“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 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 i#gnorance.”

-Carl Sagan, in “A demon haunted world: science as a candle in the dark" 1995.