Can maths make us ‘stupid’?

As we saw last Friday with the elections in the UK... it has happened again! I woke up and the same feeling I experienced in both June and November 2016 assaulted me (3 years later). My mind spinning with questions: is it true? How it is possible ?  Are people just ‘stupid ‘? 

But my biggest question now, after a few days, is : why was it so unexpected ? Could it be  that algorithms , that are keeping me into my happy bubble of ecologists friends who want to change the state of things, are masking reality?

I like to believe that in general the likes of trump , Johnson and Salvini won’t get to me. But I don’t think that is enough, and I also think I had a very good enough upbringing and education that made me into a very critical human being- I admit , something very tiring, it would require much less energy to just, simply ,believe . So, they wouldn’t get to me anyway. Unless I was very very very tired. 
And I think that’s where ‘they’ win 
I think there is a plan to make us tired , leaving us poor, overworked, overburdened, overtaxed .. this will make us all more tired , being tired means less energy to be critical , less energy  to get informed properly and become educated in subject matters  in order to be critical . Think about it, maybe it’s why they do so well in poorer areas (a reality, when you look at a heatmap of votes) - because there people are more likely to be working multiple jobs to maintain their families and are far more likely to fall victims of promises. Especially when those promises, via some very simple equations, can be targeted so specifically. Facebook, Google and all the rest just know everything about you - and they can show you just that snippet, article, quote, that can get your heart melt. Now, I love maths and science and part of me is so amazed at that and what they can understand about you just by looking at patterns. You don’t even have to tell these companies your all life history for them to know. Just use your credit card on a couple of websites, sign up with your email to a newsletter, put your phone number on a questionnaire and puff your profile is created... scary uh? All fine until they use it to sell you a jacket, or a pair of shoes but you can only imagine what else they could do, from making you attend some events to pretty much just anything... 


In this context, school education can play an essential role. As technology Is evolving much faster than we can adapt to it, it is essential that we develop some basic skills that we can apply in all situations.  But actually, schools are showing opposite tendencies, with critical thinking being shifted on side in favour of mnemonic studies (dates of important historical events rather than truly making the students think of why a war had started and how could have been avoided, just to think of one).


To sum it up, Call it a conspiracy if you like, but I truly  think that ‘they’ are trying to make us all into sheep, so they can control us much easier. They already are doing it, but it’s so subtle that we are not capable of seeing it. Maths, the same subject some of us truly hated in high school is coming back to taunt us in the for, of magic formulas that can read through you.
I don’t want to say to stop using all media now and go back to prehistoric times, I just want to aggregate my voice to those saying that we should be aware of the dangers and try and think on our own feet. Be more critical  even if it requires an extra effort. And teach to be critical - at home , in schools , on the street, to your friends and families, to the elderlies and the youngsters, which might be the most vulnerable. 
Being sustainable is more than just drinking out of a reusable cup but is also being responsible when it comes to political decisions, so let’s unite into shifting the trends of this ‘enforced stupidity’. 
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