I came across something on Twitter (yes, I follow people … even Adam Sessler… on Twitter /shame) that I felt the need to comment on. During his speech at Hampton University, President Obama made generalization out of admitted ignorance about video games and associated hardware. I’m extremely defensive when it comes to video games; That’s not a shocker to anymore, I’m sure.
Here’s the remark:
“With iPods and iPads; Xboxes and PlayStations — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation,” Obama said. “All of this is not only putting new pressures on you. It is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy,” he added. [Source]
There are several points to address here. The first is that video games are a distraction. Yes, that is correct. They are indeed a distraction. Yet, at the same time, they’re so much more that if you simply dismiss them as a distraction then you are leaving out the plethora of additional qualities that individuals find within them. Not to get too sappy, but games have helped me during hard times in my life to escape. They’ve also provided me with a cheap form of entertainment during economically tough times in the past. Games were a safe alternative to other activities which would have been frowned upon by the standards with which my parents raised me.
In President Obama’s statement, I read it that he feels information loses something in translation when it comes to these pieces of hardware or games. Anyone remember one of the main reasons Obama got elected? He had one of the better campaigns that utilized technology. That very technology allowed information to not only propagate quicker but to reach entirely new audiences that would have otherwise neglected the drab that is American politics. It seems just a little bit ironic that he now bemoans it, when once he relied so heavily upon it.
Additionally, I question whether or not the statement has any credibility at all since my personal experiences have been just the opposite. I credit playing Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games (the oldschool ones) for giving me the vocabulary and understanding of the writing process that I have today. My ability to reason, problem solve, as well as my ability to work with others and cope with different types of people would be infinitesimal compared to what they are now if not for gaming.  More than the vast majority of America, I find myself using the things he mentioned in his speech. I have a 4.0 college GPA, I’ve been accepted to one of the top schools in the nation, I have a life, and I consider myself to be very accomplished and well on my way to the future that I want; but I don’t expect Obama to get any of that because he admits right up front that he doesn’t even understand how these things work.
I’m not quite sure how the evolution of our Country towards a direction that takes us economically and technologically further is bad for democracy or the country, nor how people choosing their own form of entertainment in a country where decisions are left up to the individual as a most basic right is a bad thing. Yeah, Obama is a politician and what he says here does make sense on some level. Unfortunately, it’s the generalizations and the misunderstandings that lead to further ignorance that drive people towards passing judgment on video games. Even if it’s reading into it way too far, I think we’re quickly approaching a crossroads where video games and their technological kin will either be shunned or finally accepted by the elder generation.
Of all the Presidential elections, President Obama’s was the one fueled by social media and technology the most. I remember seeing all the headlines about elections and the role of technology and the internet being the future.. He really is biting the hand that feeds him on this one.
I keep starting to type things and then realize how utterly stupid it would be for me to write anything remotely concerning politics on a video game blog comments page.
Bad word choice to defend how gaming helped your writing ability. =)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/infinitesimally
@Michael Werts: So I misspoke. I love how people can’t come up with ANYTHING else but to make one argument about something else. Well done.
I dont know, maybe im just older than you, or the fact that im married and got a kid changed my views, but i would tend to agree with Obama.
Im sure i got something useful from those past 15yrs of MMOs, but im pretty sure i could have done something more useful with those thousands of hours spent in a virtual world. Then again, i could have watched TV mindlessly and have no interaction whatsoever with anyone of any puzzle solving.
I could have cured cancer !
But anyways, its all here to stay.
On a positive note, i basically learned english because of MMOs. And reading blogs like yours helps even more.
~Higgs
my computer is 15 pounds of pure Soviet Iron! Take that democracy!
@Higgs: So you agree and disagree then.
“I basically learned English because of MMOs”
Wouldn’t that mean you found them to be more than a distraction? Admittedly, they are a distraction. Let there be no mistaking the fact that games are, for the vast majority of them, a form of entertainment or a hobby. It’s like watching a movie or surfing. I think all of us who have a bit of common sense have, in hindsight, seen that we do get extremely wrapped up in this hobby and often overindulge, but at the same time we can see what and recognize that.
