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 key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and on-one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agenda or knowledgeably question those in authority; when clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties 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.
In recent days there have been two mass shootings in the US; in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, in which about 30 people died. Of course, all the politicians…
As anyone reading this blog would have guessed, I read a lot of stuff about politics. Mostly I read it to form the basis of the thesis I am trying…
French president, Emmanuel Macron gave a passionate speech at the 100thanniversary of Armistice Day, the day that ended the First World War. In that speech he warned against the rise…