I think that when societies have progressed beyond a certain point there's generally a greater desire to be more "inclusive", ie try to involve more people, try to make sure everyone has a basic level of understanding, etc. Now the correct way to do this would be to exert effort to bring everyone up to the level of what at any particular point in time would be considered "above average". This of course results in a moving goalpost, but it would at least be one in the positive direction.dreamizm wrote: Do you think there is a reason Western Mass Culture (US/UK in particular) has become increasingly 'dumbed-down' throughout the last decades when you would expect it to 'progress' to a more enlightened understanding of life and ourselves as science and technology grows in capability?
Unfortunately, it's often much easier to dumb things down instead and rationalise it by whatever means to reduce the definition of "average". And so you end up with a downward spiral.
Also, there's the train of thought that stress has to be present at some level to encourage progress. As societies develop progressively more technology, more things are generally provided to them more easily and cheaply. So essentially there is progressively less stimulus to push, to strive, to learn. And society eventually stagnates.
