Have you ever known someone that you could consider a neverlearned? Ok. Strange word that I made up and use for my own devices. Two seconds of explaination needed:

Neverlearned, noun, A person who despite being in full ability to deduce or conclude from a given set of facts, still fail to learn the lesson.

Now, bear in mind that I don’t mean this in the kind of way that a child learns stimulus/response or cause/effect relationships with, say, physical pain. Nay, a neverlearned is much older and who’s “neverlearned status” comes not from repeatedly burning themselves on the hot stove. Neverlearneds are typically late-adolescent (showing signs of such) to adult (full-fledged). Elderly people do not count. They get AARP and Golden Buckeye discount cards instead, so leave them out of this one.

So with this in mind, have you ever come across a neverlearned? I certainly have, and I in fact fear that these people are multiplying, filling the nooks and crannies of this once sensible, logic-deducing country.

My neverlearned never seems to get it. Now they’re not dumb by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, by all standardized test scores and diplomas, they’re very intelligent. But for some reason, they are unable to take a set of facts presented to them, and deduce the result or outcome based on that problem set. I fear that Neverlearned’s main downfall on the SAT was the reading comprehension section that relies soley on your ability to read between the proverbial lines and answer the literary equation to the right of the equals sign.

All humor aside (just for a moment, perhaps), the phenomenon of the neverlearned is quite serious. These individuals do not take guidance well. Because they’re naturally intelligent, they feel as if they do not need to be “shown” anything. But yet if you say, “ok then what’s most likely going to happen if we continue to do this…?” Neverlearned can’t say. They’re unable to add up the gravity and consequences of a series of factors, weigh them internally and produce a verdict or even mild conjecture. Neverlearned just never learned how to process information.

It saddens me. More and more people seem to be like this. We as a society (BEWARE of sweeping generalizations ahead) are wonderfully adept at taking in information, from our cell phones, from Dan Rather, from Bob and Tom, from CNN.com. We take in a truly incredible amount of information. But can we say that much is done with that? For most, I don’t see the information processed, the numbers crunched or data compiled to produce anything. It’s like buying an ass-load of art supplies and locking them in a warehouse, somehow magically thinking that this series of actions will produce art someday with no exterted intervention. How is it that we’re losing the ability to reason and rationalize?

I’ve often wondered if modern judiciary practices have led us astray, at least in part. We let judges and juries decide if someone’s entitled to $780,000 in damages for tripping over their own child in a furniture store. We let Big Brother and the Tribe decide who’s worthy of staying on the ever-important island. We let Siskle/Ebert (i apologize for i forget which one passed on) tell us which movies to see and Glamour magazine which sex positions to try. We’re quickly handing over our right and natural-given abilty to chose. We let the ever-looming presence of the outside world, filled with its overabundance of information, dictate to us what we should or should not choose.

But what’s the connection between the neverlearneds and choice, you might ask (besides making a swell title for a kid’s book: “The Neverlearneds and the Great Choice Connection.”)? Well, i’ll tell you so long as you’re still reading this jibberish. Neverlearneds don’t choose anything, or at least anything major. Sure they choose to get up in the morning, put pants on and go to work. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a big and important choice to make. But when it comes to politics, religion, interpersonal relationships or even on the broad topic of “life,” neverlearneds can’t make a choice. They can acknowledge the deficit. They can affirm that they’re upset with their partner. They can say that they don’t believe in hell. But it’s all facts. They can’t tell you why any of the preceeding statements are true of false, because they “just are.” No supporting facts can be given and no reason is able to be explained for any such proclaimed statements. They just “are.”

Living a life of active choice (to me, the highest achievement) means to affirm or deny everything. To look at all data about your job, your religious convictions, your decision to have one more scotch than you should have, EVERYTHING…look at everything as having possible positive and negative consequences and weigh each decision in life based on that. Living a life of active choice does not mean just saying “I’m a Christian” or “I like Neil Diamond.” There are reasons behind every choice, and you have to know *why* you do/do not choose something to be in your life. Neverlearneds can’t weigh situations because they can’t process information well. Neverlearnds don’t make choices, they just do something without knowing why.

Well starting now, I resolve to fight. No, not to abondon, mock or haze the neverlearneds that I know. Instead, I want to teach them how to choose again, to reclaim their given right of choice. Because in all seriousness, without our right to choose or affirm, we become the many mindless drones in the Cult of the Neverlearned that houses information but never uses it. And damnit if I’m going to watch you buy a Clay Aiken cd at full price, you sure as hell better have a whole list of reasons behind that decision. Don’t think I won’t ask you what they are, either.