The Sage Carl Sagan feared that which we've become...

[Pluvious]

His words speak for itself...

"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

[SHRED]

1. A prophet. A genius.

And a cannabis lover.

[stonecutter357]

2. K&R

[malaise]

3. Needs to be seen

Get thee to the greatest page

[spanone]

4. K&R...

[mopinko]

5. a life changing book for me.

that was the point at which i ejected fear from my thinking w all my might.
fear is a thief- that's my mantra.

[barbtries]

12. tell me more about the book.

I haven't read it. Is it readable or ponderous? Because i have a huge pile of books on backlog right now. I have to sort of switch between the difficult to read (e.g. "The New Jim Crow&quot and the relatively easy (e.g. "Becoming&quot . Then when i fly i read fiction, so i am looking forward to my trip to LA on Tuesday, when I get to start reading the 2nd book of the Cormoran Strike series. But just from the quote in the OP and your comment, I have a feeling I may need to read this book. thanks

[mopinko]

13. def read this book. i read it a pretty long time ago.

so, i wish i could give you a better review.
but it basically goes into how and why humans developed religion. it goes into some of the more interesting, scientifically, aspects of religion, like waking dreams and hallucinations. but also the aspects of human behavior that cause us to need that big sky daddy.
but also, why science answers these questions so much better, and why we should leave the superstitions of the past.


all sagan's book are easy reads. he is a good writer, w a gift for keeping science interesting, and relating it to human nature is though provoking ways.

[barbtries]

14. thank you.

i shall get it and read it!

[cilla4progress]

6. A knower.

...

[lunamagica]

7. K&R for visibility

[moondust]

8. 1995

Carl obviously had a crystal ball.

[workinclasszero]

9. Boy he called that right!

We are quickly heading to a new right wing dark age in this country for sure.

[kairos12]

10. Unfortunately, prescient he was.

[Ferrets are Cool]

11. Spot on, however, in these two paragraphs,

he left out the damage that the 1% have done to the country. Or maybe, if I read it in another light, it is "exactly" what he is saying. Regardless, its very prescient.