’d blush harder if I tried to absolve myself of such. In fact, what happened to the cynical conclusion that originality is dead, that it is impossible to have a purely original thought? I think that those magical persons described above are simply the ones who combine or rehash the most esoteric material. Perhaps geniuses are simply those who excel at recalling ideas that have briefly slipped away from the collective consciousness.
ps: Of course, yesand is first to admit it, but what are most tumblogs beyond blatant collections of external images and facts?
