The ignorant, led by the nefarious, shepherded by the violence-prone, supported by the media are holding democracy hostage in America.
Think I’m crazy? Exaggerating? Scan some of the Op-Eds in the NYT online today for support of my sentence above, based as it is on a reader’s comment on Gail Collins’ Op-Ed.
James Carville many years ago said, “It’s the economy, stupid!” Well, now he should say, “It’s the stupid, stupid!” because America has gone stupid, if it wasn’t stupid already which it was.
UPDATE: For a thorough, heart-felt and rational discussion of where we are now with this, see Terry McKenna’s post, Chaos Theory – It COULD Happen Here!, in the Daily Renewal blog.
Here’s the most popular comment on Gail Collins’ Op-Ed at the moment:
What is going on in America today is in no tradition I can remember, and I am pretty old! I listened to Bill Maher tonight, and his New Rules were positively depressing–although funny in a “gallows humor” sort of way. For instance: 34% of Americans STILL believe that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11! 47% of Republicans TRULY believe that Barack Obama was not born in the US (maybe that’s a good thing?), Sarah Palin says Obama’s healthcare plan is “downright evil,” and would force her to take her Down Syndrom child before a “death panel” every five years!!! Eeeeek! Get me out of here!
Is it any wonder that our ill-informed, highly anxious citizens are massing at town hall meetings yelling at their congressmen to “Tell the Government to Keep Its Hands Off of My Medicare?” Who think that a Living Will is a “Death Panel?” OMG–is our citizenry really this stupid and uninformed? Will we ever get over ourselves–and the Civil War????
Danger! Overload!
January 27, 2009 in Commentaries, Culture, Internet, Journalists by Mardé | 6 comments
Danger Will Robinson! Information overload imminent!
While browsing through Brian Donohue and Terry McKenna’s great blog, DailyRevolution, I came across this excellent 9-minute video by journalist Maggie Jackson on the “Erosion of Attention”:
Maggie Jackson is the author of Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age. She’s really worried about the excess of information in today’s world, in particular on the internet. How can we really know what’s going on while skimming the surface? How difficult is it to go in depth to gain real understanding? Are we losing the ability to focus? She believes we are and that this is presaging a coming dark age. Wonder if I’ll be around to see it? I doubt it, but then things do move fast.
Tags: brian donohue, danger will robinson, information overload, maggie jackson, terry mckenna