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Carl Sagan predicted our future in 1995

This is a quote from The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan:

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

by Anonymousreply 13July 5, 2023 5:06 PM

That last paragraph. "...a kind of celebration of ignorance."

by Anonymousreply 1July 5, 2023 2:21 PM

He sure did. Brilliant foresight and analysis. He was right on the money. Give the man a Pulitzer.

by Anonymousreply 2July 5, 2023 2:47 PM

I thought he was dead?

by Anonymousreply 3July 5, 2023 2:56 PM

"... when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few" we don't have that excuse.

by Anonymousreply 4July 5, 2023 3:04 PM

My space father.

by Anonymousreply 5July 5, 2023 3:11 PM

Really, R4? How's your rocket ship coming along?

by Anonymousreply 6July 5, 2023 3:24 PM

R4 thinks those little devices we call phones are "awesome technological powers" because he can hook up so easily.

by Anonymousreply 7July 5, 2023 4:51 PM

Sagan? He's Jewish, isn't he?

I guess he won't be coming with us to The Mortimer Club.

by Anonymousreply 8July 5, 2023 4:54 PM

OP I have something that will knock your socks off -

Karl Marx predicted our future in 1867.

by Anonymousreply 9July 5, 2023 4:57 PM

I didn't know Miami had a "Literary Intelligentsia."

by Anonymousreply 10July 5, 2023 4:57 PM

R9 I remember he said Capitalism would collapse from its own weight, but I don't recall anything as prescient as what Sagan said about dumbing down America.

by Anonymousreply 11July 5, 2023 4:59 PM

"The wolves will be howling in a bush and innocent blood will gush."

by Anonymousreply 12July 5, 2023 5:02 PM

America was on the fast track to nowhere when Trump's fan base (i.e. the 50K mouth breathers who showed up at Trump's rally in Pickens SC) began mapping out America's future, and American media piled on for this ratings juggernaut.

by Anonymousreply 13July 5, 2023 5:06 PM
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