THINKING ALLOWED

Phil and I often sit and discuss politics, world affairs and the like and shake our heads about where the world in general is heading.   I am fearful of what the future holds for my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.   I found this quote from Carl Sagan (a man both Phil and I admired and who was taken from this earth far too soon) and I think it covers all bases.   Wonder what you think about what Carl said.  It could relate to any of today's Western World countries.

From: The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

"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 nerviously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculities 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 America 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."

I find Carl Sagan's comments about the media and and especially "common denominator programming" confirms what I've been saying for some time now.  As Phil said to our dermatologist on Wednesday "It is difficult to find many intellectual minds these days" to which *Jonathon agreed.   He said "my sons does very well at school and find very few of his classmates read the classics any more.  Authors like Hemingway are ignored.  Jonathon then said he had gone to the same school as his son and when in the library recently checked out a book he had enjoyed as a youth only to find his was about the last name that had taken that particular book out.  I think that speaks volumes.

*Jonathon is not only in private practice but also head of a department in one of our large teaching hospitals.   He was born here but is of Asian descent and a more delightful man it would be difficult to meet.  After a visit to Jonathon Phil and I both come away feeling lighthearted and in a good frame of mind.