Perspective

I like to remind myself that there always have been crazies and always political viciousness. You don't have to read too many 19th century newspapers to realize this. When it was discovered Grover Cleveland had a child out of wedlock, he was the recipient of attacks much more vicious than what Obama is experiencing now. 19th century political cartoons were much more personally vicious than they are today. Less has changed than one may think.

But what has changed are media and a shift of focus. Talk radio now has the tone of those muckracking 19th century newspapers. Moreover, listeners can call in, so the media is more interactive and there's a stronger sense of community among those who believe lies and distortions. They reinforce each other's false ideas. An additional change is the increased power of corporate "bottom line" thinking in media decisions, which results in content moving toward the lowest common denominator. Many so-called news programs are an insult to intelligence.

How do we know what we know? This is the question no one asks and which everyone should ask. I swear to the gods, we should start teaching Epistemology in kindergarten! And Logic right along with it. Our national ignorance is a disgrace and should be treated like a disease, an epidemic that threatens our national security. In less panicked terms, this is what Obama means when he talks about beefing up our educational system and emphasizing science again. We've created too many generations of high self-esteem ignoramuses who don't know the first thing about a process for finding out what is fact and what is not. Who cares if we can think or not as long as we can consume? Homo consumerus.