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
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.
People have been saying, “I’m worried because the kids are so dumb” since the dawn of time. This has a couple extra grains of truth thrown in, but not much that wasn’t already apparent.
People are pretentious and think they know complex issues better than dedicated experts, but they also look down upon them and their institutions as pretentious.
Carl Sagan was spot on, but I think he’d be surprised how much people not just look to superstition and hype, but are so personally confident about warped realities they live in. There’s no nervousness about the crystal clutching, it’s passionate, absolutely certain enthusiasm.
Propaganda has always been a part of America, but I think we were more willing to nod our heads at experts and established institutions in the past. That system let some shady shit slip through, yeah, but it still worked better than what’s going on now.
Carl Sagan, in 1995:
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
Isaac Asimov in 1980:
People have been saying, “I’m worried because the kids are so dumb” since the dawn of time. This has a couple extra grains of truth thrown in, but not much that wasn’t already apparent.
The majority of the silent generation end their parents weren’t saying that when their kids could finally go to school past second grade.
Well that was certainly spot on
There’s two sides to that!
People are pretentious and think they know complex issues better than dedicated experts, but they also look down upon them and their institutions as pretentious.
Carl Sagan was spot on, but I think he’d be surprised how much people not just look to superstition and hype, but are so personally confident about warped realities they live in. There’s no nervousness about the crystal clutching, it’s passionate, absolutely certain enthusiasm.
Propaganda has always been a part of America, but I think we were more willing to nod our heads at experts and established institutions in the past. That system let some shady shit slip through, yeah, but it still worked better than what’s going on now.