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Tuesday, 28 November 2017

Carl Sagan's dystopic view of the future that has come to pass



Carl Sagan warns about the celebration of ignorance


The writings of the great scientist, Carl Sagan, and especially his TV series, Cosmos helped to form my world-view along with others that warned me about the issues of the day that are still with us and coming to fruition.


There were sane and prescient voices warning of what in fact has come to passs in a way that no-one could have predicted.

Read what Carol Sagan has to say. I can’t think of a single word where he got it wrong.

Instead his dystopic views have come to pass in spadefuls



"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 soundbites (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."




Carl Sagan, last interview with Charlie Rose before his death in 1996. He warns of the dangers of lack of education and the potential for tyranny.


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2 comments:

  1. Deebz27029 November 2017 at 11:11

    So true Robin. Carl was instrumental in bring me to my senses too. Another great figure (along with Ehrlich...) of our times. Good post <3

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  2. Blogger Chaz1 December 2017 at 00:17

    So true, and yet in the finest tradition of the Force meeting the Power of the Dark Side, was Dr Sagan's life work in pursuit of the alien off world life distracting us from the dilution of dignity from the poorest of humanity on Earth; Dr Sagan grandiose dream of voyage to the stars while ignoring the poisoning and destruction of our natural habitat on Earth! Dr Sagan himself focussed on dreams and visions which are so easily turned to crystals and magical death rays. At the root of it all is Dr Sagan hubris in denial of God as he placed himself at the throne of all creation but himself as ruler, and so doing in the ultimate bite of the fruit of knowledge to be as God, the original sin after seduction by evil to an equal to God in all the hubris that the very original story tells us of! Yes, Dr Sagan, you don't know the power of the Dark side and in the end, as it does all of us, indeed, Dr Sagan passed from all seeing oracle to poor dying supplicant into history and myths of our species as it hurls headlong into oblivion as much thrown faster towards it by Dr Sagan visions as restrained by his warning.

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