It is a commonly observed phenomenon, and is no longer restricted to the provincial backwaters of my home, the US. It cannot be solved through unrestricted verbosity, contrary to the content of this Entry. However, solutions will not be forthcoming in this Entry either; if you are seeking them, I invite you to peruse some of the other, far more enlightening pages available at this site, such as the one currently obsessing about condoms.

The advents of near-instantaneous communication and the almost unlimited availablity of information have conspired to plague the world with a glut of virtually useless data, statistics, opinions, and schematic diagrams of Star Trek vehicles. It has been commonly observed by luminaries throughout the world that better education for a greater amount of people has produced a populace with the capacity to read, but unable to determine that which is worth reading.

Do I, therefore, endorse an view of intellectual elitism? Of course not. H. G. Wells observed that the course of civilization is but a race between education and catastrophe. Merely providing the public with an "adequate" education is enough; although the [alleged] skills of an armchair philosopher are unneeded for an auto mechanic's quite different and undoubtedly more necessary line of work, they would be necessary for him/her to engage in contemplation or introspection. Although I leave it to the reader to determine if a Plato's Republic scenario is indeed a desirable one, I would advocate a position in which continuing and concerted education is the only way to ensure a forum such as this one if full of passionate and well-thought-out debate, rather than gross spelling errors and pop culture references.