Thank you for this perspective. I confess that my lifelong desire to be well informed has become quite a burden. I sometimes struggle just to read and understand your posts. I am sincerely awed by your ability to continually produce them. Clearly, you've been thinking about these ideas deeply for a long time. They are some of the most valuable I've found. Stay strong, sir.
Right on. It always shocks me how “crass” people have become. Perhaps it started with Jerry Springer who normalized the vulgar and the rude. Many TV shows have picked up on it ; influencers thrive on it; the crowd cheers and demands more entertainment… and the politicians oblige.
Sadly, this analysis is true. There is one reality, however, that will not bend to human perception of it - nature. Ocean temperatures will continue to rise. Natural disasters will increase in number and severity. The reality of climate change will eventually break through denial for profit. Hopefully, it will not be too late.
The reality of climate change is not without a different controversy. When the fact can no longer be denied, then the cause can still be argued. A class of deniers point to times in the history of this planet when the climate was hotter or colder than now. So they assign our current conditions to natural environmental cyclical change that is not caused by mankind and not effectively alterable by mankind. Under this belief, just sit back and watch, because it is more burdensome on society to attempt intervention in this natural process, than the climate effect itself.
Vitality important perspective. Thanks for your posts! Reminds me of a couple of other books; Fantasyland by Kurt Anderson, and going way back to 1985, Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman, who saw a lot of this coming.
Good grief…..My aging little brain is unfit for this deep a dive without coming up for air several times. Thank you for this very expansive, complex and amazing essay.
It occurs to me that at the moments you point to, when knowledge shaped public decisions, the fundamental goals and the values of the decision makers were much different than what we currently have. What we used to have in America, though not perfect, was collective effort to improve the lives of Americans overall. I have come to view current government leadership as individuals directed primarily for self profit and status. It has been a long, slow morphing of “we” into “me”. Deception, in the sense of lying, cheating and manipulation has replaced good faith debate. Knowledge, expertise, truth….these must be discarded by our current manipulators. We continue down the path to a very bad place for all concerned.
“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive”.
There is a lot of wisdom and truth in this summary of how we got where we are today. James, you mentioned that much of what is decided is based on perception- and I would add that this perception and the resulting "analysis" is based on impression- in other words, how it subjectively effects the person taking in the information. As information has become more diffuse in its distribution, it has also become more difficult to condense into a coherent whole. And it appears that people are apt to default to sticking with what is comfortable (a soothing narrative) rather than assessing different takes on issues. And perhaps more so, the complete denial of the obvious such as who actually pays for tariffs. I would say that those who believe our president are practicing willful ignorance because the simple act of researching what they actually are feels like too much or is not needed because the source they trust already told them. Another unfortunate movement has been the rise of Christian Nationalism and the Apostolic Movement. They rely on "Revealed Truth" rather than derived facts, and have a warped fatalism based on their faith- the one source being Revelations. It was not so long ago that the Left Behind series, a fictional imaging of what the End Times would look like, enraptured the evangelical crowd and has supercharged them toward a world view that its all in God's Hands and we humans just need to deal with it. I will close that your substack is some of the finest analysis and writing in the media world today.
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." -Isaac Asimov, Newsweek (21 January 1980)
Great observations. We can trace much of this development on the right to the John Birch Society that lead to the Lewis Powell Memo which provide the structure for the Mandate for Leadership Vol 1 to Mandate for Leadership Vol 2(project 25). For authoritarians to succeed, information must be controlled, credible knowledge must be questioned if it conflicts with their control desires. The conservative/libertarian leaders took the liberals challenging the establishment as a way to strengthen their positions as well. Truth does have time on its side, but sadly there will be a lot of collateral damage along the way.
Well said ..........shock and awe seem to dominate these days....and news media's only goal seems to be 'ratings'............so we continue to be fed the absurd over facts.