All this singling out of video games and technology is unfair and misdirected. What the people who speak out against it should be doing is directing all of their attention towards -all- recreational activities so that they at least make sense while looking silly. Then again, most of them are politicians and haters are going to hate anyway.
Just wanted to say grats on the GPA. 🙂
That’s quite an accomplishment and becomes even moreso the longer it’s maintained. Nice work, man.
@Mike Werts: just because he made a poor word choice does not mean that his writing *ability* is flawed. It is possible for one to have impeccable command of grammar and sentence structure, but to make poor word choices at the same time.
As far as Obama’s comments: I would disagree with you when you say that he’s ‘biting the hand that feeds him.’ While yes, he did make innovative use of technology in his campaign – it was mostly done through social networking. While yes, gamers do make use of social networking technology, not all social networkers play what I would classify as video games (I exclude garbage like FarmVille from my definition from a personal desire to pretend they don’t exist). So he may be alienating gamers, he isn’t alienating the entirety of the internet. What I take away from his comments are that:
1 – He is uninformed about video games, online games especially, and could use a bit of an education in that regard. This is an opportunity for him to learn something that he admits to not-knowing.
2 – He’s speaking mostly about the potential to distract people and keep them occupied, politically speaking. In Roman times the average joe was occupied by bloodbaths and colosseum games. Similarly, today people are occupied by celebrity news, movies, the media in general, and… yes, video games.
I see you as interpreting what Obama said as (and sorry if I’m over-generalizing), “video games are (or can be) a bad thing.” I would disagree with the interpretation. He seems, to me, to be more warning of the distracting/overwhelming qualities in modern technology and the way we rapidly consume information that may inhibit one’s ability to absorb information and issues that are relevant to the present day. Thus allowing politicians etc. to trample on our rights because we were too busy playing WoW or Madden, God of War, or Final Fantasy to stop and pay attention, vote, or even care.
That’s just my two cents.
Overly defensive, I’d say. That Obama quote doesn’t even read as particularly critical of video games to me. The fact that he leads with iPods and iPads and refers to “information” suggests to me that he’s addressing the concerns of socially liberal politicians all over the world, namely the disturbing lack of social responsibility within large parts of the societies they govern.
As for him not using these devices, most politicians ( indeed most of the social elite in general) don’ t even watch tv. These are driven individuals, who handle the levers of the physical world. They don’t need to play games on screens.
Let’s forget for a moment that Obama didn’t actually single out video games as the source of distraction, and instead lumped them in with iPods and iPads by way of XBox and PlayStation. Let’s forget that the quote most likely appealed to popular culture by mentioning well-known examples of recent technology used primarily for entertainment. Let’s forget that the “XBox and PlayStation” section of the quote fits nicely into the rhetorical devices Obama uses when making speeches. And let’s forget that his admission of not understanding the technology was an attempt at self-deprecating humor.
Look at it from this perspective.
I browse the latest entry in your blog concerning a quote from a speech given by Obama three days ago. Your post contains the single, out-of-context quote from his speech surrounded by opinion and analysis roughly one third the length of his speech. You source this quote from TheFeed on G4, a gaming blog itself, which also has the same out-of-context quote surrounded by a couple paragraphs of opinion and analysis. Not to mention you linked to the comments section of that blog entry as your source. I won’t pretend to know where the G4 blogger picked up on the Obama quote, but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he watched the speech or read a transcript.
By the time the single Obama quote reached me, at the very least it had been translated from his actual speech to YouTube to a G4 blogger to Twitter to your blog. Not to mention the colorful opinion providing a new context to the quote supplied by two gamers, and a horde of anonymous gaming blog commenters.
Now, being an educated person, I decided to find the speech transcript and skim over it in an attempt to put some proper context around this quote. Drawing from my experience with people “quoting” other people on the internet, that seemed prudent.
