They cannot alphabetize, either, and have only the fuzziest idea about things like the difference between London, Ontario, and London, UK.
Sounds like another episode of Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" features. Everytime I see one, I wonder how he finds people who are so eager for "15 minutes of fame" on TV that they would ignore the "normal" emotion of intense shame for their incredible ignorance. There were college graduates on the other night who couldn't identify the significance of July 4th for the US. Then there was the social studies teacher who couldn't identify the author of the Star Spangled Banner, even when told it was a "Key" question.
>Everytime I see one, I wonder how he finds people who are so eager for "15 minutes of fame" on TV that they would ignore the "normal" emotion of intense shame for their incredible ignorance. <
Shame once provided serious motivation towards a lot of positive activity and avoidance of much unwise behavior.
Shame has largely vanished--people aren't ashamed of ignorance, in fact, being ignorant is cool, and knowing something, anything, is bad, since it makes the ignorant appear...ignorant. People aren't ashamed of absurd gambling debts, since they can now think of themselves as victims of compulsion. We're all victims, right?
The shame of failing a grade in school used to be the dark dread lurking in the hearts of kids, but now, it doesn't much seem to matter. In the early 1990s, I knew a 10 year old who refused to read signs...mostly he couldn't be bothered. Over the summers, he'd forget how. He was enrolled in what was supposed to be a good school & his parents got him tutors, but the kid didn't care. I attended an ancient elementary school in a blue collar city neighborhood, and don't recall ever hearing of even the dullest kid not being able to read signs. I asked a buddy of mine if she could recall anything like that--she's my age, but she attended a segregated school in Kentucky & you know money was not being thrown at that school. She didn't know of anyone at her elementary school who couldn't read.
So, we're not ashamed anymore by ignorance, by sloth, by imprudent behaviors, or by having 5 children with 5 fathers. I think it's time for a good dose of shame.
Also operating here is the misconception that camera time = celebrity, even glamor. That's why there are women who correspond with and eventually marry convicted serial killers--they think they are becoming associated with a celebrity, who focuses a good deal of time and attention upon them. [If these guys are ever released, these marriages fall apart, because the motivation was the association, not the reality of a marriage.]
I think those are heavily edited. I have a feeling that when they run into people who actually can answer all their questions, they don't put those people on the air because people who know that the Vice President of the USA is Dick Cheney and that Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner aren't funny.