Is this a bad thing?

ferjal. This is an attempt by ecologist to take over the world. Me thinks Jude may be one of em ~: *Pears at Jude suspiciously*

I'm not surprised. Having watched Jamie's school dinners and most children couldn't recognise a stick of celery. Our society is getting dumber, of that there is no doubt.

I don't know if society is getting dumber... I think once upon a time the people who got to read books were so few - very elite amount of people - my ancestors were all farm hands, theives or soldiers. And that was just the men. The women weren't anything in terms of 'ideas' - they kept the house, looked after the kids, were maids and cooks, and died young.

In contrast to the opportunities we have for not being dumb then we are dumber. By my own experience the more capitalist a country gets then the dumber the population becomes. What we need is a revolution. (And Hayley shouldn't you be writing? I finished my book. Yeah!!! And have started a new story this morning. Come on - don't be dumb!)

"I think once upon a time the people who got to read books were so few" Maybe, but in Victorian times, Dickens was very popular. Those that couldn't read would listen to his stories being read out. And Victorian entertainment was very elaborate. (Inventing the Victorians by Matthew Sweet is a great book.) How about Elizabethan times? Shakesepeare was a popular entertainer. Play-going was banned at this time in central London as it was deemed too radical. The people who went to his plays would be the commeners. The Romans, the Greeks? No, we are definitely dumber.

Congratulations on that. You are very industrious. Brilliant. I haven't got any ideas at the moment - or at least if I do, when I write they seem to come out like clunky, obvious, unsubtle sledgehammer sentences that should never see the light of day. That's true what you said about compared to opportunity I suppse... hmmm....

yes it is. I suppose you're right, although we have a lot of the same now, it's just TV instead and TV is very passive.

Hayley, what about your train thing? I loved that. And if it is clunky just say, 'Oh yeah, the clunkiness represents the sounds the wheels make on the tracks.' Seriously, once it's down on paper you can always work on it. I'm reading Paul Theroux's 'Great Railway Bazaar'; stories of a trip he made through Asia in the 70s. It's brilliant. Read that for some inspiration.

Idon't think society is getting dumber it is changing shape. I completely understand the concept of armchair biologists.

I would hate for a biolgist to take a sample from my armchair. Yes, the train thing.. the stories I write on here I sort of write in half hour drives where I think of a title and see what happens. I am yet to work out how to channel that energy into something longer or difficult. Perhaps I am lazy afterall.