Thank you for this perspective. I confess that my lifelong desire to be well informed has become quite a burden. I sometimes struggle just to read and understand your posts. I am sincerely awed by your ability to continually produce them. Clearly, you've been thinking about these ideas deeply for a long time. They are some of the most valuable I've found. Stay strong, sir.
Right on. It always shocks me how “crass” people have become. Perhaps it started with Jerry Springer who normalized the vulgar and the rude. Many TV shows have picked up on it ; influencers thrive on it; the crowd cheers and demands more entertainment… and the politicians oblige.
Sadly, this analysis is true. There is one reality, however, that will not bend to human perception of it - nature. Ocean temperatures will continue to rise. Natural disasters will increase in number and severity. The reality of climate change will eventually break through denial for profit. Hopefully, it will not be too late.
The reality of climate change is not without a different controversy. When the fact can no longer be denied, then the cause can still be argued. A class of deniers point to times in the history of this planet when the climate was hotter or colder than now. So they assign our current conditions to natural environmental cyclical change that is not caused by mankind and not effectively alterable by mankind. Under this belief, just sit back and watch, because it is more burdensome on society to attempt intervention in this natural process, than the climate effect itself.
Vitality important perspective. Thanks for your posts! Reminds me of a couple of other books; Fantasyland by Kurt Anderson, and going way back to 1985, Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman, who saw a lot of this coming.
Both are good reads and speak alot to our present predictament.
Good grief…..My aging little brain is unfit for this deep a dive without coming up for air several times. Thank you for this very expansive, complex and amazing essay.
It occurs to me that at the moments you point to, when knowledge shaped public decisions, the fundamental goals and the values of the decision makers were much different than what we currently have. What we used to have in America, though not perfect, was collective effort to improve the lives of Americans overall. I have come to view current government leadership as individuals directed primarily for self profit and status. It has been a long, slow morphing of “we” into “me”. Deception, in the sense of lying, cheating and manipulation has replaced good faith debate. Knowledge, expertise, truth….these must be discarded by our current manipulators. We continue down the path to a very bad place for all concerned.
“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive”.
Thank you, James. This is as succinct, and powerful a description of what is going on right now as I have ever read.
There is a lot of wisdom and truth in this summary of how we got where we are today. James, you mentioned that much of what is decided is based on perception- and I would add that this perception and the resulting "analysis" is based on impression- in other words, how it subjectively effects the person taking in the information. As information has become more diffuse in its distribution, it has also become more difficult to condense into a coherent whole. And it appears that people are apt to default to sticking with what is comfortable (a soothing narrative) rather than assessing different takes on issues. And perhaps more so, the complete denial of the obvious such as who actually pays for tariffs. I would say that those who believe our president are practicing willful ignorance because the simple act of researching what they actually are feels like too much or is not needed because the source they trust already told them. Another unfortunate movement has been the rise of Christian Nationalism and the Apostolic Movement. They rely on "Revealed Truth" rather than derived facts, and have a warped fatalism based on their faith- the one source being Revelations. It was not so long ago that the Left Behind series, a fictional imaging of what the End Times would look like, enraptured the evangelical crowd and has supercharged them toward a world view that its all in God's Hands and we humans just need to deal with it. I will close that your substack is some of the finest analysis and writing in the media world today.
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." -Isaac Asimov, Newsweek (21 January 1980)
Great observations. We can trace much of this development on the right to the John Birch Society that lead to the Lewis Powell Memo which provide the structure for the Mandate for Leadership Vol 1 to Mandate for Leadership Vol 2(project 25). For authoritarians to succeed, information must be controlled, credible knowledge must be questioned if it conflicts with their control desires. The conservative/libertarian leaders took the liberals challenging the establishment as a way to strengthen their positions as well. Truth does have time on its side, but sadly there will be a lot of collateral damage along the way.
So true. It’s time consuming to ‘catch up’ if one looks away or takes a break! I have friends who stepped away to preserve sanity,
Well said ..........shock and awe seem to dominate these days....and news media's only goal seems to be 'ratings'............so we continue to be fed the absurd over facts.
Absolutely. And needs a much wider audience,