Well you don't seem to consider yourself ignorant.......so now I'm curious what you look like.
Touché. That's a good zinger.
The Novel
The novel had significant underlying meanings throughout.
The above ground people were the Eloi. The underground "monsters" were the Morlocks.
The underlying meanings were that the Eloi represented the English Aristocracy.
- The well dressed, well mannered people of "polite society" that did't really know much about anything other than leisure activities and social graces.
The Morlocks represented the lower class that did the work.
Neither species was overly intelligent but the Morlocks had enough knowledge to operate some type of machinery and to accumulate food required to raise their livestock (The Eloi).
All higher level thinking and all culture had disappeared. There were remains of a library and the Eloi knew the items inside were called books but they had no idea of their purpose.
Modern World
My take is that a majority of Americans have devolved into morons.
It's not that people are born with less brains. It's just that society has devolved into people not using or developing their brains.
The majority of sports fans have become one of the best examples of the devolution of society.
The fact that people watch and listen to Skip Bayless allowing him to make millions of dollars per year is proof of devolution.
In the internet age we have incredible access to information yet society as a whole as become less intelligent from a practical perspective.