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 Anonymous | reply 13 | July 5, 2023 5:06 PM
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That last paragraph. "...a kind of celebration of ignorance."
by Anonymous | reply 1 | July 5, 2023 2:21 PM
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He sure did. Brilliant foresight and analysis. He was right on the money. Give the man a Pulitzer.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | July 5, 2023 2:47 PM
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"... when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few" we don't have that excuse.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | July 5, 2023 3:04 PM
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Really, R4? How's your rocket ship coming along?
by Anonymous | reply 6 | July 5, 2023 3:24 PM
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R4 thinks those little devices we call phones are "awesome technological powers" because he can hook up so easily.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | July 5, 2023 4:51 PM
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Sagan? He's Jewish, isn't he?
I guess he won't be coming with us to The Mortimer Club.
by Anonymous | reply 8 | July 5, 2023 4:54 PM
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OP I have something that will knock your socks off -
Karl Marx predicted our future in 1867.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | July 5, 2023 4:57 PM
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I didn't know Miami had a "Literary Intelligentsia."
by Anonymous | reply 10 | July 5, 2023 4:57 PM
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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 Anonymous | reply 11 | July 5, 2023 4:59 PM
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"The wolves will be howling in a bush and innocent blood will gush."
by Anonymous | reply 12 | July 5, 2023 5:02 PM
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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 Anonymous | reply 13 | July 5, 2023 5:06 PM
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