The speech’s main theme was education, a decidedly appropriate topic for commencement. In it, one of the things to which he calls attention is the consequence of the ubiquity of media and the devices by which it is propagated. Because we have such rapidly advancing technologies such as iPods, iPads, XBoxes, and PlayStations, we are exposed to a great deal of information.
Music and podcasts. Email and blogs. Tweets and text messages. Games and movies.
And he’s right. With so much information — a great deal of which is mixed with entertainment — it’s hard to sift through it all. It’s difficult to know what is credible without being distracted by all of the other information flooding in. That’s where education comes in. To quote President Obama:
“Fortunately, you will be well positioned to navigate this terrain. Your education has honed your research abilities, sharpened your analytical powers, given you a context for understanding the world. Those skills will come in handy.”
It’s funny. According to him, my education prepared me to find a way through the distraction and dubious opinion that are too often promoted as truth. Like this blog entry for example. Maybe video games aren’t a reliable educational tool for learning to reason and problem solve.
In a world full of distractions videogames are not one of the worst.
If I understood Obama right he is worried that information is becoming entertainment.
Politicians throw mud at each other because its more entertaining than thier informational politics.
It is the new world where media has power because they can shift the opinion of the public. So yeah we will need those skills that Obama talk about.
I see nothing there that bashes videogames. I would agree with Obama that modern technology seems to be focusing more and more on diversion and consuming content. Having a laptop in class seems to be detrimental to education rather than beneficial.
The iphone and ipad does not even allow us to program it in a lnaguage other than Apple’s own, a far cry from the early PCs or other computers.
Keen for President I say!
Cities have to enact legislation and put up billboards to plead with people to keep there faces out of there phones while driving and you can’t see the truth in the word ‘distraction’?
As soon as i read “adam sessler” i stopped reading.
Sorry, i truly am sorry but i hate that man, and the bitch he works with, or even more that asshole who does the MMO report who thinks hes funny but is not in the slightest way
@ Proze: /win.
It is quite simple. The ABC media are Obama’s cheerleaders.. blogs, online news etc are far more varied. Obama is mad about that :p Pretense of unbiased reporting is just that pretense, unless one samples from most opposing sources you won’t be able to form an educated opinion. That is not what politician’s want.. they want to drive the news and spoon feed you the bullshit they sell.
Lot’s of the neophyte first time voters bought that snake oil Obama was selling, welcome to the real world kids haha
In my many years on this earth the one thing I have learned about politics is this;
Any time a public figure says something is bad for democracy, they (the public figure) probably are.
You know how when a troll (not calling you a troll Keen 🙂 just making a point) makes a post and the best thing to do is to not respond? Yet it is out there in the ether and getting other, sadly unsurprising, tangential responses…so you fight the urge but can’t resist but to respond as well?
Your only hope is it drops off the first forum page into oblivion quickly and quietly?
This is one of those times.
Yeah, I agree with smithin and Genda. I think gamers should be more concerned about his comments in general thant he specific part where he mentioned Xbox and Playstation.
What he is essentially saying is that it is bad that we have things like the Internet to get information. He thinks that our ability to get information quickly and from countless sources is bad. He thinks that we should only have a few sources of information, one being the government.
It is actually very telling and scary for a U.S. President to be bashing on the freedom of information this country enjoys. They are the kind of comments I’d expect to hear from a leader in the Soviet Union, Cuba, or China… not in the U.S.
Gamers need to wake up, there is more at stake than your Xbox or Playstation.
Well, wow. This is just a very foolish statement. The interesting thing is that he is really just stating an opinion base on no fact or any personal investigation.
Also he wants to blame the medium and those devices that access the medium (“iPods and iPads; Xboxes and PlayStations”) as the fault for a perceived decline of global moral standing.
This is really the same argument passed down every generation. The “Older generation” wants to blame newly created tools utilized by the “Young generation” as “destroying the moral fiber.” But it really just is an example of those not willing to understand that there is always a generational gap in perceptions of the world. So instead of learning to understand those changes, they would rather blame tools.
