Glasses. Over 100 million people in the U.S. alone wear glasses for some reason or another; I am one of those people. Because glasses are so commonplace today, it is easy to overlook the undertones affiliated with them and the origins of those undertones. Frankly, it was never something I really thought about until my ninth grade English teacher brought it up while discussing Lord of the Flies. Although glasses are pricey, they are still within the budget of the average person today. This was not always the case. During the first half of the 20th century, glasses were more expensive; additionally, far more people worked simple manufacturing jobs and did not engage in all of the reading, writing, typing, and screen watching that we do today. People simply did not have as strong of a need to see things with high clarity, and this added to the relatively higher cost discouraged the purchase of glasses by working class people. The people who needed glasses were the gifted students, the ones who would be going to a university and needed to be able to see a chalkboard and read prodigious amounts of text comfortably. Because such people tended to come from more privileged families, they generally could afford the glasses. As a result, glasses were imbued with innate intelligence and white collar socioeconomic standing.

This symbolization still lingers today when one considers the stereotypical computer technician, mathematician, or generic bookworm. Cartoon posters hanging in elementary school classrooms tend to connect the image of glasses with pencils, paper, and books. The more austere and gawkish the glasses, the more socially inept the wearer and therefore the more intellectually advanced, or so reasoning would follow. The flip side to this is that “dumb” people rarely wear glasses. I cannot name a football player or cheerleader who wears glasses, but I know Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Warren Buffett do.

What is interesting is that the majority of people today do need corrective vision aid, as our population grows old, pursues higher education, and spends countless hours online reading virtual chats. However, the alternative, contacts, allows people to opt out of traditional glasses. Glasses represent similar things to everyone, but the emphasis changes. The common consensus is that glasses denote intelligence and often a corresponding lack of social grace. The computer and book nerds proudly cling to the markers of their studiousness, while athletes, models, gangsters, and rednecks shun glasses as an unwanted sign of being uncool or stuffy. The stereotype of old is holding strong today, perhaps even stronger than before as a result of an unspoken understanding about what glasses represent.

Within glasses are a few commonplaces. The first is that people who read extensively or need to focus in on minute details (the precise layout of a computer chip, for instance) tend to be smarter, as both a prerequisite to and a consequence of their work. Reading exposes people to more knowledge, and it is assumed that this knowledge is stored and used to debunk false narratives. Another commonplace is the idea that the smarter someone is, the less socially adept they are. This presumption derives from the fact that smart people tend to use older and more articulate words instead of contemporary slang and style. High intelligence people also tend to have different priorities and pastimes. As a result, they do not have as many common interests to discuss or the linguistic looseness to come across as casually charismatic in conversation. Because people at both ends of the spectrum view glasses as an indicator of someone’s intelligence or social grace, people place themselves in one camp or another and thus reinforce the stereotype by either adopting or rejecting glasses.

Glasses pertain to the idea of civic behavior in that intelligence and composure, associated with glasses, are essential to a functioning republic. Without intelligence, a comprehensive legal structure is impossible, as is effective participation in elections. A stupid populace votes for stupid policies, which leads to disastrous results. Without composure, there is no sacred support of decorum and democratic procedure, and republics will devolve into authoritarianism. Glasses help one to see clearly, and this idea figuratively refers to having better insight and perspective. Armed with this superior understanding, citizens can make rationale, informed decisions and representatives can plan for the future and anticipate the consequences of their actions. Glasses frame the civic as respectful, logical, and organized, albeit stuffy at times. These are at the heart of a healthy and peaceful republic; perhaps modern America could afford to use its glasses a bit more often.