A Celebration of Ignorance

More than ever now, when I watch Trump, he looks completely clueless. I watch him stand next to people at the microphone, eyes shifting back and forth, empty of empathy, bereft of any visible emotion, other than “what do I look like”? When he talks, he says nothing. Gibberish. No encouragement, no consolation, no trace of any plan, no utterance of compassion. He now counts the dead.

It’s a celebration of ignorance.

In 1995, Carl Sagan published The Demon-Haunted World. What a visionary he was. Here is an excerpt:

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 key 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 agenda 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 America 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

5 thoughts on “A Celebration of Ignorance

  1. Ray Cullen

    WOW–!!!
    Nail, head, hammer–!!!
    Brilliant post.
    So sad, but so very true–!!!

    Thanx Norbert….Ray

  2. barbara carlson

    I’ve been calling it “arrogant ignorance” for decades but “celebration” is much better. My birth country is f**cked if apparent apathy and cynicism on the left doesn’t shift to Never Trump Ever Again. No Matter Who. We can’t fix this current (and NOW fast-moving authoritarian) shit show if we don’t win!

    But if you look at the comments on Fox News Facebook, the increase in calling out Trump and his supporters as idiots is escalating as fast the virus is spreading — surprised the site doesn’t have a team delete them, like Sarah Palin’s did in 2008, and within minutes.

    1. You know the expression “when the shit hit the fan.”

      Well, the shit really has now hit the fan. There is so much damage done to this country now, in all areas, and thousands of people are dying, all due to the celebration of ignorance.

  3. Karen Macartney

    I remember you writing about how Germany was destroyed in 12 short years once Hitler took power. To think Trump may be re-elected, considering all the dysfunction he has now put in place, is very frightening indeed.

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