@Alex: LOL and I thought this entire post was a bit much. Your response has made this post seem like wisdom from god comparatively. Turn off FOX news.
It would seem a good percentage of your readers, Keen, did not read from an original source and simply took your post as the final and complete in-context source. Troubling.
You see? Several of the commenters here provide excellent examples of the type of noise about which Obama was speaking. Congratulations, Keen, for being a participant in the propagation of misinformation.
I’m not quite sure how I’ve spread misinformation. Obama clearly stated within his speech about that the gadgets/hardware, games, and other things are leading information towards a path of being a distraction.
I then stated my opinion about how and why I felt he was wrong. My opinion is, of course, going to be from that of a defensive gamer. If you can’t see past your politically polarized opinions of politics and critique the words being spoken, then that’s not my fault.
@coppertopper:
I don’t watch Fox News, sorry. But, it proves one thing, you make assumptions based on no evidence.
My reasoning is based soley on one thing: what the President said. I never said that he was going to pursue restrictive legislation on the matter, but simply that it is obvious how he feels about the Internet and the technology that allows us to pursue information.
If you don’t think that it’s a bad thing for the President of a democracy to lament the freedom of information in today’s age… then, I feel sorry for you.
@ Alex:
Did you read the entire speech, or just this convenient nugget that Keen has placed here? Throughout the speech he is praising education and the gathering of information. The jist of the speech is that in the age of technology people have an access to viewpoints and ideas they otherwise wouldn’t. That can be a huge distraction because instead of hearing 10 voices, you hear 100. With an education, you can sift through the mess and objectively decide what you think is right or wrong.
Read it for yourself next time: http://www.wtkr.com/news/wtkr-obama-hampton-address-transcript,0,7478536.story
“So all of us have a responsibility, as Americans, to change this; to offer every single child in this country an education that will make them competitive in our knowledge economy. That is our obligation as a nation.”
Really sounds like he wants information to be scarce, doesn’t it? PUT ON YOUR TIN FOIL HATS EVERYONE, THE GOVERNMENT IS COMING!!
I didn’t get the same thing you did out of that at all Bwast. Sure, he praises getting education and gathering information. That’s a given. He’s stating though that ipod, ipads, xboxs, playstations, etc, are hurting that somehow. That’s where I’m taking issue.
For example, the whole twitter scene and facebook campaign that Obama went for was helped by the very technology he says is stopping information from being information. It’s hypocritical.
Don’t get into a straw man argument. It’s not about him stating that information is bad — it’s about stating that a certain medium of obtaining that information is (as he implies) hurting democracy and our nation.
That’s just plain ignorance on his part. He probably thinks all technology is created equal and you have access to all the same stuff on everything. I’m not going to pretend to know what he thinks but I would say that is the best bet. My comment was directed at people saying “There’s more at stake than your Xbox or Playstation.”. If you honestly think that after reading the speech, you need your head checked.
Proze is right, he’s not talking about games at all, he’s talking about information and how a massive bombardment of spun fragments doesn’t necessarily present a completely accurate picture. Like, say, picking an entirely hypothetical example totally at random, people going off at half-cock because of a couple of out-of-context words from a speech heard third hand and deciding it’s some kind of anti-gaming rant.
If he’s not talking about games, why did he say Xbox and Playstation? If he didn’t mean to mention video games at all, then his speech writers are complete failures. I’m not going to even try and imagine what he might have meant — I’m going to take what he said.
@Bwast:
The President is stating that there is a problem. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have any difficulty handling the so-called “bombardment” of information.
Given the current political climate, the reasons for his comments are obvious. I understand your attempt to spin things around and make me look like a nut, it’s a typical way to argue against someone when you don’t have any substance.
You don’t need an education to know what’s right or what’s wrong. Educated men do not equal intelligent men. There are plenty of “educated” men that couldn’t change a flat tire.
