Nobody Reports: Carl Sagen Predicted Future of America

Nobody Reports

This morning on the local radio station, there was a discussion on the big problem we have with the low-income students not being able to get help, when a progressive educational public school system cannot seem to teach them anything. Richer people can afford to get Johnny a tutor when he cannot seem to understand fuzzy math, but not the poor kid. I was waiting for the conclusion that “We need to spend MORE money on the poor kids.”

How many times can you keep making the same mistakes over and over? When will our politicians ever learn that it’s not how much money you spend, it’s the system itself that is failing.

A minute later, I picked up the book I was reading (The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan) and read this;

“Science is more than a body of knowledge: it is a way of thinking. 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 see 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 America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bite (now down to seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentation on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance. As I write this, the number one videocassette rental in America is the move Dumb and Dumber. “Beavis and Butthead” remain popular (and influential ) with young TV viewers.  The plain lesson is that study and learning–not just of science, but of anything are avoidable even undesirable.”

Is it any wonder that we haven’t heard much about Carl Sagan from the liberal crowd?

Carl makes an excellent point. The reason Obama got elected, was because the majority of our population would rather watch Vampire and Zombie programs then read a book, or delve deeper into Obama’s sound bites: whether they are true or not.

Our schools have shaped our kids to be zombies, listening to sound bites of movie stars and politicians who cannot even add.

Every President says he is going to fix our schools, and no President ever does. And our kids know it. What kind of future can a kid dream of today?

The book was written in 1996. It’s now 2013. Mr. Sagan used science to predict the future.

And he wouldn’t be surprised to know: Zombies are among us now.

March 5, 2013 - Posted by Joyanna Adams | education, politics, science | Carl Sagen, education, History, politics, science