“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 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 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. As I write, the number-one videocassette rental in America is the movie 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.” ― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1995
Idea merging / expansion points
I think Joseph Campbell in Skywalker Ranch interviews at age 83 had the courage to declare Levant religions had become more about “celebration of failure” / “celebration of having an excuse (faith in in-group story) to celebrate the failures of the out-group” / “celebration of differences to fight over, (dehumanize the out-group over)” / “celebration of violence and hate generated by misunderstanding (ignorance)”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s 1954 doctorate study of world war two Japan / Germany / values and the problem of hate brain chemistry / hate inverting good from bad
What Surkov Russia’s key behavior insight of crowds / Cambridge Analytica psychologists and psychiatrists found as deepest motivation - touching on #1 and #2 in this list
Patterns of cheering on failures. competing, losers, mocking
4. Celebrating negatives
“The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media”
HDTV Fox New, HDTV CNN, Reddit social media, Lemmy social media, Bluesky social media, Twitter social media, Facebook social media, Mastodon ocial media, Instagram social media, Threads social media, smartphone 5G media systems.
“the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less)”
Memes, especially images and reaction video gif images / reaction video clips - Neil Postman’s 1985 ideas in “Amusing Ourselves to Death” book… which is 10 years before Carl Sagan. And Postman’s book is about “Celebrating misunderstandings and celebrating ignorance to death with media systems”
“especially a kind of celebration of ignorance”
Especially . most importantly - a celebration of failure to understand, failure to comprehend, failure to teach and educate, failure of others to “FO” in “Fuck around and Find Out”, celebration of warfare, celebration of terrorism, celebration of depression, celebration of suicides, celebration of self-harm, celebration of bullying “the failures”, celebration of “seeing others be losers”, celebration of disease being spread because people FAFO with science medicine, celebration of seeing others sick from FAFO with health insurance and job and housing, etc.
“celebration of terrorists failing in Palestine October 7, 2023” - the FAFO “find out” of celebrating the revenge on terrorists. Celebrating that 10 years earlier October 8, 2013 Malala’s book failed to change and educate Palestine terrorists / Islamic society reform. By avoiding the book, “celebration of ignorance” that Mahala’s book was ignored and not taken seriously by Muslims / Islam for a decade. “celebration of ignorance” that weapon systems to break into Israel won, celebrating that murder ignorance was done. Celebrating that people do not get along, celebrating ignorance of compassion and ignorance of betterment through Malala’s education and gender shifts of aggression in society.
“celebration of ignorance, that other people are bamboozled and tricked into living in non-reality”
“celebrating that others have been manipulated by professionals at Cambridge Analytica since March 2013 to be in alternate-realities”
“celebrating that Russia won using the Menace of Unreality since year 2013 so people in conversations can celebrate the ignorance of people who don’t understand that a nation-state used active measures on media systems and won their hearts and minds”
“celebration of ignorance that other people can be called stupid, that people celebrate on social machines by calling others dumb, celebrating ignorance by avoiding rescuing people from Kremlin alternate-reality warfare for over a decade”
“celebration of ignorance, celebrating how stupid other people are on social machines, messaging day after day that it is hilarious and funny that others are dumb and stupid, offering no education on egoism and morality and celebrating ignorance that other people have”
“celebration of ignorance that other people are inside cults of memes and messages and celebrating that they don’t comprehend the mental mechanics of cult behaviors and cult systems”
“celebration that conservatives failed”
“celebration that Fox News audience FAFO / failed to learn from better information sources, celebrating that Fox News audiences are dumb, celebrating that Fox News audiences are manipulated and FAFO deserve it”
“celebrating MAGA trusts and believes an American status symbol - Donald Trump - celebrating that MAGA has ignorance, celebrating the ignorance of MAGA as entertainment and sport -leopards ate their face - deserved it, celebrating that ignorance won, celebration of ignorance”
“celebrating that conservatives failed, because celebrating that education and learning and teaching failed, celebrating that ignorance won, celebration of ignorance, celebration that competitive education values / competition to get into name-brand school systems in USA society lead to ignorance that others have failed with”
“celebrating that conservatives failed, celebrating the films Dumb and Dumber that Carl Sagan gave as examples, celebrating Fox News as Dumb and Dumber film, celebrating Joe Rogan as Dumb and Dumber film, celebrating that others go to poor education and information sources, celebration of ignorance that other people failed because competition matters more to people than rescuing people from ignorance, celebrating that others failed to comprehend and understand goodness and stuck with conservative misunderstandings”
“celebrating that others are weak and failed in their mind / learning / study. Celebration of ignorance, celebration that others are more ignorant than your group or self, celebrating that others failed because of ignorance, celebration of ignorance”
“celebration of ignorance in the form of celebrating kicking people who have been abused by predator Rupert Murdoch with Fox News content, predatory wealth televangelism, defeated people. Celebrating that others were abused by ignorance of Fox News HDTV, celebrating the ignorance won”
“celebration of ignorance n the form of mocking Church / Bible readers who avoid Bible verse “1 John 3:17” understanding of the problem of Rupert Murdoch, Elon Musk, Donald Trump. Celebrating the ignorance of Clergy in the Church instead of using social machine systems to correct the ignorance with front-page postings and top hashtags. Celebrating the ignorance of Bible verse “1 John 4:20”. Celebration of ignorance that others / other people have a literacy problem of reading The Bible”
3. Surkov insight
Contradictory Vaudeville government methods of Kremlin and White House creates what Joseph Campbell was describing in 1987 in Middle East / Levant faith systems.
Video: Vladislav Surkov Russia Kremlin “Contradictory Vaudeville” Post-Modern Politics - Unreality Menace from 2014 BBC Adam Curtis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9_L9GRRsQo