Obama believes there is a problem that needs fixed. I, and most people who enjoy getting their information from as many places as they can/want, do not.
Do I think he is going to send people around to collect our devices? Hell no. Do I think he views things like political blogs as dangerous? Yes, because they can offer opinions counter to his own.
Going to have to agree completely with Alex on this one.
Just because you or I don’t have trouble with the amounts of information available, doesn’t mean others don’t as well. To think otherwise is asinine.
Obama is not trying to censor the internet. He doesn’t mention ANYTHING about blogs. He says information in general. That information could be criticizing him, praising him or somewhere in the middle. Amongst that ocean of information there is going to be deceitful, heinous and deceptive people trying to shoehorn their personal feelings into a world of fact. These people don’t want to help the country, they want power. He wants the people to decide for themselves what is right and be able to spot these people. I am probably giving him way too much credit here (he is a politician, after all.), but this is being blown way out of proportion. There are much more real reasons to jump out of your chair in regards to Obama. This is just a case of being born in the wrong generation for the President.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP01t0Z4Hr8
This is the last comment I will make. Debating politics on a gaming forum is a fruitless endeavor.
I think besides the alarmist and unsubstantiated point if this post, is the fact that you didn’t quote, and therefore probably didn’t read, the real source (not the G4TV bit but the entire speech) of this quote you made an entire post about. This is typical FOX tv jouranalism. Go back to sales guy it’s what your best at.
See what happens when you speak out against “The Lord of CHANGE”.
I agree with you Keen, i didn’t care for his comment. I voted for the guy, and now i know he is a scumbag. Obama is just like every other politician.
I think a lot of people are overreacting to his statement. I don’t think he was damning technology or those certain devices, I think he was merely meaning that they can distract people from finding their true purpose. Which is true 🙂
Keen between this post and the merit badge post, you’ve got the makings of become a really good journalist.
Your subject matter has gotten stronger and your style has moved away from the “rant”, and become more, “here’s the facts, and this is what I think.”
Keep honing your skill and keep up the good work.
———————————————————–
PBO is being hypocritical of himself in this speech. Lets not forget how he was about his blackberry last year.
“I’m still clinging to my BlackBerry,†Mr. Obama said Wednesday in an interview with CNBC and The New York Times. “They’re going to pry it out of my hands.â€
http://tinyurl.com/a2l654
@Vort: Thanks, appreciate it. And yeah, I had totally forgotten about the Blackberry comment. Good catch!
So did you read the entire speech or not Keen?
I said my nice thing above. So, with that out of the way, Proze made a well reason, explained, and logical argument and Keen retorted with a defensive statement insinuating that he’s wrong because he’s been poisoned by politics. I’d like to see a real response to what was the best comment in this thread. So far, his points seem far and away more reasonable.
And, guys, come on. He’s not attacking video games. Did anyone else take public speaking? He was making a persuasive speech and using relevant rhetorical devices. We should really use some common sense before getting up in arms about our hobby coming under attack. No one is going to touch, alter, demonize, or hold back the video gaming industry. If the last five years has shown us anything, it’s that video games are rising into the public consciousness more than ever before and, with that, are becoming more accepted as a hobby. If you think the president using a statement without any weight behind it at all is going to harm anything you hold dear, then I think you need to evaluate how the insecurity your gaming hobby has bred within you.
I usually enjoy your blog, Keen, but bring politics into a medium such as this is only asking for a heated debate. I hope you got what you wanted here.
And to add to that, his stated BlackBerry dependency only shows that that his words in the out-of-context quote provided here are used for relational value. If he was to be taken seriously, then we’d also have to believe that he didn’t know how to use an iPod. Fun fact, he bought one for the Queen of England on her last birthday (I think it was her birthday, anyways. It was on the news). That shows some kind of basic understanding that not all modern electronics are evil 😛
“bad for democracy”
Question: at what point is blatant propaganda considered acceptable alongside trusted news sources?
