I have a
foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when
the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all
the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when
awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one
representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the
people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably
question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously
consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to
distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost
without noticing, back into superstition and darkness…
The
dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of
substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second
sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator
programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition,
but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance
-- Carl Sagan
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