Book Excerpt: The Assault on Reason
ok, its not really about Britney and Kfed, but they are mentioned in the excerpted chapter, and it will get you to read it. Go, be amused.
Long story short, looks like the internet will save democracy from the teevee. I worry that the internet leads, while increasing potential for interaction and perhaps engagement, it can also lead to equally uniformed people and increased polarization. Somebody needs to come up with a solution to open peoples minds up more, reducing the power of cognitive inertia. I guess college is supposed to do that a bit, and the reduction of identity politics would help a lot - only identity politics becomes easier on the internet - heck, the GOP has been doing targeted mailing very successfully for a while now. Did you know that all democrats want to ban the bible and replace it with the communist manifesto? Only a select few are privy to that kind of inside scoop. Calls to the greater good could be effective, but they are almost always trumped by the politics of fear and localism. How do you promote the collective good when the self-interested ego is the ultimate arbitrator? I'd suggest a lot of meditation for the world, but that takes too long and is too difficult. Maybe just mandatory mushroom trips for everyone and they can have a spiritually ego-transcendent experience , and we'll have special places for the 25% who have a bad trip. Anyway, no solutions here, just a rant.
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