“I have a foreboding of an America…”

This entire blog will, of course, reflect the times in which we live. I’m hoping to keep it positive for the most part, but currently politics is taking a center stage position. I lieu of posting a diatribe about the current political climate and stressing everyone out, I would like to simply leave you with this… an excerpt from a book written by the incomparable Carl Sagan, “The Demon-haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark” and call attention to his predictions then, for our world today.

“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 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.” – Carl Sagan

So… yeah. “Nail on the head” about covers it.