Jay Leno, on the tonight show, does a regular segment, "jay walking" during which he asks embaressingly simple questions, to people sometimes he has photographs of newsmakers-- US and international ones, sometimes real basic questions..
the week the movie "Pearl Harbor" opened, he asked people about it.. like "who bombed pearl harbor?" (the hawaians, the germans, the US, were some of the answers. and these were not just young people.. adults in their thirties and forties.
One question, asked of tourist to DC, on the mall, in sight of lincoln monument, was "which US president is credited with freeing the slaves?" the answers-- Duh? washington? duh? Jimmy carter?
Asked on July 4th-Why is today a holiday? what does it celebrate? Ans. Independence day.. when US became independant of england.. (jay pleased, asks a follow up question..) When was that? what year? Ans. 1918.
a classic question in NY is "who is buried in Grants tomb?"( a NY landmark) (the simple answer Grant,and many miss it, but points added if you know his wife and family including the family dog!)
i am pretty non political, and well, i know US history, and some english history, but don't consider my self really really good at history.. but to judge from Jay walking, i could hold a PhD compared to a lot of regular folk!
on the other hand, i sometimes realize that if everyone was as smart, and interested as i am, (and this crew here) no one would want to work at Kmart or costco, or pump gas, or collect trash, or cut hair..
there are lots of things in this world that don't require any great intellect. the things we hold near and dear, (language and words in particular, and everything else in general!) don't interest millions of people. they go about their lives, working at jobs that don't require much knowledge, and often even less intelligence, to earn money to buy things that they thing will give there live meaning
it is sometimes enought to make you wish for an intellectual aristocrisy to be running the world.
bread and circus were the romans way of keeping the masses entertained. today its cable TV and infomercial.