THAT is the point he’s getting at. The internet, not video games, are a forum for any and all view points to be purported as fact. It’s derisive towards what should be everyone’s goal of finding out the truth. Action is being taken to stop the rampant spread of proven lies on radio talk shows like Rush Limbaugh through acts such as the Fairness Doctrine. Nothing like that would ever hit the internet because it’d be impossible to police and, frankly, none of us even comes close to the audience people like Limbaugh have. But you have to see that there is an altruistic purpose behind trying to limit out the liars and cheats from the credible reporters.
It’s murky water. I’ll give you that. But, we should all know that the internet is filled with 70% speculation and 30% fact when you’re going to private sources. Obama simply wants the American people to be good enough critical thinkers to assess these sources on their own without their being a need for governmental intervention. If the success of hate mongers like Limbaugh show us anything, though, it’s that too many people are on the path to accepting what is fed to them in an entertaining fashion.
In other news, is Snerdly even a real person?
@coppertopper: Yes, did you? The reason I did not include the entirety of the speech was because it had absolutely no relevance to the part of the speech that I am commenting on. And no, the part I’m commenting on is not part of a greater idea — if anything one could argue that the big picture deflates this comment that he made, but one would only make that argument in order to draw attention from something that should not have been said.
@Chris: So we take him seriously when it’s convenient and helps defend a statement but we don’t take him seriously when it makes him look like a hypocrite? I don’t see it that way, but then again I’m being objective here.
What I’m saying is that the technology mentioned — yes, even the “xboxes and playstations” that the President admittedly doesn’t know how to work– helps us become better critical thinkers.
You’re so politically polarized that it’s clouding your ability to make this about anything other than politics. Make it about the statement he made and not about protecting a Liberal agenda. This is made further evident by your need to post repeatedly to get yet another word in.
You’ll notice that not once have I yet stated anything that aligns me with or against the Presidet’s political affiliation. I’ve simply stated that he’s wrong in his statements about the technology and his reasoning behind it based on my personal experiences.
I’m going to bed now. When I wake up I’ll be reading any comments and I’ll deleting any of them that try and make this about something other than the statement I quoted or topics that are relevant. In other words, if you want to spout off angst over Fox News or attack Obama then please move along to another website. You’re welcome to post whatever you want that is relevant.
I have no liberal agenda, Keen. Frankly, I get sick of hearing from the left as much as the right. And tell me this, what agenda could I, a 23 year old college student games writer, like yourself, possibly have that I’d try to accomplish here, with an audience that’s not even come to hear what I have to say? I made a point to cite people like Rush Limbaugh people like Rush Limbaugh promote hate, bigotry, making the rich richer and the poor poorer. Let me be fair here though, since you seem to think I’m a Democratic recruiter or something, Bill Maher does the same thing with his anti-American rhetoric on the other side.
That being said, no. You don’t need to disregard certain things over others. Yet, if you use some common sense, and recognize a bit of humor (see Proze’s comments about being self-deprecating in those very statements), while also understanding that in order to persuade you must *use relevant examples*, then it becomes apparent that this is very much being blown out of proportion.
So, let’s hear it Keen. Dispute Proze’s comments, point for point, and let the readers tell you who has a better argument. The way you’ve presented things here, it’s all about taking an isolated sample from a speech and using it to reinforce your own dedication to gaming. That’s fine. I don’t think anyone here disagrees with the benefits gaming has done for us. But don’t pretend that this is some big agenda and anyone who disagrees with you is simply unobjective and politically motivated. That is the very definition of a Straw Man argument, which you said you didn’t want to start here.
I’m going to ask you one final question before I check out for the night. Do you seriously think that if the president was making any kind of serious statement against gaming, he would have done so in such a fleeting and informal manner, and mixed in amongst the likes of iPods and iPads? And, really, is it a big deal that the president doesn’t view reading blogs like this one, and playing MMOs, as worthwhile as say, doing homework or learning a new skill?
I have to wonder whether or not Keen wanted to cause a little debate. It can be fun, from time to time. Still, for something as volatile as politics, I usually consider it best left out of the MMO blogosphere.
Honeslty, I think Obama just added in “Xbox and Playstation†because he knows they are popular words. People have to remember, Obama won the election because of his speeches and the way he spoke to an audience. I think, in general, that Obama simple was saying that there are a lot of ways for us to get information and that when we look for that information, because there is so much information out there, that it can be distracting to sift through all the crap information to get to the real information we needed. Sifting through all the crap information can be a distraction and a consume our time.
I personally don’t like Obama. I always thought he was mainly a walking campaign ad, all show and no substance. That is only my opinion so no need to flame about an opinion because we all have them.
I have to agree slightly with Keen here, how Hypocritical of PBO to Criticize information and the relevant devices when he relied so heavily upon them with his election.
Shame on everyone bringing their political agenda to a gaming blog.
Cleaned up the garbage. The thread is a little more readable now.
Bottom line: Whether or not Obama misspoke and added the words because they’re popular or maybe he truly is totally ignorant on the subject matter (as HE states he already doesn’t know how they work), it doesn’t matter. Regardless of whether or not it was a statement trying to reinforce a much bigger picture — irrelevant. It’s being addressed in the context in which he stated it, with or without regard to the bigger picture.
My opinion is that he is wrong because I have personal experiences that contradict his statements. I think he’s also wrong because of my beliefs about where technology and information are headed — so I disagree from a more ideological standpoint as well.
Why is this on a Gaming Blog?
I can’t speak for all gaming blogs out there, but ours is one where we discuss all things gaming related. It’s in our About us page and it’s been the foundation from which we have built our readership. We do not shy away from anything. We state what we think even if it means we’re changing our minds — we’re not afraid of that either.
This statement was made in regards to technology and gaming. Since it had a debatable subject and one that I feel passionate about, given the state of games with the SCOTUS case and other remarks being made, it was worth commenting on for me.
Regardless of whether or not you’re a democrat, republican, labor party, or are too young to even know what those things are, it’s about discussing a statement. I will try my best to hold people within the confines of the topic.
“You don’t need an education to know what’s right or what’s wrong. Educated men do not equal intelligent men. There are plenty of “educated†men that couldn’t change a flat tire.”
Intelligent men gather information, sort it, process it, and make decisions about what’s right and wrong based on as many facts as possible. This is called educating oneself. An intelligent man should be open to many possibilities as long as the evidence supports it.
Being able to change a tire means someone transferred that knowledge to you or you sought it out for yourself. That process is also called education.
Let’s spin it the other way; just because someone knows how to change a tire doesn’t mean they should be put in charge of a nation’s climate change policy.
Mechanics can be intelligent and so can academics. It’s all about your field of expertise.
@Snafzg:
Semantics.
My point is this: Today, members of academia beleive themselves to be elite. They are educated and view anyone who hasn’t obtained degrees of “higher learning” as uneducated. Yet, at the end of the day, they can’t do much that is practical (e.g. change a flat tire, repair an engine, build a house).
I would agree with you IF everyone else did, but people just don’t. Nobody looks at the mechanic and says, “Wow, what a well-educated man.” No, they look at the Harvard professors as the well-educated man. Today, educated doesn’t mean simply someone who has learned or been taught, but someone who has excelled in academia… and that’s all.
Never confuse education with intelligence, as the two rarely correlate.
“Today, members of academia beleive themselves to be elite”
Maybe in select circles, but that’s a pretty rash generalization to make. Actually, I’d say it’s less true than ever before given how many more people earn degrees than they have in the past.
I don’t disagree with the rest of your point, but, knowing many people within academic circles, that statement is unjustly prejudicial.
Obama is an extremely successful person, who spent much of his life pursuing large, defined goals. His viewpoint on video games as maybe sometimes a distraction is coming from this viewpoint concerned with achievement and efficiency. It’s OK, though, I’m glad he succeeded. He’s just saying as a counterpoint, to not forget about other priorities.